Howard County’s Premiere Community Theater
Silhouette Stages is proud of being a strong supporter of diversity in our community. This month we honor our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community for their vibrant cultures, traditions, and histories that enrich us and help us tell their stories through the arts. From ancient storytelling and classical music to contemporary film, literature, dance, and visual art, AAPI artists have made profound contributions that enrich the cultural fabric of the United States.
Art has long served as a bridge between generations and cultures, offering a platform for expression, resilience, and transformation. It’s in the bold brushstrokes of a Filipino muralist, the haunting melodies of a Korean composer, the intricate choreography of a Hawaiian hula, and the evocative prose of a Vietnamese American writer that we see the diverse narratives and identities that make up the AAPI experience.
Later this month (May 10th) is the 4th Annual AAPI Festival at Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods! Experience the beauty and diversity of Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures through colorful performances. It's the perfect way to introduce cultural celebration to your family during AAPI Heritage Month.
Approximately 16.6 million AAPIs reside in the United States, hailing from over 30 countries speaking over100 languages. These groups include China, The Philippines, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. This also includes the Pacific Islander communities across Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Below are some stellar examples of the AAPI community that have made excellent strides in the world of theatre.
Sessue Hayakawa- The First Sex-Symbol of Hollywood
Sessue Hayakawa (早川 雪洲, Hayakawa Sesshū) was an early influential Japanese actor and one of the original ‘Matinee Idols’. Hayakawa rose to stardom during the silent film era, and was the first man of Asian descent to become a mainstream actor in America and Europe. Though he was typically type-cast as the morally grey villain, his “broodingly handsome” charm made audiences fall in love with him and made him one of the first sex symbols in American Hollywood.
After growing tired of being consistently typecast as a villain, he founded his own production company, Haworth Pictures Corporation. From 1918-1922 Sessue Hayakawa produced 23 films earning over $2 million (about $28.5 million today) in which he contributed to the directing, editing, writing, and/or design of each film. Hayakawa went on later to appear in Vaudeville and on Broadway and was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal of Colonel Saito in The Bridge on the River Kwai which won Best Picture. Despite all these accomplishments, his greatest disappointment was that he was never cast as leading role in mainstream Hollywood or theatre.
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Lea Salonga- Actor & Singer
Lovingly referred to as 'The Pride of the Philippines', Lea Salonga is a Filipino actress and singer who originated the role of Kim in Miss Saigon for which she received both a Tony and Olivier award. She played Mei-Li in the revival of Flower Drum Song, and was the first Asian American to play Eponine in Les Misérables. Salonga provided the singing voices for Mulan and Jasmine in 1990's original Disney movies of Mulan and Aladdin, respectively.
More recently, the living-legend Lea Salonga originated the role of Aurora Aquino in the all Filipino cast production of Here Lies Love in 2023. She is currently on broadway in Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends which is nominated for 3 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical.
Kai Harada- Sound Designer
Kai Harada is a Tony award winning Sound Designer with Japanese roots who designed some of the most iconic musicals of the modern Broadway era. If you went to New York to see a musical in the last 30 years, there is a good chance that Harada had a hand in designing the sound for it. He was the lead sound designer for Kimberly Akimbo, Fun Home, On The Town, Amélie, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Head Over Heels, First Date, the 2023 revival of Spamalot , the 2024 revival of Once Upon a Mattress, and the 2017 revival of Sunday in the Park with George. In his early years he is credited with either Assistant or Associate Sound Design for Wicked, The Lion King, The Wild Party, Footloose, the 2002 revival of Man of La Mancha, the 1999 revival of Kiss me, Kate, and the 1998 revival of The Sound of Music.
Harada won his first Tony for Best Sound Design in 2019 for The Band's Visit, and was nominated again for his design for the revival of Merrily We Roll Along in 2024.
BD Wong- Actor, Director & Activist
BD Wong portrays Dr Wu in the Jurassic Park franchise, Special Agent George Huan on Law & Order SVU, and was the voice actor for Captain Li Shang in the Mulan franchise. His Broadway debut as Song Liling in M. in Butterfly won him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and led to him becoming the only actor in Broadway history to receive the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role.
