Protesters Gather Outside Performance of Yellow Face

A small protest formed outside Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre last night, shortly before the scheduled evening performance of David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face.

It was organized by the group Asians4PalestineNYC, whose ire seems primarily directed at Queens Congresswoman Grace Meng. Meng was purportedly celebrating her birthday by taking in a performance of the play and holding a fundraiser (TheaterMania did not witness Meng in the theater and cannot confirm her presence last night).

The congresswoman from New York’s 6th district has been a vocal supporter of Israel.

The protest clogged sidewalk traffic on 42nd Street and briefly delayed the performance, as Roundabout Theatre Company security took extra caution inspecting bags and ensuring the theater was accessible only to ticketholders. The show began by 8:10pm.

“Grace Meng’s fundraiser co-opts and weaponizes Asian American identity to mislead the public into thinking that our communities support the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” reads a leaflet distributed by the group.

It is not immediately clear how one might go about ascertaining a position on the conflict in the Levant as held by Asian Americans, a census designation comprising hundreds of distinct ethnicities deriving from the world’s most populous continent.

If anything, the protest served as a provocative amuse-bouche to the themes of Yellow Face, which playfully deconstructs identity and its value as social currency.

You can read TheaterMania’s full review of Yellow Face here.