Privy 5 San Francisco David Henry Hwang

Playwright, M Butterfly

David Henry Hwang is recognized internationally as one of America’s leading contemporary playwrights. Known for groundbreaking plays such as his Tony Award-winning M. BUTTERFLY and hit Broadway musicals like Elton John and Tim Rice’s AIDA, he has written six Broadway shows and more than a half-dozen Off-Broadway plays, which have been seen in over three dozen countries. At age 22, his first play, FOB, premiered in New York, and won Off-Broadway’s Obie Award for Best New Play.  Since then, his stage works have included the plays YELLOW FACE, THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD, and GOLDEN CHILD, as well as DISNEY’S TARZAN and the remake of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s FLOWER DRUM SONG. He is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time Obie Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. David has also written feature films and is the most-produced living opera librettist in America. From 1994-2000, he served by appointment of President Clinton on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.