THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD by David Henry Hwang to be Presented at Latino Theater Company

Two workers. One strike. A shared dream. Asian American theater collective Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company will reunite for their fourth collaboration in four years with a rare revival of The Dance and the Railroad, a haunting and deeply moving early work by David Henry Hwang. Directed by Artists at Play producing member Katherine Chou, the production opens October 3 at The Los Angeles Theatre Center, with performances continuing through November 1. Two low-priced previews take place on October 1 and October 2.

Leonard Wu (Disney’s American Born Chinese) and Scott Keiji Takeda (Flower Drum Song at East West Players) star as Lone and Ma, immigrant laborers building the transcontinental railroad during the Chinese Railroad Workers’ Strike of 1867. The two men form an unexpected bond through their shared love of Chinese opera. Together, they practice the ancient art form atop a mountain in the Sierra Nevada, finding connection and a sense of possibility even as their fellow workers below confront brutal labor conditions, isolation and cultural displacement.

A play about labor, identity, friendship and the power of artistic expression, Hwang says The Dance and the Railroad “rejects the stereotype of submissive immigrant laborers, and depicts assertive men who demanded their rights despite great personal risk. The play compares the optimistic and idealistic Ma to the pragmatic and independent Lone, and juxtaposes the hard labor of working on the railroad with the dream to practice traditional Chinese opera. At a time when some are attempting to rewrite the central roles that people of color have played in American history and belittle the contributions of immigrants, The Dance and the Railroad is arguably more timely now than ever.”

A Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Play and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, The Dance and the Railroad premiered in a production by the New Federal Theater in 1981, transferring to Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, where it enjoyed a six-month run. Since then, the play has been produced periodically around the country, including a high-profile revival at New York’s Signature Theatre in 2013. Its last Los Angeles production was presented by East West Players in 1993.