The Dance and the Railroad

The Dance and the Railroad is a 1981 play by American playwright David Henry Hwang. Hwang's second play, it depicts a strike in a coolie railroad labor camp in the mid-nineteenth century. The play premiered as part of a commission by the New Federal Theatre in 1981.^[1] It had its professional debut on July 16, 1981 Off-Broadway at the Joseph Papp Public Theater. It was directed by John Lone, with Lone and Tzi Ma in the cast.^[2] The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

The play was produced on television by the ABC Arts channel under the direction of Emile Ardolino. This production won a CINE Golden Eagle Award.

An Off-Broadway revival was produced in 2013 at the Signature Theatre under the direction of May Adrales.^[3]

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

References

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 Ibsen) Tibet Through the Red Box (2004, from Sis) Yellow Face (2007) Chinglish (2011)

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) The Great Helmsman (2007) A Very DNA Reunion (2010)

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 (2003, with Glass) Tarzan (2006, with Collins, from Burroughs) Alice in Wonderland (2007, with Chin, from Carroll) The Fly (2008, with Shore)