BD Wong. Photo by Lia Chang
Tony Award winner BD Wong stars as Cheng Ying in ‘The Orphan of Zhao’. Photo by Kevin Berne.
Tony Award-winning actor BD Wong continues his long standing relationship with La Jolla Playhouse as its latest Artist-in-Residence this month.
Wong is the second artist to be named Playhouse Artist-in-Residence. The program was initiated last year with the appointment of award-winning scenic designer and UC San Diego graduate Robert Brill.
Last summer, Wong starred in La Jolla Playhouse’s U.S. premiere of The Orphan of Zhao, a co-production with A.C.T, named by U-T San Diego as one of 10 shows to savor from 2014.
BD Wong stars in Herringbone. Photo by Lia Chang
A 2011 Playhouse Gala Honoree, Wong starred in the one-man musical Herringbone at La Jolla Playhouse in 2009, a tour-de-force for the actor who portrays twelve characters.
BD Wong Stars in the La Jolla Playhouse Production of Herringbone, August 1-30, 2009
BD Wong, star of Herringbone, in rehearsal at Dixon Place in New York on May 20, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang
Photos by Lia Chang
Wong’s debut CD of the concert performance of Herringbone, recorded live at a special event at Dixon Place in New York City in 2012, has been released on the Yellow Sound Label and can be purchased here.
Yellow Sound Label to Release BD Wong’s Debut CD HERRINGBONE on December 2, 2014
In Rehearsal with BD Wong at Dixon Place for Live Concert Recording of Herringbone BD Wong to Star in Live Concert Recording of HERRINGBONE for Two Nights Only as a Benefit for Dixon Place, May 21-22, 2012
Wong’s La Jolla Playhouse multi-month residency program is designed to give artists the freedom to focus on their ongoing body of work, while becoming fully immersed in all aspects of the institution, from the stage to the boardroom to the classroom. In addition to developing his own writing and directing projects, Wong will act as a representative of the Playhouse and participate in artistic planning, education and outreach activities, lead master classes at UC San Diego and serve as a community liaison for arts advocacy in San Diego, among other Playhouse activities.
BD Wong directs Jason Tam and Caissie Levy in The Yellow Wood at the Acorn Theatre in New York on September 17, 2007. Photo by Lia Chang
“The Artist-in-Residence program bolsters the Playhouse’s mission to serve as a more supportive and profound home for the important theatre artists of today and tomorrow,” said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. “BD Wong has a long history with the Playhouse, and it is incredibly satisfying to offer him the resources to develop his own projects while further integrating him into the Playhouse community, with a special emphasis on both new musical development and education.”
Playwright David Henry Hwang, his wife actress Kathryn Layng and BD Wong at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Literary Awards in New York on December 8, 2008. (Photo by Lia Chang)
BD Wong received the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theater World, Clarence Derwent and Tony Awards for his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly – an unprecedented achievement. Television credits include” Law & Order: SVU,” “All-American Girl,” “Oz,” “And the Band Played On,” “Awake” and HBO’s “The Normal Heart”. Film credits include Jurassic Park, The Freshman, Father of the Bride, Seven Years in Tibet, Executive Decision, The Salton Sea and Mulan. Broadway credits include the revivals of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Pacific Overtures. Regional theatre credits include Herringbone (Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre). He is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir Following Foo: (the electronic adventures of the Chestnut Man) (Harper Entertainment). He has been honored by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Asian AIDS Project, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, The Anti-Violence Project, Lambda Legal and Marriage Equality New York. He is a board member of The Actors’ Fund and Rosie’s Theater Kids. Upcoming acting projects include the films Focus (Warner Bros.) and Jurassic World (Universal), and a guest-starring role on “NCIS: New Orleans,” to air on CBS February 3. He is a San Francisco native and holds an honorary M.F.A. from American Conservatory Theatre. @BD_WONG.
BD Wong rehearses his Rosie’s Theater Kids at the Maravel Arts Center on 445 West 45th Street in New York on March 17, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang
The nationally-acclaimed, Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is known for its tradition of creating the most exciting and adventurous new work in regional theatre. The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and is considered one of the most well-respected not-for-profit theatres in the country. Numerous Playhouse productions have moved to Broadway, including the currently running hit Jersey Boys, as well as Memphis, Big River, The Who’s Tommy, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Walk in the Woods, Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Farnsworth Invention, 33 Variations, Bonnie & Clyde, Peter and the Starcatcher, Chaplin: The Musical, Hands on a Hardbody and Side Show. Located on the UC San Diego campus, La Jolla Playhouse is made up of three primary performance spaces: the Mandell Weiss Theatre, the Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre and the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Center for La Jolla Playhouse, a state-of-the-art theatre complex which features the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre. La Jolla Playhouse is led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg.
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Yellow Sound Label to Release BD Wong’s Debut CD HERRINGBONE on December 2, 2014
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Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
Lia Chang Photo by GK
Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist. Lia starred as Carole Barbara in Lorey Hayes’ Power Play at the 2013 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Pauletta Pearson Washington, Roscoe Orman, and made her jazz vocalist debut in Rome Neal’s Banana Puddin’ Jazz “LADY” at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. She is profiled in Jade Magazine.
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