Each month on The Subtext, Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching.

This month he talks with playwright, director, and performer Aya Ogawa about moving and growing up in many places, a mother’s honest warning against acting, navigating a career in what can feel like a “jungle” of an industry, being “fully in control” of one’s own work as a director/playwright, and building their play Meat Suit around interviews and personal experiences with motherhood. Ogawa’s plays also include oph3lia (HERE), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre), and Ludic Proxy (The Play Company). 

Aya Ogawa is a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based theatremaker and translator whose work reflects an international viewpoint, centers women/non-binary perspectives, and utilizes the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience. Most recently they wrote, directed, and performed in The Nosebleed (Japan Society & The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2021; Lincoln Center Theater, 2022; Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 2023; National tour to Walker Art Center, REDCAT, Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024). In 2023, Aya received an Obie Award for the creation, writing, and direction of The Nosebleed, whose cast was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding ensemble. Aya is currently developing Meat Suit: the shitshow that is motherhood. They are also a current resident playwright at New Dramatists and a Usual Suspect at NYTW,