After its first five years of success in bringing "wayward" theatre to Orange County audiences, The Wayward Artist announces its most ambitious season yet. In Season Six, The Wayward Artist will bring nine different shows to its stage, including six main stage shows and three shows from Wayward Voices, the company's unique program designed to amplify, enhance, and empower BIPOC voices in theatre. Look out for a separate announcement about the new season of shows from Wayward Voices soon.
"In our sixth season, we are making bold choices!" said Craig Tyrl, Artistic Director, and Founder of The Wayward Artist. "We are showcasing the Asian American, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and female experience in our season."
Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang
The lines between truth and fiction blur with hilarious and moving results in Yellow Face, Davide Henry Hwang's unreliable memoir. Asian-American playwright DHH, fresh off his Tony Award win for M. Butterfly, leads a protest against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as the Eurasian pimp in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon, condemning the practice as "yellowface." His position soon comes back to haunt him when he mistakes a Caucasian actor, Marcus G. Dahlman, for mixed-race, and casts him in the lead Asian role of his own Broadway-bound comedy, Face Value. When DHH discovers the truth of Marcus' ethnicity, he tries to conceal his blunder to protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model, by passing the actor off as a "Siberian Jew." As he clings to his old multicultural rhetoric, this new racist witch hunt forces DHH to confront the complex and ever-changing role that "face" plays in American life today. Directed by Aung Khine Min, Yellow Face performances run from September 22nd to October 1st.