The Sound of a Voice

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The Sound of a Voice is a 1983 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's fifth play, it is an original ghost story inspired by Japanese folk stories and films. The play was first produced as part of the production Sound and Beauty on November 6, 1983 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by and featured John Lone.

Composer Philip Glass and Hwang adapted it for the opera The Sound of a Voice in 2003. That same year, Susan Hoffman directed a film adaptation entitled Sound of a Voice adapted by actor-screenwriters Lane Nishikawa and Natsuko Ohama. The film was developed through the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women and premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 4th.

It is published as part of Trying to Find Chinatown: The Selected Plays and Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian-American Plays by Theatre Communications Group and also in an acting edition published by Dramatists Play Service.

v • d • e
The works of David Henry Hwang
Full-length plays
FOB (1980) · Family Devotions (1981) · Rich Relations (1986) · M. Butterfly (1988) · Face Value (1993) · Golden Child (1996) · Peer Gynt (1998, with Stephan Muller; from Henrik Ibsen) · Tibet Through the Red Box (2004, from Sis) · Yellow Face (2007)
Short plays
The Dance and the Railroad (1981) · The House of Sleeping Beauties (1983, from Kawabata) · The Sound of a Voice (1983) · As the Crow Flies (1986) · Bondage (1992) · Trying to Find Chinatown (1996) · Bang Kok (1996) · Merchandising (1999) · Jade Flowerpots and Bound Feet (2001)
Film/television
Blind Alleys (1985, with Kimball) · M. Butterfly (1993) · Golden Gate (1994) · The Lost Empire (2001) · Possession (2002, with Jones and LaBute, from Byatt)
Music theatre
1000 Airplanes on the Roof (1988, with Glass and Sirlin) · The Voyage (1992, with Glass) · The Silver River (1997, with Sheng) · Aida (2000, with Woolverton & Falls, John and Rice, from Verdi) · Flower Drum Song (2001, with Rodgers and Hammerstein, from Fields, Hammerstein, and Lee) · Ainadamar (2003, with Golijov) · The Sound of a Voice (2004, with Glass) · Tarzan (2006, with Collins, from Burroughs) · Alice in Wonderland (2007, with Chin, from Carroll)