M. BUTTERFLY Opens This Weekend at City Lights

Opening this weekend at City Lights, M. Butterfly weaves realism, ritual, and vivid theatricality into a haunting tale of a French diplomat who thinks he's found the ideal woman. It's a story that all started with real-life events.

Stationed in China in the 1960s, Rene Gallimard (played by City Lights associate artistic director Kit Wilder) finds himself gradually-perhaps inevitably-pulled in by the delicate, erotic charms of a Chinese opera star who personifies his vision of submissive Oriental sexuality. M. Butterfly underscores the irony of that fantasy as it parallels the events of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly and becomes a powerful exploration of East-West relations and the romanticism that clouds and complicates them to this day.

David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly runs now through April 19 at City Lights Theater Company, 529 S. Second St., downtown San Jose. Details are at cltc.org.

M. Butterfly has drawn wide praise. The original Broadway production, which starred John Lithgow and BD Wong, won the 1988 Tony Award for Best Play. Wong also won that year's Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play, and the play was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for drama. "It will move you, it will thrill you, it may even surprise you. It is a play not to be missed," the New York Post wrote.

Hwang has also earned a name as a thoughtful and provocative playwright who often delves into issues of identity and ethnicity. His other plays include Golden Child, Yellow Face, and Chinglish, and he wrote the new book for Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song.

Jeffrey Bracco (Director), who directed Monty Python's SPAMALOT to sell-out houses at City Lights last summer, is also an actor, playwright, and educator with a 20-year professional theater career in the U.S. and France. He has written or co-written five plays that have been professionally produced, including ShakesPod, which ran for three seasons in Paris with a yearly national tour from 2007 to 2009 and was also seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Other City Lights directing credits include NINE and Ching Chong Chinaman. He teaches directing, acting, and theater history at Santa Clara University.

Kristin Kusanovich (Assistant Director and Choreographer) is a modern/contemporary dancer who has directed, choreographed, and produced more than 100 solo and ensemble works in dance, drama, musical theater, opera, film, and video. Recent works include Brian Friel's The Aristocrats at the Black Hole Theatre in Winnipeg, Cabaret at Broadway by the Bay, and Six Psalms at Marquette University and Mission Santa Clara. She was Artistic Director of Kusanovich Dance Theatre of Minneapolis and currently collaborates with director Mark Larson of Chance Company. She is a master teacher of children's dance and President-Elect of California Dance Education Association.

Cast:
Rene Gallimard: Kit Wilder*
Helga: April Green
Comrade Chin/Suzuki: Christina Chu
Kurogo: Jessica Do, Lee-Ron
Song Liling: Nick Louie
Marc/M. Toulon: Keith Marshall
Renee/Girl: Laura Espino

*Member, Actors' Equity Association

Designers: Ron Gasparinetti (Scenic), Anna Chase (Costumes), Nick Kumamoto (Lighting), George Psarras (Sound), and Christina Sturken (Props).

City Lights' season continues in May with Exit, Pursued By A Bear (South Bay Premiere) by Lauren Gunderson; and in July with West Side Story, by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. The 2015-16 season will be announced soon.

DETAILS:

March 19-April 19, 2015
Pay What You Can Night: Thursday, March 19, 8 p.m.
$17 Preview Night: Friday, March 20, 8 p.m.
Opening Night: Saturday, March 21, 8 p.m.
Regular showtimes: Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m., and Sundays (beginning March 29) at 2 p.m. One Wednesday performance, at 8 p.m. April 15. No performances on March 22 and April 5.
City Lights Theater Company, 529 S. Second St., San Jose, CA 95112

Regular tickets are $17-$32; discounts for seniors, students/educators, and groups (10+). (There is a $2 surcharge for phone and in-person purchases.) The preview is $17, and opening night is $35 general, $30 for seniors, and $19 for students/educators. Tickets for closing weekend are increased by $2.

For tickets or more details, go to cltc.org or call 408-295-4200. The theater is wheelchair-accessible.