For nearly a century, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has helped make Ashland a destination for theatre lovers from across Southern Oregon, the country, and beyond. What began in 1935 as a small Shakespeare festival has grown into one of the most recognized regional theatres in the United States, bringing both classic and contemporary stories to local audiences.
This season, OSF continues that tradition with Yellow Face, a semi-autobiographical comedy by award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang. The production, directed by May Adrales, runs through Oct. 23 at the Angus Bowmer Theatre.
While the title may suggest a heavy subject, Yellow Face is first and foremost a comedy- and audiences have responded enthusiastically to its mix of humor, history, and self-reflection.
Hwang, a Chinese American playwright best known for works including M. Butterfly, created Yellow Face in response to a controversy that began in the 1990s surrounding the musical Miss Saigon. Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce was cast as a Eurasian character, sparking protests over the use of a white actor to portray an Asian character.
Hwang, who was an outspoken critic of the casting, eventually found himself confronting a similar problem in his own career. While working on his play Face Value, he mistakenly cast a white actor in an Asian role. That real-life experience became the inspiration for Yellow Face.
The play follows a fictionalized version of Hwang, known as DHH, as he navigates the fallout from his mistake. What begins as an effort to stand up for Asian representation quickly becomes a tangled mess of public statements, media attention, personal contradictions, and unintended consequences.
Hwang originally brought Yellow Face to the stage in 2007, where it premiered in Los Angeles before moving to New York’s Public Theater. The production went on to win an Obie Award for playwriting and became a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Nearly two decades later, the play received renewed attention with a Broadway production starring Daniel Dae Kim, best known for the award-winning show LOST. The production of Yellow Face earned three Tony Award nominations and helped introduce Hwang’s story to a new generation of theatre audiences.
Now, Ashland audiences have the opportunity to experience a new interpretation of the play close to home.
Adrales’ production embraces the play’s unusual mixture of comedy, autobiography, and social commentary. Rather than offering a simple answer to questions about race and identity, Yellow Face encourages audiences to examine the assumptions people make about one another- and themselves.
That seems particularly fitting for OSF, an institution built around bringing people together through storytelling.
The response to the production has been overwhelmingly positive, continuing the momentum the play gained during its Broadway revival. For local audiences, however, its significance goes beyond awards or critical recognition.
It is another example of what OSF has brought to Ashland for generations: stories that entertain, challenge, and give a community something to talk about after the curtain falls.
Yellow Face runs through Oct. 23 at the Angus Bowmer Theatre.
Reach reporter Jared Pearson at [email protected].