Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is an internationally produced playwright whose trilogy "The China Plays: Three Parables of Global Capital" was recently published by Methuen Drama and is comprised of plays that have been staged in the United Kingdom at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Hampstead Theatre and the National Theatre, and in the United States at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club,...
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is an internationally produced playwright whose trilogy "The China Plays: Three Parables of Global Capital" was recently published by Methuen Drama and is comprised of plays that have been staged in the United Kingdom at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Hampstead Theatre and the National Theatre, and in the United States at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theater Club, Classic Stage and the Goodman Theatre. Her audio musical "Last Words of Uncle Dirt" was produced by Playwrights Horizons and is a collaboration with composer Michael Roth.

Her body of work has been honored with the Wasserstein Prize, the Yale Drama Series Award (selected by David Hare), an Edinburgh Fringe First Award, the David A. Callichio Award, the Keene Prize for Literature and a United States Artist Fellowship. She has received support from artist residencies at Yaddo, Macdowell, Hedgebrook, Ragdale, the Sundance Playwright Retreats at Ucross and Flying Point, and the Santa Fe Art Institute.

Frances was born in Philadelphia, and raised in Northern Virginia, Okinawa, Taipei and Beijing. She received an MFA in Writing from the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT Austin, a BA in Sociology from Brown University, and a certificate in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

Plays

  • The King of Hell's Palace
    China, in 1992, is laying the foundations for global wealth and power. In the populace province of Henan, a rural family is recruited into a new and unusual trade that promises to pull them out of poverty––selling their blood to the government. But amidst the hype and the soaring profits, an infectious disease specialist at the Ministry of Health uncovers an unimaginable secret that will test the limits of her...
    China, in 1992, is laying the foundations for global wealth and power. In the populace province of Henan, a rural family is recruited into a new and unusual trade that promises to pull them out of poverty––selling their blood to the government. But amidst the hype and the soaring profits, an infectious disease specialist at the Ministry of Health uncovers an unimaginable secret that will test the limits of her loyalty to her profession, to her family, and to her country. Based on the true story of whistleblower Wang Shuping's extraordinary mission to expose a national cover-up of epic proportions. .

    ""We can’t afford to be smug here – we’ve had our own terrible health scandals. But as global power continues to shift to Beijing, we ignore this parable at our peril.'" -- The Telegraph
  • Snow in Midsummer
    As she is about to be executed for a murder she didn't commit, young widow Dou Yi vows that, if she is innocent, snow will fall in midsummer and a catastrophic drought will strike. Three years later, a businesswoman visits the parched, locust-plagued town to take over an ailing factory. When her young daughter is tormented by an angry ghost, the new factory owner must expose the injustices Dou Yi suffered...
    As she is about to be executed for a murder she didn't commit, young widow Dou Yi vows that, if she is innocent, snow will fall in midsummer and a catastrophic drought will strike. Three years later, a businesswoman visits the parched, locust-plagued town to take over an ailing factory. When her young daughter is tormented by an angry ghost, the new factory owner must expose the injustices Dou Yi suffered before the curse destroys every living thing.

    "It's an expansive, ambitious play about trauma and passion which sees ancient weather curses collide with climate change, vengeful ghosts with corrupt officials." -- The Stage
  • The World of Extreme Happiness
    When Sunny is born in a rural vilage on the Yangtze River, her parents dump her in a slop bucket and leave her to die because she isn't a boy. Sunny survives, and at 14 leaves home for a Shenzhen factory to fund her brother's education. There she works grueling shifts cleaning toilets and dreams of promotion. Desperate to maximize her only capital--her youth--Sunny attends self-help classes and learns...
    When Sunny is born in a rural vilage on the Yangtze River, her parents dump her in a slop bucket and leave her to die because she isn't a boy. Sunny survives, and at 14 leaves home for a Shenzhen factory to fund her brother's education. There she works grueling shifts cleaning toilets and dreams of promotion. Desperate to maximize her only capital--her youth--Sunny attends self-help classes and learns ways to improve her chances at securing a coveted office position. But when her dogged attempts to pull herself out of poverty hurt a fellow worker, Sunny begins to question the design of a system she has spent her life trying to master, and starts to fight for an alternative.
  • Lidless
    A former Guantanamo detainee dying of liver disease journeys to the home of his female interrogator fifteen years after their time together to demand half her liver for the damage she wreaked on his body and soul during her interrogations.
  • 410[GONE]
    A sister journeys to the Chinese Land of the Dead in search of her missing brother, encountering a frenetic landscape where the Goddess of Mercy and the Monkey King reign, and Dance Dance Revolution holds the key to Transmigration.