BD Wong volunteers his time and resources to a number of LGBTQ+ and arts-related charities, such as the Ali Forney Center, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Materials for the Arts, and Rosie's Theater Kids, of which he is also a board member. His family descends from Hong Kong, China.
David Henry Hwang - Playwright, Producer & Theatre Professor
David Henry Hwang is a Tony Award-winning playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. His most acclaimed work is M. Butterfly, a play based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a Beijing opera singer. M. Butterfly was nominated for 7 tony awards, and took home the win for Best Play, Best Featured Actor, and Best Direction. It won 3 Drama Desk Awards, 3 Outer Critic Circle Awards, and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The play's success prompted various theatrical interests for Hwang, including film, opera, and musical theatre. He went on to write the books for Aida, Tarzan the Musical, and revised the book for the 2002 revival of Flower Drum Song. Yellow Face is his current production on Broadway, which was nominated for 2 tony awards for the 2025 season.
David Henry Hwang is currently a Theatre professor at Columbia University and trustee at The American Theatre Wing. Time Magazine once described him as the “most important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller." He identifies as both Asian American and a Chinese American dramatist.
Phillipa Soo- Actor, & Singer & Philanthropist
Phillipa Soo graduated from Julliard in 2012, just two years before her Tony-nominated performance of Eliza Schuyler in Hamilton. She also originated the title role of Natasha Rostova in the Off-Broadway production of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. Since then, she has played some of the biggest leading roles, including Cinderella in Into the Woods, Amélie in Amélie, and Guenevere in Camelot.
Inspired by her role in Hamilton, Soo started the Eliza Project initiative in partnership with Graham Windham, the first private orphanage in New York City. Through the program, Soo helps provide students at the Graham School with acting, dancing, and rap workshops. According to Soo, the mission of "The Eliza Project" is "to use the arts as a means of expression, as an outlet for personal experience, and to uplift the creative spirit." Her father is Asian American. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from China to the United States.
Willa Kim- Costume Designer
Willa Kim was the first Asian American to win a Tony Award. She won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Costume Design in a Musical for Sophisticated Ladies. She earned a second Tony for Best Costume Design for The Will Rogers Follies. She received an additional four Tony Award nominations and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design twice.
Kim designed costumes for the American Ballet Theatre as well as other dance companies, including more than 50 works for Eliot Feld.
In 2005 she received the Distinguished Achievement Award for Costume Design from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and in 2007 Kim was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame, making her one of only a handful of costume designers so honored. Kim lived until the age of 99.
Her works included; Bosoms and Neglect, Sophisticated Ladies, Grease, Victor/ Victoria, Tommy Tune Tonite!, The Will Rogers Follies, Legs Diamond, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Music Man, & Call Me Madam.
Robert Lopez- Composer & Songwriter
Robert Lopez is the current record holder for the 'fastest to complete' record of the EGOT race by winning each an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony within 7 years and 8 months. He and his wife won the Emmy in 2021 for Outstanding Orignal Music and Lyrics for "Agatha All Along" from Wandavision. He has secured 3 Grammys in: One for The Book of Mormon (2012) winning Best Musical Theatre Album, and two for the Disney's movie Frozen (2014) winning Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Song Written for Visual Media. The Academy awarded him two Oscars for Best Original Song for "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen and "Remember Me" for Pixar's Coco (2018). And finally, Lopez has given 3 Tonys a home: 2 for Book of Mormon for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score for Avenue Q (2004). His other works include Winnie the Pooh and Frozen II. He gets his Filipino blood from his father, who was born on a ship departing Manila.
Mimi Lien- Set Designer & Adjunct Professor
Mimi Lien is a Chinese-American Set Designer who is best known for her Scenic Design of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 for which she won her first Tony Award. She graduated from Yale University in 1997 and then attended New York University where she earned her MFA in design from Tisch School of the Arts in 2003. Stemming from her background and education in architecture, the scale of her set designs is typically much larger than a standard broadway set. She has designed over 100 shows, operas and instillations, most recently the 2023 revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Lien is currently teaching as an adjunct professor in Set Design at NYU Tisch.
