Foggy Melson | Man Wong and Brian C. Smith Interviews on "M. Butterfly" (April 13, 1993) @foggymelson | Uploaded September 2023 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
Brian C. Smith is known for Cocoon: The Return (1988), Miami Vice (1984) and Two Million Stupid Women (2009).
M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera Madama Butterfly, is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer. The play premiered on Broadway in 1988 and won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play. In addition to this, it was a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist in 1989.
BREAKTHROUGH ROLE THE UNUSUAL LEAD OF M. BUTTERFLY HAS GIVEN CHINESE-BORN ACTOR MAN WONG A PLACE IN AMERICAN DRAMA, WHILE HIS BACKGROUND OFFERS INSIGHT ON THE ROLE.
Just four days after the record-breaking run of the comedy Beau Jest at the Off Broadway Theatre, that show’s upscale New York apartment already was replaced onstage by towering panels and a long, curved ramp. In a splotchy half-light of lavender and red, the drama M. Butterfly was taking shape.
Upstairs in the control booth, director John Briggs and production designer Jay Tompkins worked through the script line by line, changing the lights for nearly every move the actors make during the show. In the lobby, producer Brian C. Smith nursed a back injury while fretting over what he calls the toughest acting assignment of his career. And in the dressing room applying makeup as Smith’s counterpart, Man Wong talked about the role he traveled half the world to play.
Born in China and raised in Hong Kong, Wong has been in the United States about five years. In order to develop a new career in the west, he adapted his own extensive dance training by working with the Alvin Ailey and Alwin Nikolais schools in New York, at the same time trying to both learn and understand a new language and culture.
Although he got a few breaks as a dancer, his first major role in America was as an actor, in M. Butterfly for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has seen more of America than most natives while doing the show steadily for 2 1/2 years. In addition to regional productions, Wong was the understudy for A. Mapa in the national tour and has choreographed the show’s Chinese operatic scenes. His arrival in Fort Lauderdale last month marked the start of his eighth Butterfly, with only a half-day’s stopover at home after a production in Tucson, Ariz.
“When I first tried out for this role I wasn’t feeling so comfortable because I still felt a problem understanding all those English slangs,” he says. “I kept asking people what the phrases mean; it took a while to catch on.
“When I did it the next time, I felt much more comfortable. I’m lucky to get the chance to do it one after another because I can see where and how is the right way to do the character.”
Wong speaks carefully, and haltingly, while trying to phrase his heavily accented English. In the process he makes it clear that the role of Song Liling has been the breakthrough he needed to return to dramatic acting. In Hong Kong, he studied extensively with the government-sponsored art training center; after graduation he appeared regularly on Hong Kong television, which he says is second in influence only to Japanese stations throughout most of Asia.
His job choreographing M. Butterfly is based on even more intensive training in eastern opera and dance.
“I first began training when I was 13. My first 10 years was in the Peking Opera, which is Cantonese style, and then performed with the Canton Opera Company,” he says.
“It was full-time training, no fun, separated from my family. I lived in the fields and may get a half-day to see my parents on Sunday. From that time on, all the way through Hong Kong training, it was intense training.”
Wong insists on describing the China of the ’60s in order to explain both the how and the why of M. Butterfly, which is unbelievable to many even after they have seen the show.
“China was very closed. The doors never opened to the West,” he says.
“The people never got a chance to see Westerners or the outside world at all. For example, a visitor from the West was not like a regular visitor, not even like someone from the government. And they never got a chance to walk on the street. If they did, people would look at them like at a zoo, looking at a strange animal. They would stop and even follow you — because it was so impossible, so different for someone to have blond hair, a white face and blue eyes.”
The M. Butterfly character is based on a real-life Chinese opera singer (and spy) who becomes involved with a French diplomat, Smith’s role.
The play’s title is a double entendre, referring to Puccini’s famous opera Madama Butterfly, prominently displayed in the script, and to the opera singer herself — in this case a he. Hence the French appelation M., the abbreviation for Monsieur, or Mister.
