In 1978,Joseph Papp produced Hagedorn's first play,Mango Tango.[3] Hagedorn's other productions includeTenement Lover,Holy Food, andTeenytown.[4] Her mixed media style often incorporates song,poetry, images, and spoken dialogue. From 1975 until 1985, she was the leader of a poet's band—The West Coast Gangster Choir (in SF) and later The Gangster Choir (in New York).[5]
In 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1994 she receivedMacDowell Colony fellowships, which helped enable her to write the novelDogeaters, which illuminates many different aspects ofFilipino experience, focusing on the influence of America through radio, television, and movie theaters.[6][7] She shows the complexities of the love-hate relationship many Filipinos indiaspora feel toward their past. After its publication in 1990, her novel earned a 1990National Book Award nomination and anAmerican Book Award. In 1998La Jolla Playhouse produced a stage adaptation.[8] In 2001, the play adaptation premiered off-Broadway atThe Public Theater.
Hagedorn worked with playwrights and artistsRobbie McCauley andLaurie Carlos as the collective Thought Music, which later expanded to include visual artist John Woo as well. Together Thought Music created a number of works includingTeenytown (presented atLa Mama in 1987)[9] andclass (presented atThe Kitchen in 2000).[10] Thought Music together investigated race, class, sexism, and the role of immigrants in the United States.[11] Hagedorn, with Thought Music and on her own, has also collaborated withUrban Bush Women on works includingHeat[12] andLipstick.[13]
Hagedorn lives in New York City with her daughters.
In 2006, Hagedorn was one of the first eight playwrights to receive the Lucille Lortel Foundation fellowship.[16]
In 2021, Hagedorn was the recipient of the Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation's 2021 Idea Awards for Theatre, winning The Tooth of Time Distinguished Career Award and $20,000.[17][18] Hagedorn, in collaboration withTwo River Theater, is also working on a musical detailing the rise of Jean andJune Millington ofFanny.[5]
Four Young Women, ed.Kenneth Rexroth (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973).
Time To Greez! Incantations From the Third World, eds. Janice Mirikitani, et al. (San Francisco: Glide Pubs., 1975).
American Born and Foreign: An Anthology of Asian American Poetry, eds Fay Chiang, et al. (New York: Sunbury Press Books, 1979).
Breaking Silence: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Poets, ed. Joseph Bruchac (New York: Greenfield Review Press, 1983).
The Open Boat: Poems From Asian America, ed. Garrett Hongo (New York: Doubleday, 1993).
Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth, eds Karen Kelly and Evelyn McDonnell (New York: New York University Press, 1999).
Stage Presence: Conversations with Filipino American Performing Artists, ed. Theodore S. Gonzalves (San Francisco and St. Helena: Meritage Press, 2007).
The Soho Press Book of 80s Short Fiction, ed. Dale Peck (New York, NY: Soho Press, 2016).
^Cucinella, Catherine; Nelson, Emmanuel (2002).Contemporary American women poets : an A-to-Z guide. Catherine Cucinella. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. pp. 163–167.ISBN978-1-4294-7550-1.OCLC144590762.
Finding aidArchived 2010-07-11 at theWayback Machine for the Roberta Uno Asian American Women Playwrights Scripts Collection, 1924–2002, featuringMango Tango (1978),Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon (withNtozake Shange andThulani Davis) (1978),Holy Food (1988), andAirport Music (withHan Ong; 1993) at the Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library,University of Massachusetts Amherst
