David Henry Hwang
David Henry Hwang’s stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, Chinglish, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award® winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, a Grammy Award® winner who has been twice nominated, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Opera News called him America’s most-produced living opera librettist. Washington National Opera will premiere The Rift, with music by Huang Ruo, in spring 2022. He co-wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop icon Prince and was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019. Hwang is currently penning the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios and a movie to star actress Gemma Chan. He is Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts and sits on the Board of the American Theatre Wing, which he recently chaired. From 1994–2001, he served by appointment of President Clinton on the President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities. Hwang’s newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori, premiered at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre and New York’s Public Theater; it received a 2020 Grammy® nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.