The issues portrayed in Golden Child are incredibly important to modern society. As borders begin to fade and globalization becomes more commonplace, it is important to examine the consequences of these events to the cultures they affect.
VIc 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.
He'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.
[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.
This 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.
The roots of David Henry Hwang's 1997 drama Golden Child go back to when the playwright was a precocious 10-year-old. His maternal grandmother, who knew all the family history, had fallen ill and the forward-thinking youngster made it his mission to record those stories before they were gone forever.
Specializing in works by playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean backgrounds, Silk Road has grown exponentially over the last couple of seasons -- this little non-profit troupe has a beautiful new space in the basement of the Chicago Temple in the heart of Chicago's Loop. It has also snagged the rights to the Midwest premiere of this widely admired drama by David Henry Hwang about the conflict between Midwestern modernity and Eastern traditionalism that roiled China in the early 1900s.
