Asian Connections - Oct. 23 - Dec. 2: David Henry Hwang’s award-winning Golden Child to open in New York

David Henry Hwang’s 1997 Obie Award-winning and 1998 Tony nominated Golden Child is set to open Off-Broadway in New York City this Fall.

Leigh Silverman will direct the Tony award-winning playwright's Golden Child, which is the first show in Signature Theatre’s Residency One: David Henry Hwang Series, with performances from October 23 through December 2, 2012 in The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues) in New York. A new production of his play The Dance and the Railroad, directed by May Adrales, and the new play KUNG FU, directed by Leigh Silverman, will also be part of this series.

Inspired by his own family history, Hwang's Golden Child explores the often-painful process through which change comes to people and cultures.

Greg Watanabe (MyNetworkTv's "Watch Over Me") leads the cast as Eng Tieng Bin, a Chinese businessman, who after three years working abroad, returns home and sets off a dangerous power struggle in his polygamous Chinese household among his three wives.

Julyana Soelistyo, a Tony award nominee for her magical turn playing Eng Ahn and the daughter in the original Golden Child Broadway cast, plays first wife Eng Siu-Young.

Jennifer Lim of Broadway’s Chinglish plays second wife Eng Luan, and Lesley Hu makes her off-Broadway debut as third wife Eng Eling.

Also featured are Annie Q (”Are We There Yet?”) as Eng Ahn / daughter, Matthew Maher (CSC’s The School for Lies) as Reverend Baines, Tina Chilip (Leviathan Lab’sTwelfth Night) as Servant / Ghost, and Nadia Gan (Mirror Rep’s The Shanghai Gesture) as Servant / Ghost.

David Henry Hwang will receive the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award which comes with a $200,000 prize on October 29, 2012. Hwang’s plays include Bondage, Chinglish (2012 Drama Desk Award nomination), The Dance and the Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Award nomination), Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Award nomination), FOB (1981 Obie Award), Golden Child (1997 Obie Award, 1998 Tony Award nomination), M. Butterfly (1988 Tony Award, 1989 Pulitzer Prize finalist), and Yellow Face (2008 Obie Award, 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist).

Hwang also wrote the libretti for three Broadway musicals: Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Disney’s Tarzan, and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song (revival, 2002 Tony Award nomination).

In opera, his libretti include four works with composer Philip Glass –1000 Airplanes on the Roof, Icarus at the Edge of Time, Sound and Beauty, and The Voyage – as well as Howard Shore’s The Fly, Osvaldo Golijov’sAinadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards), and Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland (Opernwelt 2007 World Premiere of the Year).

Hwang penned the feature films Golden Gate, M. Butterfly, and Possession (co-author), and co-wrote the song “Solo” with Prince. He sits on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, and served on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities by appointment of President Clinton.

To purchase tickets for all Signature Productions, call the Signature Theatre Box Office (212-244-7529) or visit signaturetheatre.org. Tickets to the initial runs of all Signature Productions at The Pershing Square Signature Center are $25, part of the groundbreaking Signature Ticket Initiative: A Generation of Access, a program that guarantees affordable and accessible tickets to every Signature production for the next 20 years.

Serving as a model for theatres and performing arts organizations across the country, the Initiative was founded in 2005 and is made possible by lead partner The Pershing Square Foundation.

Additional support provided by Founding Sponsor Time Warner Inc., Margot Adams, the Ford Foundation, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

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