Brian C. Smith is known for Cocoon: The Return (1988), Miami Vice (1984) and Two Million Stupid Women (2009).
M. Butterfly is a play by David Henry Hwang. The story, while entwined with that of the opera Madama Butterfly, is based most directly on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Peking opera singer. The play premiered on Broadway in 1988 and won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play. In addition to this, it was a Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist in 1989.
BREAKTHROUGH ROLE THE UNUSUAL LEAD OF M. BUTTERFLY HAS GIVEN CHINESE-BORN ACTOR MAN WONG A PLACE IN AMERICAN DRAMA, WHILE HIS BACKGROUND OFFERS INSIGHT ON THE ROLE.
Just four days after the record-breaking run of the comedy Beau Jest at the Off Broadway Theatre, that show’s upscale New York apartment already was replaced onstage by towering panels and a long, curved ramp. In a splotchy half-light of lavender and red, the drama M. Butterfly was taking shape.
Upstairs in the control booth, director John Briggs and production designer Jay Tompkins worked through the script line by line, changing the lights for nearly every move the actors make during the show. In the lobby, producer Brian C. Smith nursed a back injury while fretting over what he calls the toughest acting assignment of his career. And in the dressing room applying makeup as Smith’s counterpart, Man Wong talked about the role he traveled half the world to play.
Born in China and raised in Hong Kong, Wong has been in the United States about five years. In order to develop a new career in the west, he adapted his own extensive dance training by working with the Alvin Ailey and Alwin Nikolais schools in New York, at the same time trying to both learn and understand a new language and culture.
Although he got a few breaks as a dancer, his first major role in America was as an actor, in M. Butterfly for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He has seen more of America than most natives while doing the show steadily for 2 1/2 years. In addition to regional productions, Wong was the understudy for A. Mapa in the national tour and has choreographed the show’s Chinese operatic scenes. His arrival in Fort Lauderdale last month marked the start of his eighth Butterfly, with only a half-day’s stopover at home after a production in Tucson, Ariz.
“When I first tried out for this role I wasn’t feeling so comfortable because I still felt a problem understanding all those English slangs,” he says. “I kept asking people what the phrases mean; it took a while to catch on.
“When I did it the next time, I felt much more comfortable. I’m lucky to get the chance to do it one after another because I can see where and how is the right way to do the character.”
Wong speaks carefully, and haltingly, while trying to phrase his heavily accented English. In the process he makes it clear that the role of Song Liling has been the breakthrough he needed to return to dramatic acting. In Hong Kong, he studied extensively with the government-sponsored art training center; after graduation he appeared regularly on Hong Kong television, which he says is second in influence only to Japanese stations throughout most of Asia.
His job choreographing M. Butterfly is based on even more intensive training in eastern opera and dance.
“I first began training when I was 13. My first 10 years was in the Peking Opera, which is Cantonese style, and then performed with the Canton Opera Company,” he says.
“It was full-time training, no fun, separated from my family. I lived in the fields and may get a half-day to see my parents on Sunday. From that time on, all the way through Hong Kong training, it was intense training.”
Wong insists on describing the China of the ’60s in order to explain both the how and the why of M. Butterfly, which is unbelievable to many even after they have seen the show.
“China was very closed. The doors never opened to the West,” he says.
“The people never got a chance to see Westerners or the outside world at all. For example, a visitor from the West was not like a regular visitor, not even like someone from the government. And they never got a chance to walk on the street. If they did, people would look at them like at a zoo, looking at a strange animal. They would stop and even follow you — because it was so impossible, so different for someone to have blond hair, a white face and blue eyes.”
The M. Butterfly character is based on a real-life Chinese opera singer (and spy) who becomes involved with a French diplomat, Smith’s role.
The play’s title is a double entendre, referring to Puccini’s famous opera Madama Butterfly, prominently displayed in the script, and to the opera singer herself — in this case a he. Hence the French appelation M., the abbreviation for Monsieur, or Mister.
