Written and produced by two men, who declared their life partnership with each other in the stage bill, this was one of the most sensitive and accurate depictions of gay women I've seen on stage.
Read MoreSilk Road Theatre Project presented an eclectic late-night celebration of music, dance, painting, poetry and theatre, as part of the Chicago Loop Alliance's all night party, Looptopia. Visitors were invited to join in as we read and discussed seven brief, brilliant, and irreverent plays written by Suzan-Lori Parks. The event also included visual artist Joel Maxime Jr.'s live painting of visual responses to the plays, as well as dancing with the actors as Indian-American choreographer Alka Nayyar taught the crowd a Punjabi folk dance called Bhangra.
Read MoreFour award-winning Off-Loop theatre companies are exploring development of a cross-company and cross-cultural subscription series to strengthen diversity both on stage and among audiences. The series would be dubbed Looks Like Chicago, a phrase and logo the organizers already have trademarked. Initiated by the Silk Road Theatre Project, Looks Like Chicago encompasses Silk Road, Congo Square Theatre Company, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company and Teatro Vista – Theatre with a View. The initial four-troupe partnership would be for two years with an option to renew.
Read MoreIndeed, there's something fascinating about how we are perceived by others and in Hwang's finely penned scenes you not only recognize the sometimes humorous and often painfully true Western stereotypes, you understand a bit of the Eastern philosophies that underline the Chinese characters who articulate them.
Read MoreOn April 26, 2007, at a ceremony held at the Mid-America Club of Chicago, the Asian American Institute honored Silk Road Theatre Project with its Milestone Makers Award, recognizing the organization’s contributions to the Asian American community and the Asian American arts.
Read MoreVIc Chao stars as Andrew and Tieng-Bin in the Midwest premier of the Tony-nominated play, by David Henry Hwang. It was chosen by Silk Road Theatre Project officials for its sensitive portrayal of dealing with cross-cultural issues.
Read MoreAward-winning playwright Yussef el Guindi gives us a darkly humorous, sensual, and provocative look at identity, media representation, love, and lust in the Arab American community. Struggling writer Gamal, fueled by frustration over the limited Arab voices represented in the US media, engages in a prank campaign to shake up the system. His weapons? A chocolate mousse cake and lipstick. His targets? A popular Arab American writer and an influential Sheikh. But those in power have a way of turning the tables. When Gamal’s lover, Noor, is convinced by a prominent publisher to alter her novel to satisfy Western hunger for “Orientalist” fare, Gamal lashes out at his own community. The results are staggering.
Read MoreAt a time when, perhaps more than ever, the West is ferociously exporting itself to the world, Silk Road Theatre Project examines East infected with West in its lavish production of Golden Child.
Read MoreWindy City Times recently talked with Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, whose notable works include The Dance and the Railroad, the multiple-prize winning M. Butterfly and the Tony Award-nominated Golden Child, currently on stage at the Silk Road Theatre Project in its Chicago premiere (through April 22). Hwang also has written the books (scripts) for several Broadway musicals, among them Elton John's Aida, Tarzan and a new version of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song.
Read MoreWhy it took so long for a professional production of Golden Child to reach Chicago is baffling, given the dramatic richness and cultural insights of the play. Silk Road Theatre Project's beautiful and well-acted production shows what Chicago has been missing.
Read MoreHe's a Tony-winning and Pulitzer-nominated playwright who has also written librettos for projects ranging from Philip Glass operas to Disney musical behemoths such as Aida and Tarzan (and he even co-wrote a song with Prince). Yet it's taken 10 years for his last non-musical Broadway show to reach Chicago audiences – and it probably wouldn't have happened without Silk Road Theatre Project.
Read MoreIn its Midwest premiere by the Silk Road Theatre Project, an adventurous little troupe specializing in work that reflects Asian and Middle Eastern experience, Golden Child is a crackling drama that melds cultural commentary with urgent, often witty storytelling.
Read More"Silk Road's best work to date...The fine, richly textured Vic Chao anchors the production as the family patriarch and Melissa Kong finds some poignancy as a young Chinese girl with a lot to gain and a lot to lose."
Read MoreGolden Child, by David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) offers more than a quaint family history, but nothing we haven't seen before. His great-grandfather's conversion to Christianity and its impact on his three wives and oldest daughter inspired the play, currently in its Midwest premiere at Chicago's Silk Road Theatre Project, a company that showcases works by Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean playwrights.
Read MoreKevin Kenneally brings winning humor to the second act, playing Baines, an English minister intent on baptizing Tieng-Bin. Of course, the scenes are all performed in English for our benefit, but when Baines speaks, he talks in short, awkward sentences designed to simulate the situation that he's really speaking in broken Chinese.
Read MoreThe nicely paced production, under the direction of Stuart Carden, is accented by Carol J. Blanchard's wonderfully authentic costumes and Lee Keenan's graceful, period-perfect set.
Read MoreA benefit reception for the celebration of David Henry Hwang, the celebrated Asian-American playwright. The reception was followed by a performance of Hwang's play Golden Child at the Historic Chicago Temple Building.
Read More[Golden Child] will be the Chicago premiere of a biographical play that explores the influence of Western culture on a traditional Asian family, modeled on Hwang's own relatives.
Read MoreSet in China in the early 1900's, the Obie Award winning Golden Child tells the story of Eng Tieng-Bin, a wealthy merchant who returns from abroad filled with Western ideas and Christian beliefs, and hopes of liberating China from its superstitious past.
But in a polygamous marriage riddled with jealousy and suspicion, what will Eng's religious conversion mean for each of his three wives? Can new ideas and old traditions co-exist or are they destined to collide?
Read MoreThis week [playwright David Henry Hwang's] last Broadway straight play, 1998’s short-lived China-set Golden Child, finally gets its Midwest premiere at Silk Road Theatre Project. We asked him about that, and his in-between trysts with a certain mouse.
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