David Henry Hwang

• Born in 1957 to Chinese immigrant parents.  Father was a banker, mother taught piano
• Studied English at Stanford, graduating in 1979.
• Found an interest in theatre seeing shows at the American Conservatory in San Francisco
• His first play, FOB (an acronym for "fresh off the boat") was written and produced while he was still a student; it later won an Obie award.
• After spending some time studying theatre at Yale, Hwang moved to New York to work in theatre, rather than just studying it.
• Produced several other plays dealing with the experiences of immigrant Chinese-Americans.
• In 1983, produced two shows based on Japanese folklore: Sound of a Voice and House of Sleeping Beauties
• Won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984.
• Biggest commercial success came in 1988 with the play, M. Butterfly, which won the Outer Critics Circle Award for best Broadway play, the Drama Desk Award for best new play, the John Gassner Award for best American play.
• Has worked extensively with composer Philip Glass.

Further Reading:

http://www.tuvy.com/resource/books/authors/h/david_henry_hwang.htm

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/authors_depth/hwang.htm

http://arts.hku.hk/summerinstitute/DHH_bio.pdf

http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsH/hwang-david-henry.html