The Dance and the Railroad

Last updated
The Dance and the Railroad
Written by David Henry Hwang
Date premiered1981
Place premiered Joseph Papp Public Theater
Original languageEnglish

The Dance and the Railroad is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. His second play, it depicts a strike in a coolie railroad labor camp in the mid-nineteenth century American West. The play premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981. [1] It had its professional debut on July 16, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Lone and Tzi Ma in the cast. [2]

Ma cited that Hwang would often rewrite the play during rehearsals. [3]

The play was adapted and produced on television by the ABC Arts channel, under the direction of Emile Ardolino. This production won a CINE Golden Eagle Award.

An Off-Broadway revival was produced in 2013 at the Signature Theatre under the direction of May Adrales. [4]

It is published as part of Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays by Theatre Communications Group and also in an acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service.

Related Research Articles

David Henry Hwang American playwright

David Henry Hwang is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards. Three of his works—M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, and Soft Power—have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Julie Taymor American film and theatre director and writer

Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Since her stage adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, 24 global productions have been seen by more than 100 million people in over 100 cities in 20 countries, on every continent except Antarctica, and its worldwide gross exceeds that of any entertainment title in box office history. The Lion King also received 11 Tony Award nominations, earning Taymor Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer, and was honored with more than 70 major arts awards worldwide.

Paula Vogel American playwright

Paula Vogel is an American playwright who received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play How I Learned to Drive. A longtime teacher, Vogel spent the bulk of her academic career – from 1984 to 2008 – at Brown University, where she served as Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor in Creative Writing, oversaw its playwriting program, and helped found the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. From 2008 to 2012, Vogel was Eugene O'Neill Professor of Playwriting and department chair at the Yale School of Drama, as well as playwright in residence at the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Will Eno is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today, and best American play of 2014 by The Guardian. His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York 's Top Ten Plays of 2014.

John Guare American playwright and screenwriter (born 1938)

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation.

Balm in Gilead is a 1965 play written by American playwright Lanford Wilson.

Lucille Lortel American actress

Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."

The House of Sleeping Beauties is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fourth play, it is an adaptation of Yasunari Kawabata's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties. The play depicts Kawabata and how he might have come to have written the novella. The play was first produced as part of the production Sound and Beauty on November 6, 1983 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Victor Wong in the cast.

Tzi Ma Hong Kong American actor

Tzi Ma is a Hong Kong-American actor. He is well known for his roles in television shows, such as The Man in the High Castle and 24, and films, such as Dante's Peak, Rush Hour, Rush Hour 3, Arrival, The Farewell, Tigertail, and Mulan. In 2021, he stars in the American martial arts television series Kung Fu on The CW.

Marshall W. Mason

Marshall W. Mason is an American theater director, educator, and writer. Mason founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York City and was artistic director of the company for 18 years (1969–1987). He received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in 1983. In 2016, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater.

<i>FOB</i> (play)

FOB is a 1980 Obie Award-winning play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. His first play, it depicts the contrasts and conflicts between established Asian Americans and "fresh off the boat" (FOB) newcomer immigrants.

Francis Jue American actor and singer (born 1963)

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).

Sound and Beauty is the omnibus title of two plays by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fourth play, The House of Sleeping Beauties, was adapted from Yasunari Kawabata's novella House of the Sleeping Beauties (1961). It tells the story of the narrator of that novella investigating the brothel that inspired the work. His fifth play, The Sound of a Voice, is a ghost story inspired by Japanese films and folk tales. The one-act plays were produced together and premiered on November 6, 1983 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Lone and Victor Wong.

Golden Child is a play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Produced off-Broadway in 1996, it was produced on Broadway in 1998. It explores an early twentieth-century Chinese family being faced with Westernization. It was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.

Annie Baker American playwright and teacher

Annie Baker is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow for 2017.

Lemon Sky is a 1970 play by Lanford Wilson.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins American playwright (born 1984)

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright. He won the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays Appropriate and An Octoroon. His plays Gloria and Everybody were finalists for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama respectively. He was named a MacArthur Fellow for 2016.

Leigh Silverman is an American director for the stage, both off-Broadway and on Broadway. She was nominated for the 2014 Tony Award, Best Direction of a Musical for the musical Violet and the 2008 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Director of a Play for the play From Up Here.

Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. He has directed both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for Fun Home.

<i>The Woodsman</i> (play) 2012 Dramatico-musical by Edward W. Hardy about the Tin Man

The Woodsman is a 2012 American stage play with music composed by Edward W. Hardy, lyrics by Jennifer Loring, and book by James Ortiz. It focuses on the story of the Tin Woodman character from L. Frank Baum's series of books set in the fictional Land of Oz, notably Baum's 1918 book The Tin Woodman of Oz. The production employs live performers, puppets, music, and very few spoken words.

References

  1. "Theater". The New York Times.
  2. "Lortel Archives--The Internet Off-Broadway Database". www.lortel.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-13.
  3. "Actor Tzi Ma Rides 'Hell On Wheels' to New Heights". AsAm News. 2015-09-01. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
  4. "Signature Theatre in New York City".