Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) has been elected the Chair of the American Theatre Wing, the body that administers the Tony Awards, among many other activities.
Having joined the board of the American Theatre Wing in 2009, Hwang will succeed current Chair William Ivey Long, who concludes his four-year term this year.
Hwang will serve as Chair of the Wing’s Board of Directors, and will be joined by Co-Vice Chairs Natasha Katz, Marva Smalls, and Pamela Zilly; Treasurer James Higgins; Secretary Jane Fearer Safer; and Immediate Past Chair William Ivey Long. The Wing’s President and CEO Heather Hitchens recently completed her fifth full year in that role.
“I am honored to serve the American Theatre Wing as it celebrates a century advancing excellence,” Hwang said. “Through its wide range of programs and activities, the Wing supports the vitality and diversity of theatre in our nation. I will do my best to help build on this iconic legacy.”
New appointments to the American Theatre Wing’s Advisory Committee include Robyn Coles, Alia Jones-Harvey, Lucy Liu, Patti LuPone, Charles Tolbert, Liesl Tommy, Sergio Trujillo and Lia Vollack.
Hwang, whose M. Butterfly won the 1988 Tony Award as Best Play, is also a three-time Obie Award winner and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. His other plays include Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, Kung Fu, The Dance and the Railroad and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. He is also America’s most-produced living opera librettist, and a writer/producer for the Golden Globe-winning TV series The Affair. Hwang has been honored with the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist, the 2012 Inge Award, the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright “Mimi” Award, a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, and the 2015 IPSA Distinguished Artist Award. He has also been a long-time board member of Young Playwrights Inc. and the Lark Play Development Center. Hwang was recently the Residency One Playwright at New York’s Signature Theatre, and currently serves as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts.
