On Friday, May 1st, Signature Theatre is presenting their SigSpace Arts Lunch with Award-winning actor Francis Jue at noon on Instagram Live. 
Last night, Francis Jue received two San Francisco Bay Area Critics Circle Excellence in Theatre Awards for Principal Actor in the San Francisco Playhouse’s production of King of the Yees and Featured Actor in The Language Lesson, produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.
He’s the toast of the New York Theater Awards season with double Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award nominations for his complex star turns as DHH in David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori’s Soft Power, a co-production of The Public Theater and Center Theatre Group, and as Duch in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, produced by Signature Theatre.
For Soft Power, he received a 2020 Lucille Lortel Award nod for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical and a 2020 Drama Desk Award nod for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. For Cambodian Rock Band, he garnered a 2020 Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play and a 2020 Drama Desk Award nod for Outstanding Actor in a Play.
Jue will be joined during the Arts Lunch by David Henry Hwang and Lauren Yee. Message your questions in advance with the hashtag #SigSpacePresents!
Francis Jue has appeared on Broadway in Pacific Overtures, Thoroughly Modern Millie and M. Butterfly. His Off-Broadway credits include Cambodian Rock Band and Kung Fu at Signature Theatre Company; Soft Power, Wild Goose Dreams, Yellow Face, Hamlet, Timon of Athens, Pericles, King Lear at The Public; Coraline and Falsettoland. His regional credits include Soft Power, In the Next Room…, Cabaret, Tiger Style!, Miss Saigon, King of the Yees, tokyo fish story. Film and TV credits include Joyful Noise, and recurring roles on “Madam Secretary”, “Law & Order: SVU”, and “The Good Wife”. Among his acting awards are an Obie Award and Lortel Award for his role in Yellow Face at the Public Theater (2008), a Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for Cabaret, BATCC Best Supporting Actor Award and Best Choreography Award for Pacific Overtures; BATCC Best Supporting Actor Award and Best Choreography Award for Into the Woods; a Philly Award for Best Actor for Red; a Zoni Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Illusion; a Drama-Logue Award for Kiss of the Spiderwoman at TheatreWorks (1997); a Zoni Award for In the Next Room…; an Elliot Norton Award for Best Supporting Actor for Miss Saigon at North Shore Music Theatre (2013); and another Obie Award for Wild Goose Dreams at the Public (2018). In 2019, Jue received nominations for San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Featured Actor in a Play for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s production of The Language Archive and for Principal Actor in a Play for San Francisco Playhouse’s production of Lauren Yee’s King of the Yees. The 44th Annual San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards will be announced on April 30 via an online presentation. He is also featured on the recently released Original Off-Broadway cast recording of Soft Power and the soon-to-be-released cast recording of Cambodian Rock Band (May 8).
David Henry Hwang’s stage works includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a two-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards, co-wrote the Gold Record Solo with the late pop icon Prince, and has worked since 2015 as a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series The Affair. He is currently writing the live-action musical feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Studios. Hwang serves on the Board of the Lark Play Development Center, as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as Chair of the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards. M. Butterfly recently returned to Broadway in a revival directed by Julie Taymor, which marked Mr. Hwang’s eighth Broadway production. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home), premiered in May 2018 at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre (six Ovation Awards, including Best Production) and San Francisco’s Curran Theatre. Soft Power was nominated for eleven Drama Desk Awards and five Lucille Lortel Awards.
Lauren Yee is a playwright born and raised in San Francisco. She currently lives in New York City. Her CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, with music by Dengue Fever and others, premiered at South Coast Rep, with subsequent productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Victory Gardens, City Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Portland Center Stage and Jungle Theatre. Signature Theatre’s recent production received Drama Desk Award nominations for Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Actor in a Play for Francis Jue, who also received a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.
Her play, THE GREAT LEAP, has been produced at Denver Center, Seattle Rep, Atlantic Theatre, the Guthrie Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arts Club, InterAct Theatre, and Steppenwolf, with future productions at Long Wharf, Cygnet Theatre, and Asolo Rep/Miami New Drama.
Lauren Yee’s play KING OF THE YEES premiered at The Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group, followed by productions at ACT Theatre, Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Baltimore Center Stage. Other plays include CHING CHONG CHINAMAN (Pan Asian Rep, Mu Performing Arts), THE HATMAKER’S WIFE (Playwrights Realm, Moxie, PlayPenn), HOOKMAN (Encore, Company One), IN A WORD (Young Vic, SF Playhouse, Cleveland Public, Strawdog), SAMSARA (Victory Gardens), THE SONG OF SUMMER (Trinity Rep, Mixed Blood), and THE TIGER AMONG US (Mu).
She is the winner of the Doris Duke Artists Award, the 2019 Steinberg Playwright Award, Whiting Award, Steinberg/ATCA Award, Horton Foote Prize, the Kesselring Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters literature award, the Francesca Primus Prize and a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton. She has been a finalist for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her plays were the #1 and #2 plays on the 2017 Kilroys List.
Lauren is a Residency 5 playwright at Signature Theatre, New Dramatists member (class of 2025), Ma-Yi Writers’ Lab member, former Princeton University Hodder fellow, and Playwrights Realm alumni playwright. Her TV work includes Pachinko (Apple) and Soundtrack (Netflix). She is currently under commission from Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage, South Coast Rep. She completed her BA at Yale and her MFA at UCSD. www.laurenyee.com
In partnership with various artists and community organizations, SigSpace will be a home for live performance and events like concerts featuring new music, works-in-progress, storytelling, panels, social justice conversations, self-care activities and other opportunities to gather.
Through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, SigSpace will also allow Signature to sustain its lobby as a free public workspace and social hub for the NYC community.
Information and content can be found directly on www.signaturetheatre.org/SigSpace
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young. She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.
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