Elizabeth Wong

Elizabeth Wong (* 1958 in Southgate / California ) is an award-winning American playwright whose works often deal with the situation of Chinese Americans.

Life and work

After a difficult childhood in the Chinatown of Los Angeles , Elizabeth Wong, whose ancestors immigrated from China, dealt with the Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong at an early age , who became a model and object of study for her. In 1995 she dedicated the play "China Doll" to her.

Elizabeth Wong first studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles . Inspired by the success of her former high school classmate, the playwright David Henry Hwang , she went to New Haven, Connecticut, to the Yale School of Drama , where she studied with Leon Katz and also began to write. She then continued her studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University .

In the 1980s, Wong worked as a field producer for NXT-TV Channel Two News and as a reporter for two newspapers (The San Diego Tribune, San Diego , California ; The Hartford Courant, Hartford, Connecticut ).

In 1991, the Pan Asian Repertory Theater in New York premiered Elizabeth Wong's play "Letters to a Student Revolutionary," which is about the encounter between two women - a Chinese woman and an American Chinese woman - during the Tian'anmen massacre . In the early 1990s, Wong also worked as a writer for Walt Disney Studios , as a dramaturge at the Actors Theater of Louisville ( Louisville (Kentucky) ), as a teacher at the David Henry Hwang Playwriting Institute (Los Angeles) and as a columnist for the Los Angeles Times .

In 1994 Wong wrote the screenplay for the ABC production "All-American Girl", a television series broadcast until 1995, which was the first American sitcom with a Far Eastern leading actress ( Margaret Cho ).

More recently, Elizabeth Wong has taught at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine , the University of Southern California, and the University of California , Santa Barbara. She is also a member of the Circle Repertory Theater Playwright's Project , the Women's Project Lab , the Dramatists Guild of America, and an advisory board member of the Theater Emory in Atlanta .

Prices

Elizabeth Wong has received numerous awards for her writing. "Letters to a Student Revolutionary" earned her the Theaterworks Award in Colorado Springs . Her play about Anna May Wong - "China Doll" (1995) - won the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award , the Petersen Emerging Playwright Award and the Jane Chambers Award .

Works by Elizabeth Wong (selection)

• 1990 - Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along (Acting)
• 1991 - Letters to a Student Revolutionary (Acting)
• 1992 - The Concubine Spy (Acting)
• 1994 - All-American Girl (19-part television series)
• 1995 - China Doll: The Imagined Life of An American Actress (Acting)
• 1996 - The Play Formerly Known as The Happy Prince (Acting)
• 1997 - The Happy Prince (Actor)
• 1997 - Explorator-yum (acting)

Web links

• Elizabeth Wong's website
• Elizabeth Wong website Anglistin Ingrid Kerkhoff (Engl.)