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Programs & Exhibits
Thurs. Feb. 16, 4:30pm - A talk by playwright David Henry Hwang (Kirby 104)
The John L. Hatfield '67 Library Lecture, sponsored by the Lafayette Library, will be held in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights, Room 104 on Thursday, February 16 at 4:30pm. The lecture, titled "Lost (and Found) in Translation: How I Learned to Write What I Don't Know" is by playwright David Henry Hwang. A book signing will immediately follow the talk (books will be available for sale).
Throughout his career, playwright David Henry Hwang has explored the complexities of forging Eastern and Western cultures in a contemporary America. His extraordinary body of work over the past three decades has been marked by a deep desire to reaffirm the common humanity in all of us.
Hwang is best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which ran for two years on Broadway, won the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk and other awards, and was also a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize. The play enjoyed a one-year run on London's West End and has been produced in over four dozen countries to date. His play Golden Child received a 1997 Obie award for playwriting and three 1998 Tony nominations, including best new play, and his play Yellow Face won a 2008 Obie award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His newest play is Chinglish, a comedy about an American businessman in China, which premiered at Chicago's Goodman Theatre last summer and has just completed its Broadway run at the Longacre Theater.
Hwang has also written for both opera and film. According to Opera News, he is America’s most-produced living opera librettist. He has written four works with composer Philip Glass, including 100 Airplanes on the Roof and Icarus at the Edge of Time. Hwang’s Ainadamar with music by Osvaldo Golijov and featuring soprano Dawn Upshaw won two Grammy Awards in 2006, including Best Opera Recording. Hwang penned the screenplays for M. Butterfly, a 1993 Warner Brothers release starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone, directed by David Cronenberg; Golden Gate (Samuel Goldwyn Co., 1994), starring Matt Dillon and Joan Chen, directed by John Madden; and Possession (co-writer, USA Films, 2002), starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart, directed by Neil LaBute. He has also done screenwriting work for Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack, and Tim Burton, among others.
A graduate of Stanford University and an alumnus of the Yale School of Drama, Hwang has been the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and awards. Most recently he was honored with the 2012 William Inge Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre Award.
Exhibition: “From Quill to Keyboard: The Writing Life of the Lafayette Student, 1832-2011"
Tracing the history of student writing over the span of the College’s 180-year history is the ambitious task of Skillman’s fall exhibit in the Simon Room. The exhibit interprets student writing broadly to include letters, diaries, theses, poetry, fiction, and drama. It does not feature students who went on to become well-known writers, although a few names will be recognizable, but looks strictly at writing done by students during their years at Lafayette.
The exhibit tracks writing pedagogy at the College and introduces some of the English Department legends who have taught generations of students to write: Francis (“Old Dad”) March, James Waddell (“Tup”) Tupper, and William W. (“W3”) Watt. Student publications are also featured, beginning with the handwritten periodicals of the 1830s, through the establishment of literary and humor magazines, to the alternative newspapers of the last two decades. And we look at some of our most interesting student writers, from Alexander Ramsey (1836) and T.C. Porter (1840), whose “Lines on the Head of a Cabbage” was the result of a lost bet, to Molefi Asante Jr. (2004) and Kameisha Hodge (2011), both of whom published books of poetry before graduating.
