It was at this time of personal triumph that BD Wong met his long term partner, Richie Jackson, an agent and partner in the firm Innovative Artists.
Wong follwed M. Butterfly with the role of Ariel in The Tempest, a comedy written by William Shakespeare. Ariel is a spirit, the reluctant servant of Prospero, here played by Frank Langella. Wong played Ariel as "... a creature in silky black pants and sandals flies in, chest bare, long hair in outlandish braids."
''I wanted to make Ariel something really magical,'' BD Wong told The New York Times. The article goes on:
In an office above the theater one recent afternoon, he sat sideways in an armchair, talking about his career between large thoughtful bites of a grilled-cheese sandwich. Wearing Levi's and a Mickey Mouse watch, with one lithe, sneakered foot tucked beneath him and his shingled hair flopping forward to the frames of his heavy glasses, he looked - if he looked remarkable at all - remarkably ordinary, an equally unlikely candidate for either his trompe l'oeil role as Song Liling or Shakespeare's ''airy spirit.'' It's a discrepancy that has struck others as well. ''After seeing B. D. in 'M. Butterfly,' '' observed Mr. Langella, whose interest in playing Prospero was one of the chief reasons the Roundabout mounted this production, ''you'd think that what made him right for Ariel was his otherworldly quality, his unique look, the nature of his last role.
''But the fact is,'' he continued, ''those are not the reasons at all. You have to be extremely grounded to play Ariel - an odd word to use about the role, but it's true. And B. D. is an actor with a fine, grounded presence.''
Read the New York Times article here.
Wong returned to the stage in 1993, beginning with Face Value, another collaboration with David Henry Hwang. The production was scheduled to open at the Cort Theatre. It was directed by Jerry Zaks, with B. D. Wong, Jane Krakowski, Mark Linn-Baker, Mia Korf, and Gina Torres in the cast, but the show closed during previews on March 14, 1993.
Wong followed this with the lead role in Peter Pan, with David Odgen Stiers in the role of Hook.
Russian Tea Room, Herringbone, Bosoms and Neglect,
In The Nanjing Race, Wong portrayed Yu Ahn, a gay Japanese-American businessman traveling in China caught up in the tensions between cultures.
REWRITE IN PROGRESS
And then, on Sunday May 28 2000 at 9:42 PM, someone entered BD Wong's life that would change it forever. Jackson Foo Wong and his brother, Boaz Dov Wong, were born.
The Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man
The two boys were Boaz Dov Wong and Jackson Foo Wong. The twins were born prematurely, weighing just two pounds and five ounces and two pounds and thirteen ounces. Only one of the twins would survive.
BD Wong would write about these days in his book, Following Foo: the Electronic Adventures of the Chestnut Man. Based on the exchange of e-mails between Wong, his friends and supporters, Following Foo is an amazing diary of thoughts, musings, worries, soliloquies, rants and observations, a stream of consciousness that the author poured out through the medium of e-mail, then gathered together here in this volume.
The book draws the reader in with little asides about what BD Wong feels about his career, witness his strong love and appreciation for his family and friends, and offers glimpses of Wong's private life. Wong behind the camera is completely unlike any of his screen or stage roles, is by turns manically obsessive or laid back and completely affable.
There were three post scripts of sorts: the first, a telling poem written for the Coming Out book When I Knew, the second, an anecdote written for Al Roker's Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood, and thirdly, the sad news that BD Wong and Richie Jackson separated soon after the publication of Following Foo.
BD Wong would write of this life experience in his parenting memoire, Following Foo, and would later add two post-scripts: one, an anecdote about his relationship with his own father in Al Roker's book Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood, and then an account of his own coming out in Peter Trachtenberg's When I Knew.
You can read the full unedited version of BD Wong's contribution to When I Knew HERE.