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Yellow Face

By: David Henry Hwang
Narrated by: Daniel Dae Kim (CK), Ashley Park, Wendell Pierce, Benedict Wong, Noah Bean, Dick Cavett, Margaret Cho, Ronan Farrow, Fritz Friedman, Joel De La Fuente, Margaret Fung, Gish Jen, Francis Jue, full cast, Jason Biggs
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Publisher's summary

"It’s a...kind of unreliable memoir.” That’s how David Henry Hwang all-too-accurately labeled his bracing and hilarious 2007 play Yellow Face, which recounted a pivotal moment in his cultural awareness. The story, which mixes fact with fiction, starts in 1990, when Hwang—the first Asian American playwright to win a Tony—is among the highest profile artists to protest the casting of Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce in an Asian role in the musical Miss Saigon. But when Hwang begins work on a new play based on the controversy (or does he?), he inadvertently hires a white actor for a key Asian role. To protect his reputation as an Asian-American role model, Hwang invents a fake background for his star.

The resulting debacle spreads much further than he could foresee, and forces him to re-evaluate just how much of a champion for his culture he truly is. Hwang pulls no punches, naming names, and not letting himself off the hook.

Winner of an Obie and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and directed by Tony nominee Leigh Silverman, Yellow Face is as timely as ever, wrestling with issues of cultural appropriation, complicity, and artistic freedom. It’s brought to life in this audio-only revival by a stunning all-star cast (many playing themselves) led by Daniel Dae Kim.

©2007 Fresh Off the Boat Productions, Inc. (P)2024 AO Media, LLC
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About the Performer - David Henry Hwang

About the creator

David Henry Hwang’s stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Yellow Face (Broadway revival upcoming, Fall 2024), Chinglish, The Dance and the Railroad and FOB, as well as the musicals Aida, Soft Power, Flower Drum Song and Disney’s Tarzan. Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist, he has written thirteen libretti, including five with composer Philip Glass and three with Huang Ruo ( An American Soldier upcoming, Spring 2024, PAC NYC). Ainadamar, with music by Osvaldo Golijov, will receive its Metropolitan Opera premiere in Fall 2024. Hwang was a writer/consulting producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair and is currently creating and show running a new TV series, Billion Dollar Whale. A professor at Columbia University, Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a Grammy Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.
Photo Credit: Gregory Costanzo.

About the director - Leigh Silverman

About the director

Leigh Silverman has directed over 60 world premiere new plays and musicals. She received a Tony nomination for her direction of the musical Violet and received a 2011 Obie Award and 2019 Obie for Sustained Excellence. Broadway credits include: Suffs (Music Box Theatre); Yellow Face (upcoming); Grand Horizons; The Lifespan of a Fact; Violet (Tony nomination); Chinglish; Well. Recent off-Broadway: Merry Me (NYTW); Suffs (Public Theater); Harry Clarke (West End; Berkeley Rep; Vineyard Theatre/Audible, Minetta Lane; Lortel nom); The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (Shed, Taper); Soft Power (Public Theater; Ahmanson Theater/Curran Theater; Drama Desk nom); Sandra (Vineyard Theater); Sweet Charity (New Group). Encores: Violet, The Wild Party and Sutton Foster’s streaming concert, Bring Me to Light. Other Audible projects include Harry Clarke and Dykes to Watch Out For, which was named Best of Year for Audible and Slate.

About the Performer - Daniel Dae Kim

About the Performer

Daniel Dae Kim is an actor, director, producer, and social advocate widely known for his work in ABC’s Lost, CBS’s Hawaii Five-O, Netflix’s Stowaway, and Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon. This year, Kim will star as the villainous Fire Lord Ozai in the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, for Netflix. Also in 2024, Daniel will head to South Korea to star in a new spy series that he and his company, 3AD, will produce for Amazon Studios. Currently, Kim can be seen on streaming platforms in BJ Novak’s FX series, The Premise, Nat Geo’s The Hot Zone: Anthrax, and Apple TV+’s Roar. As a producer, Kim and 3AD executive produce the series The Good Doctor, set to enter its seventh season on ABC, as well as 2023’s multi-award-winning documentary feature film Bad Axe. His theater credits include the recent, critically acclaimed production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles and Lincoln Center’s 2017 production of The King and I, as well as productions with London’s Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Public Theater, Theater for a New Audience, East West Players, Pan Asian Rep, and NAATCO. New York is also where Daniel received his training, earning his MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Kim’s advocacy for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is longstanding. His testimony in front of Congress helped lead to the passage of the “Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act,” and he currently serves on the White House’s Commission for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. He also serves on the Board of Gold House, with whom he partners, along with the Asian American Foundation, on the Sunrise Collective, the first-ever official AAPI centered House at the Sundance Film Festival.

About the Performer - Jason Biggs

About the Performer

Jason Biggs’ TV/film credits include: “Jim” in the American Pie film series, “Larry” in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, Outmatched, The Good Fight, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Saving Silverman, The Subject, Jersey Girl, Eight Below, Over Her Dead Body, and My Best Friend's Girl. Broadway credits include The Heidi Chronicles, The Graduate, and Conversations with My Father.

About the Performer - Ashley Park

About the Performer

Tony, Grammy, and Critics Choice Award nominee Ashley Park is widely known for her role as “Mindy Chen” on the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris—with the third season released in December 2022 and fourth on the way. The multihyphenate was seen in 2023 starring in Joy Ride and Netflix’s Emmy-nominated Beef, a dramedy from Lee Sung Jin. Park was most recently seen in season 3 of Hulu’s critically acclaimed Only Murders in the Building. Additional credits include Girls5eva and Tales of the City and her work on Broadway includes Mamma Mia!, The King and I, Sunday in the Park with George , Grand Horizons, and Mean Girls, for which she earned Tony, Drama League, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Chita Rivera Award nominations for her performance as ‘Gretchen Wieners.’

