Golden Shield: A Provocative Play About Politics, Technology and Asian-American Identity

Panel Discussion 

Thai-Australian playwright and screenwriter Anchuli Felicia King and theater director May Adrales discuss Golden Shield, a gripping new play written by King. Tony Award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang joins this panel discussion moderated by Ken Smith, journalist and veteran performing arts critic. Golden Shield cast member Fang Du will perform an excerpt from the play ahead of its U.S. premiere.

Golden Shield, an English-language play with some Chinese dialogue, explores such themes as immigrant identity, cultural disparities, transnational business ethics, the delicate art of translation and the growing conflict between technological advancement and personal privacy.

When enterprising Chinese-American lawyer Julie Chen files a class-action lawsuit involving a multinational technology corporation and the Chinese government, she hires her strong-minded sister Eva as her translator. Tensions flare on both sides of the Pacific in this fast-paced drama. Golden Shield opens in previews at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage I on April 26.

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Anchuli Felicia King is a playwright, screenwriter, and multidisciplinary artist of Thai-Australian descent. Her plays have been produced by the Royal Court Theatre (London), Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), American Shakespeare Center (Staunton), Melbourne Theatre Company, and Sydney Theatre Company. She is currently a screenwriter for The Baby, a dark horror comedy for HBO/Sky; The Twelve, a trial drama for the Foxtel Group; and Deadloch, a noir comedy and Amazon original series. Her scripts are in development for HBO, A24, AMC, Sister Pictures, BBC Studios, Warner Bros, Amazon, Netflix, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, among others.

May Adrales has directed more than 25 world premieres. Her recent work appeared at Second Stage (Rajiv Joseph’s Letters of Suresh), Manhattan Theater Club (Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone), Signature Theater, Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, WP, New York Theater Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Milwaukee Rep, and South Coast Rep. She has directed and taught at Juilliard, Harvard/ART, ACT, Fordham, NYU, and Bard College. She has served on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and the Brown/Trinity MFA program, and is currently Director of the Theatre Program and Assistant Professor at Fordham University. 

David Henry Hwang’s plays include M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad and FOB, as well as the musicals Soft Power, Aida, Flower Drum Song, and Tarzan. He has written libretti for 13 operas, including The Rift, which recently premiered as a part of the Washington National Opera’s Written in Stone program for the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary celebration, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Grammy-winning Ainadamar. His film and TV work includes the movie M. Butterfly and four seasons of Showtime’s The Affair. A Tony Award winner, he is a also a three-time OBIE Award winner and a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Born in Dandong, China, Fang Du  has appeared in Off-Broadway theaters such as La Mama (The Golem), Classic Stage Company (Julius Caesar), Ensemble Studio Theater (Low Power), and Theater Row (Where Is My Maple Town), as well as the national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie. His film and TV appearances include A New York Minute, Tomorrow Comes Today, The Assistant, Madam Secretary, The Blacklist, The Haves and the Have Nots, Mr. Robot, and Two Sentence Horror Stories. 

Journalist and author Ken Smith has covered arts and culture on five continents for a wide range of print, broadcast, and internet media. A winner of the 2020 SOPA Award for arts and culture reporting and the ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music writing, he has been the Asian performing arts critic for the Financial Times since 2003 and is a regular arts commentator for RTHK Radio 4 in Hong Kong.

Safety protocols to come.