Hey! Reviews! (and other news!)

Let's start up with the Other News.

Now, not only has author David Henry Hwang been busy working on his newest show, Chinglish (which opens October 11 on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre), he's been picking up a bushel of awards.

Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang will be honored during the 31st Annual William Inge Theatre Festival with the Inge Festival Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award.  Previous recipients include Marsha Norman, Paula Vogel, Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, Christopher Durang, Sheldon Harnick, Arthur Laurence A.R. Gurney, Stephen Sondheim, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Terrence McNally, Arthur Miller, Edward Albee, Peter Shaffer and Wendy Wasserstein.

Earlier this week, the PEN Literary Center named is 2011 Awards and David was named the 2011 Master American Dramatist. PEN American Center is the U.S. branch of the world’s oldest international literary and human rights organization. International PEN was founded in 1921 in direct response to the ethnic and national divisions that contributed to the First World War. PEN American Center was founded in 1922 and is the largest of the 144 PEN centers in 101 countries that together compose International PEN. David is only the second playwright of color to be named a Master American Dramatist (August Wilson was the first, I believe).

Now, locally, some of the local reviewers and critics have been quite taken with the show (and some haven't), which is normal. Some actors are all over the reviews, may they be good or bad; others prefer to note that they're there, but refuse to read them until after the run of the show is over (because they don't want what the reviews say to affect their performance, which is a rather valid concern).

Here's a quote from Misha Berson, the critic for the Seattle Times:

"… a sharp-edged sendup of artistic opportunism, knee-jerk politics and the generational divide between Chinese-American fathers and sons, and a provocative musing on what it means to lose and save face in a minority culture… "Yellow Face" also delivers many laughs via the bantering, serio-comic dynamic…"Yellow Face" is a false and true identity play that keeps you laughing — and leaves you thinking."

Full review here.

And here's something from Jerry Kraft at SeattleActor.com:

"The style of the production allows the ensemble to play a multitude of characters in brief snippets that feel almost like news clips, often introduced by headlines. Beneath that public life, the individual who is Hwang must constantly define what his personal integrity involves…Director David Hsieh has a good grip on this material, obviously cares about it in a very personal way, and moves the action along swiftly and clearly, keeping our attention properly on the internal struggle within the playwright. “Yellow Face” is a well-written, provocative piece of autobiographical journalism and dramatic invention, and here it is given a respectable and admirable production. "

Full review here.

And something I missed from Capitol Hill Times, Drama in the Hood:

The dialogue is some of the funniest and most articulate ever written for the stage. The direction and the acting suited the script extremely well, the comic timing was superb and the inherent tragedy came through. As an ensemble piece, most of the actors rapidly changed characters several times and had to adopt different accents and physicality. Jeremy Behrens, who played a lot of different Caucasian media pundits and politicians, was brilliant and managed to pull off a British, Russian, Brooklynese and about five different Southern accents in the same play. Full review here.

Sound good? Well, come on down! Tickets might be hard to come by on this Saturday's show (August 13 evening) when David is in town, but we can fit you in with no problem (so far) on other nights.

Performances continue. There are organizational discounts for AAJA and NAAAP Seattle.  YELLOW FACE is a production of both the Pork Filled Players and Repertory Actors Theatre. It runs through Saturday, September 3 at the Richard Hugo House (1634 11th Ave in Seattle’s Capitol Hill area). Shows are 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm. Admission is $15 General Admission, $12 Students/Seniors/Artists at the door; tickets can also be purchased in advance at Brown Paper Tickets (http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/181433) for $12 General, $9 Students/Seniors/Artists (Reservations recommended). Discounted group rates are also available for parties of 10 or more. For more information and ticket reservations, please call the ReAct Box Office at (206)364-3283 or visit online at http://www.reactheatre.org or go to the Pork Filled Players website.