Last updated on February 12, 2025
As a self-mocking drama that examines the idea of casting shows in accordance with race and ethnicity, Yellow Face is a play that seems very appropriate for our modern times.
Yellow Face is the first show of The Footlight Club’s 148th season, and there are shows this weekend and next.
Written by acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang, Yellow Face is a semi-autobiographical play of identity, politics and memory that examines family dynamics, immigrant status, and cultural misappropriation. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, the play features a lead named only by his initials, DHH – Hwang’s own – and some of the events in the play closely mirror experiences from Hwang’s life.
The inspiration of Yellow Face came from the real life 1990 production of Hwang’s Tony-winning play M Butterfly, in which a British actor, Jonathan Pryce, was cast in the role of a Eurasian character. Upon the announcement of the play’s Broadway run, Asian members of the theater community, including Hwang himself, protested the casting as yellow-face and challenged the producers to recast the role. And as many can attest, the tension between issues of cultural misappropriation, ethical casting and freedom of artistic expression are still relevant today.
The Footlight Club’s cast is led by Mordecai Choi as the playwright DHH, a hapless center of the maelstrom, with Michael Tow playing HYH, DHH’s father who is caught up in a nightmare of his own. The show is directed by Michelle Aguilon, the Stage Manager is Cassidy Guimares, and the show’s producer is Michael Colford.
Tickets are $25 adult/$22 senior, student and child. There are show Feb. 14-16, 21-22. Friday and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm. There is a sensory-friendly show on Feb. 22 at 2 pm. Tickets are available at footlight.org or at the box office on the night of the show.
