We are pleased to welcome David Henry Hwang and Adam Gwon to the DG Council!
The Guild is governed by a board of directors (Council) elected from its membership. These writers, in various stages of their theatrical careers, meet monthly to decide policy for the Guild. The Dramatists Guild Council is led by four officers, who are elected from within the Council ranks. The current slate of officers is comprised of Amanda Green (President), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Vice President), Kristoffer Diaz (Secretary) and Christine Toy Johnson (Treasurer).
"David and Adam's illustrious careers, years of service to The Guild, and dedication to improving the lives of writers make them both wonderful additions to the Council," shared DG President Amanda Green.
Adam Gwon is a composer and lyricist whose musicals have been produced on six continents, in more than half-a-dozen languages. Off-Broadway: Scotland, PA (Roundabout Theatre - Drama Desk nomination, NYT Critic’s Pick), Ordinary Days (Roundabout Theatre, Keen Company revival - Drama League Award nomination), Old Jews Telling Jokes (Westside Theatre, NYT Critic’s Pick); Regional: String (Village Theatre), Cake Off (Signature Theatre - Helen Hayes Award nomination, Bucks County Playhouse), Cloudlands (South Coast Rep), The Boy Detective Fails (Signature Theatre), Bernice Bobs Her Hair (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma); West End: Ordinary Days (Trafalgar Studios). Pandemic-era projects include Pittsburgh Playhouse’s film/theater hybrid Ordinary Days with Emmy-winning production designer Jason Ardizzone-West, The Waves in Quarantine with Lisa Peterson and Raúl Esparza for Berkeley Rep, and “I Am Here,” a music video saluting Asian Americans on Broadway, featured on CBS, PBS, and Playbill.com. Adam’s songs have been heard at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and more, performed by such luminaries as Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, and Brian d’Arcy James. His honors include the Kleban, Ebb, Loewe, and Richard Rodgers Awards, Second Stage Theatre's Donna Perret Rosen Award, Weston Playhouse New Musical Award, ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, and MAC John Wallowitch Award, and commissions from Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Keen Company, the Kimmel Center, and Broadway Across America. Recordings include: Ordinary Days (Ghostlight Records), Audra McDonald's Go Back Home (Nonesuch), The Essential Liz Callaway (Working Girl Records), Artists in Residence (Broadway Records), and Over the Moon: The Broadway Lullaby Album (Entertainment One). Adam has been a fellow at MacDowell, Hermitage Artist Retreat, the O’Neill Music Theater Conference, and the Dramatists Guild. He is a Lecturer in the theater program at Princeton University and sits on the Boards of Roundabout Theatre Company and Primary Stages.
David Henry Hwang's stage works included the plays M. Butterfly,Yellow Face, Chinglish, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as Broadway musicals Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney's Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner (M. Butterfly) and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner (FOB, Golden Child, and Yellow Face), a Grammy Award winner (Ainadamar) who has been twice nominated, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama (M. Butterfly, Yellow Face, and Soft Power). Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, he has written twelve operas to date, including five works with composer Philip Glass; their most recent collaboration, Circus Days and Nights, premiered at Sweden’s Malmö Opera in 2021. Hwang has also worked with composers Bright Sheng, Unsuk Chin, and Howard Shore, among others and is a 2006 Grammy Award winner for Ainadamar with music by Osvaldo Golijov. He co- wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop icon Prince and was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair from 2015-2019.
Hwang is currently creating a TV series for Netflix and penning the live-action musical feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios as well as a screenplay for Working Title Pictures to star actress Gemma Chan. Hwang’s most recent musical Soft Power, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, opened in 2018 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles. It transferred in 2019 to the Public Theatre, where it received four 2020 Outer Critics Honors, a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Hwang and Tesori are currently working on a post-2020 version for an upcoming commercial production.
