Sherwood Hu
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Sherwood Xuehua Hu (born 1961 in Shanghai China) is a Chinese American stage and film director.
[edit] Career
Hu studied theatre and film in China and the United States of America (U.S.). He has a masters degree in theater and film production from State University of New York, and a Ph.D. in directing from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He also studied at The Public Theater in New York under Joseph Papp, and began his professional career directing theatre, including productions of Rashomon, Consant Prince, The Chairman's Wife. He also acted in the lead role of "Song Liling" in several productions of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly. He created The Legend of Prince Lanling, a lavish stage production which received an Honorable Mention from the Kennedy Arts Center, and which he later adapted into his first feature film. Warrior Lanling (1995), an epic ritual film about ancient China, screened at the Telluride Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival and others. His second feature, Lani Loa - The Passage (1998) was executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang, and was one of the first U.S./China co-productions. It was a Hawaiian ghost story–cop movie–spiritual love story, shot in Shanghai, China, and in Hawaii, and starred Angus Macfadyen, Ray Bumatai and Chris Tashima. Tashima also starred in his next film, On The Roof (2002), a small indie DV ensemble piece filmed in Pasadena, California. In 2003, Hu returned to China to direct a 40-episode television series, Purple Jade for China Central Television. He returned to epic costume period film work with Prince of the Himalayas (2006), his own adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, set in ancient Tibet, and performed entirely in the Tibetan language. Hu also has continued with theatre work, recently directing stage productions of A.R. Gurney's Sylvia, Jean-Paul Sartre's Dirty Hands and a modern ballet, Shakespeare and His Women, for the 8th Shanghai International Arts Festival (2006).
Hu has served as guest professor at the Shanghai Drama Academy where he supervises and mentors graduate students.
[edit] Trivia
- Hu is sometimes credited as Sherwood X. Hu.
- He has a sister who is an actress and a brother who is also a filmmaker.
