East West Players will hold its 33rd Anniversary Awards Dinner on May 24 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel. The no-host reception and silent auction begin at 6 PM; the dinner and awards show at 7 PM.

The theme of the evening is "Good Thing Coming," celebrating the success of EWP's second season at the David Henry Hwang Theatre at the Union Center for the Arts.

Honorees of the 1999 Visionary Awards are Christopher Lee (Producer, Chris Lee Productions), actress Nobu McCarthy (EWP artistic director emeritus, The Wash), and playwright Philip Kan Gotanda (The Wash, Yohen).

The Corporate Visionary Award will be presented to the Walt Disney Company for its ground-breaking film "Mulan," which "presents positive images of Asians and Asian-Americans, and also featured many veteran EWP actors."

For excellence in playwriting, EWP's Made in America Award will be presented to Hiroshi Kashiwagi (Laughter & False Teeth). The Rae Creevey Award, named after one of EWP's founders, will go to G. Shizuko Herrera (technical director, Cal State University, L.A.).The dinner and awards show will be hosted by Janice Terukina (Pacifc Overtures and Alex Mapa (M. Butterfly.

Individual ticket prices begin at $123 and go up to $1,000. Proceeds will benefit EWP's operations and artistic programs,

The EWP also announced the 1999 David Henry Hwang Writers Institute Reading Series. Actors from EWP will read new works by Institute writers starting with a Marathon Session on April 10 from 10.30 AM to 5 PM.

The readings will be held at the Henry Hwang Theatre and will continue through April 19. Admission is free. Among the writers represented are Emmie Hsu, Gavion Glynn, Annette Lee, Ray Cervantez, Alison de la Cruz, Dean Lim, Cat Chin, Helen Sabol and Cara Chow.

For full information, call (213) 625-7000 or visit www.eastwestplayers.com.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent