FOB and Other Plays

by David Henry Hwang, Maxine Hong Kingston (Foreword)

Six plays deal with a recent Chinese immigrant, a Chinese rail workers strike in 1867, the myths of family history, a mysterious brothel, a wandering Samurai, and a man abducted by aliens

Genres: Plays, Drama

320 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 1990

About the author

David Henry Hwang (Chinese: 黃哲倫; pinyin: Huáng Zhélún; born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright who has risen to prominence as the preeminent Asian American dramatist in the U.S.

He was born in Los Angeles, California and was educated at the Yale School of Drama and Stanford University. His first play was produced at the Okada House dormitory at Stanford and he briefly studied playwriting with Sam Shepard and María Irene Fornés.

He is the author of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Awards, Pulitzer finalist), Golden Child (1998 Tony nomination, 1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (Drama Desk nomination), Family Devotions (Drama Desk Nomination), Sound and Beauty, and Bondage. His newest play, Yellow Face, which premiered at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum and New York's Public Theatre, won a 2008 OBIE Award and was a Finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He wrote the scripts for the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (co-author), Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song (2002 revival, 2003 Tony nomination), and Disney's Tarzan. His opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera), and The Sound of a Voice; as well as Bright Sheng's The Silver River, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards) and Unsuk Chin's Alice In Wonderland (Opernwelt's 2007 "World Premiere of the Year"). Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and also co-wrote the song "Solo" with Prince. A native of Los Angeles, Hwang serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. He attended Stanford University and Yale Drama School, and was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Reviews

[Jenny]

I adore literature that seems deceptively simple at first and builds up into something thematic that just grips you by the end. Add that to the several plays dealing with what it means to be American from an immigrant's perspective and honestly you couldn't hit all of my interests harder haha. I loved most of these plays but hated the last one, so I couldn't give it 5/5. It was the most experimental of the bunch and I don't know what it would be like to experience in the theater but I felt like it was too jumbled and the thematic elements weirdly too try-hard. The other plays were on point though. :)