About the Performer - Wendell Pierce

About the Performer

Wendell Pierce has established himself as a prolific award-winning actor with a body of work on stage, television, and film for more than three decades. Universally hailed for his portrayal of “Det. Bunk Moreland” on HBO’s groundbreaking series The Wire, Mr. Pierce was also praised for his starring role of “Antoine Baptiste” on David Simon’s critically acclaimed series Treme. He currently stars as “James Greer” in Amazon’s international hit series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan alongside John Krasinski, as well as in the “Kendall’s Story” episode of the new anthology series Accused, airing on Fox. Pierce will star as Captain C.W. Wagner, a charismatic and revered NYPD leader in the new CBS drama Elsbeth, based on the character featured in The Good Wife and The Good Fight, and in season 3 of the popular Starz Power universe’s Raising Kanan as Ishmael “Snaps” Henry.
Mr. Pierce returned to Broadway in 2022 for a limited engagement to reprise his portrayal of “Willy Loman” in Death of a Salesman after receiving a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play in London for the West End production. He has been nominated for his first performance Tony Award in the Best Actor in a Leading Actor in a Play category and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play. He made his Broadway debut as “Boy Willie” in August Wilson’s Piano Lesson. His other Broadway credits include Carol Churchill’s Serious Money and John Pielmeier’s Boys of Winter. Other theater credits include Cost of Living (Williamstown, 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama), Brokeology (Lincoln Center), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Cymbeline, Two Gentleman of Verona, Tarftuffe (New York Shakespeare Festival), Waiting for Godot, The Cherry Orchard (Classical Theater of Harlem), and The Oedipus Cycle (Theatre Herod Atticus, Athens).
In film, Wendell’s wide-ranging work includes Ava Duvernay’s Selma, Taylor Hackford’s Ray, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and Get on the Bus, Forest Whittaker’s Waiting to Exhale, Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Clemency, and the Bounce Original Film Don’t Hang Up, for which he received an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Male Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Limited Series, to name a few.
On television, Wendell is recognized as “Robert Zane” on USA Network’s Suits, and had recurring roles on Showtime’s Ray Donovan and NBC’s Chicago PD. He appeared in HBO’s award-winning Confirmation as “Clarence Thomas” and Between the World and Me, based on the #1 New York Times bestseller by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
A Juilliard alum and a 1981 White House Presidential Scholar in the Arts, Wendell is the recipient of several awards, including the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in the Theater, the Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of “Rev. Tillman” in the drama Burning Cane, for which he also received Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominations; a Tony Award as a producer of Clybourne Park; and Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special Image Award for his role of “Slick” in the HBO drama Life Support, opposite Queen Latifah.
Wendell is co-owner of Equity Media, the new ownership group of WBOK 1230AM, a 70-year-old legacy Black talk radio station in New Orleans and the oldest Black-owned radio station in Louisiana. Wendell is the author of his memoir titled The Wind in the Reeds. In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, The Juilliard School, and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

About the Performer - Benedict Wong

About the Performer

Benedict Wong’s credits as Wong in the MCU include Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
Outside of the MCU he has a career spanning over 30 years and can be seen in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, Danny Boyle's Sunshine, The Martian and Prometheus from Ridley Scott, Ang-Lee’s Gemini Man, Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, and Edson Oda’s Nine Days.
Wong began his stage career at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre under the tutelage of Mark Rylance, and his stage credits include Hamlet at the Young Vic in 2012, The Arrest of Ai Weiwei at the Hampstead Theatre, and in Lucy Kirkwood’s five-time Olivier Award-winning Chimerica.
In 2014, Wong starred as Kublai Khan in Netflix's historical epic series Marco Polo. He will be returning to Netflix this year in David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ highly anticipated 3-Body Problem.

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What listeners say about Yellow Face

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Dig a hole for yourself and then dig it deeper

A very interesting short story in which the correctness of today comes back to bite you in your peachy behind... * Narration was amazing, I love the adaptations with lots of different characters. Makes it really like listening to a short movie. Recommended.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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A true 360 look at human biases

Very enjoyable narrative that takes a fun yet deep look into our society and the biases and hypocrisies on all sides that hinder our true vision of being simply Americans.

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1 person found this helpful

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Storming Caught my Attention Right Away

I enjoyed this short story. I usually listen to audiobooks that are 15hrs and up long. But I didn't feelbas thought I was cheated listening to this short. It made you wonder what was real and what was scripted. Sad that the Father lost his faith and his joy.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Funny, great audible performance, and good dialogue.

Not the easiest topic to take on but did so in a pretty funny way. The audible performance was top notched.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great escape from reality

Unique story definitely had me interested by the cast alone but from start to finish i couldn’t get enough

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Short and to the point

The short was very well cast and performed. The story is clever, crisp, and what a satire it is! With sobering issues that continue to plague the Inited States!

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EXCELENT... EVERYTHING

SUPERB STORY. EXCELLENT LISTENING. I THOUGHT THE ENDING WAS SUPERB. GREAT NARRATION. ENJOYABLE. WISH IT WERE LONGER.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Almost

I enjoyed some of the book. I wish we’d gotten more emotions. The book Yellow Face did a better job with this similar premise. Enjoyed this fictional biography though. The ending felt lackluster.

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Hilarious…the dad, The story…really awesome!

I love learning about the experiences of other American minorities. This was funny and engaging while touching on serious issues.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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The very honest book

This was very well written and performed. This shone a light on an uncomfortable subject in a humorous way. The lesson was learned

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