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Erin Quill is an American actress, [1] writer [2] and singer of Chinese, Welsh, and Irish descent. [3] She is a dual citizen of the United States and Australia. She was a member of the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award-winning musical Avenue Q . [4] [5] [6]
Quill is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance.
Quill co-wrote the screenplay of the feature film The Mikado Project, based on the play produced by Lodestone Theatre Ensemble and written by Ken Narasaki and Doris Baizely, in which she also appeared. In Los Angeles, she performed in the all-Asian American cast of Maltby and Shire's musical, Closer Than Ever for Lodestone Theatre Ensemble's final season. [7]
Quill has acted in a number of television series, including NYPD Blue , Damages, and NYC 22 , as well as the feature film Man on a Ledge . She performed as Madame Liang in the 50th anniversary production of Flower Drum Song , and toured as Lady Thiang in The King & I .
Quill writes about diversity in theater on her blog, The Fairy Princess Diaries. [8] [9] [10] She spoke up about the casting of mainly people of European descent in a new musical set in China that was being produced by La Jolla Playhouse called "The Nightingale". She wrote about the Royal Shakespeare Company's exclusion of Asian cast members in their production of "The Orphan of Zhao", which led to the rise of the British East Asian Actor movement, headed by Daniel York. In 2013 she posted about the portrayal of Asian women in Miss Saigon . [11]
Quill made a speech at LA Stage Day in 2013 against 'yellowface' casting. [12] She writes on theater and LGBT issues, and her work has been referenced in The New York Times , The LA Times , The International Business Times, Backstage, The Huffington Post, [13] NPR , and Playbill .
Quill performs in and occasionally hosts charity events benefiting Desert Aids Project and for Broadway Cares/EFA. She was an original and continuing member of the cast of Sparkle: A Holiday Concert, and co-hosted Celebrity Doodles in 2014.
In 2017 Quill hosted a panel at BroadwayCon about ethnic diversity in theatre. [14]
Miss Saigon is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madame Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer and theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York Times. He is the producer of shows including Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Miss Saigon, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Hamilton.
Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga-Chien,, known professionally as Lea Salonga, is a Filipina singer and actress. Primarily known for her work in theatre, she has starred in musicals on the West End and Broadway. Her accolades include a Tony Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for two Grammy Awards. She was conferred with the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1990 and the Order of Lakandula in 2007, and she was honored as a Disney Legend in 2011.
Valentine Ruth Henshall, known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, is an English actress, singer and dancer, known for her work in musical theatre. She began her professional stage career in 1986, before making her West End debut in Cats in 1987. A five-time Olivier Award nominee, she won the 1995 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me (1994).
Stephanie Janette Block is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on the Broadway stage.
Portrayals of East Asians in American film and theatre has been a subject of controversy. These portrayals have frequently reflected an ethnocentric perception of East Asians rather than realistic and authentic depictions of East Asian cultures, colors, customs, and behaviors.
Ma-Anne Dionisio is a Filipino-Canadian singer and actress.
Francis Jue is an American actor and singer. Jue is known for his performances on Broadway, in national tours, Off-Broadway and in regional theatre, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area and at The Muny in St. Louis. His roles in plays and musicals range from Shakespeare to Rodgers and Hammerstein to David Henry Hwang. He is also known for his recurring role on the TV series Madam Secretary (2014–2019).
Norm Lewis is an American actor and baritone singer. He has appeared on Broadway, in the West End, film, television, recordings and regional theatre. He’s also noted for his wide vocal range. Lewis was the second African-American actor after Robert Guillaume to perform in the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and the first one to do so in the Broadway production. In 2023, he reprised the role in the show's sequel, Love Never Dies, in London's West End.
Yellow Face is a semi-autobiographical play by David Henry Hwang, featuring the author himself as the protagonist, DHH, mounting his 1993 play Face Value. The play's themes include questions of race and of the interaction between media and politics.
Asian American theatre is theatre written, directed or acted by Asian Americans. From initial efforts by four theatre companies in the 1960s, Asian-American theatre has grown to around forty groups today. Early productions often had Asian themes or settings; "yellowface" was a common medium for displaying the perceived exoticism of the East in American performance. With the growing establishment of second-generation Asian-Americans in the 21st century, it is becoming more common today to see Asian-Americans in roles that defy historical stereotypes in the United States.
Katherine "Katie" Rose Clarke is an American musical theater actress.
Eric Kunze is an American stage actor and singer. He showed an early aptitude for singing and was involved in choir and theater at Rancho Buena Vista High School. He is best known for his roles on Broadway.
Erin Ashley Mackey is an American stage actress and singer, known for playing the role of Glinda in the Chicago, Los Angeles, Broadway, and Second National Tour productions of the musical Wicked. She was also a double in 1998's The Parent Trap.
Roald Dahl's Matilda, also known simply as Matilda and Matilda the Musical, is a musical with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a book by Dennis Kelly. It is based on the 1988 novel Matilda by Roald Dahl. The musical's narrative centres on Matilda Wormwood, a precocious five-year-old girl with the gift of telekinesis, who loves reading, overcomes obstacles caused by her family and school, and helps her teacher to reclaim her life. After a twelve-week trial run staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon from November 2010 to January 2011, it received its West End premiere on 24 November 2011 at the Cambridge Theatre and its Broadway premiere on 11 April 2013 at the Shubert Theatre.
Ernesto Cloma Briones Jr., known as Jon Jon Briones, is a Filipino-American actor best known for his work in musical theatre. He played the Engineer in the original casts in the West End revival of Miss Saigon in 2014, for which he was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and reprised the part on Broadway in 2017.
Eva Maria Noblezada is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her work in theatre, starring in musicals in the West End and on Broadway. Her accolades include a Grammy Award and two Tony Award nominations.
The National High School Musical Theatre Awards, more commonly known as the Jimmy Awards, are awards given annually to recognize musical theatre performances by high school students in the United States. Two main awards are given each year, Best Performance by an Actress and Best Performance by an Actor.
Ashley Jini Park is an American actress and musician. She is best known for her portrayal of Mindy Chen on the Netflix comedy series Emily in Paris. She originated the role of Gretchen Wieners in the Broadway musical Mean Girls, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical.
Andrea Cesyl Macasaet is a Canadian actress and singer. She is best known for originating the role of Anne Boleyn in the Broadway production of Six: The Musical.
