Leigh Silverman / MARCUS MIDDLETON
Sometimes a work can take hold of you and never let you go. All you want to do is return to it. For Leigh Silverman, that work was David Henry Hwang’s play Yellow Facewhich she directed at the Public Theater in 2007.
Yellow Face was inspired, in part, by the decision to cast white actor, Jonathan Pryce, to play a French Vietnamese brothel owner in Miss Saigon on Broadway. Pryce had already played the role in the West End and had earned an Oliver award. Yellow face refers to the long history of white actors wearing makeup to portray Asian characters.
After Hwang wrote to Actors’ Equity to protest the casting, he was vilified by producers, critics and many in the theater community. Hwang saw that the issues stretched further than just Miss. Saigon. And Yellow Face delved into questions about race, identity, history and family.
Yellow Face, which became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won an Obie Award, centers around a playwright, DHH, who after fighting against yellow face casting ends up placing a white actor in his own play.
After a successful run at the Public Theater, Silverman and Hwang worked on eight more projects. “David and I have worked together so much and so deeply, our collaboration has been a tent pole of my career,” says Silverman.