AYA OGAWA (they/them) is a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based theater-maker, playwright, director, performer, and Japanese-to-English translator for the theater. They have written and directed many plays including oph3lia (HERE), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre), and Ludic Proxy (The Play Company). They wrote, directed, and performed in The Nosebleed (Japan Society & The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2021), which ran at Lincoln Center Theater, 2022; Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 2023; national tour to Walker Art Center, REDCAT, Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024; and tour to On the Boards and the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 2025. 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’s latest play, Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood, was developed at The Playwrights' Center and premiered at Second Stage in 2026.
Aya directed Jared Mezzocchi's 73 Seconds (En Garde Arts), Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr & Ma-Yi Theater Company), Maiko Kikuchi and Spencer Lott’s 9000 Paper Balloons (HERE & Japan Society) and Dan Fishback Is Alive and Unwell in his Apartment (Joe’s Pub). They have translated countless contemporary Japanese plays into English including works by Toshiki Okada, Satoko Ichihara, and Yudai Kamisato; many of these have been published and produced in the U.S. and U.K. Upcoming, they will direct the world premiere of Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The Unsinkable at PACNYC and Haruna Lee's 49 Days with NAATCO, both in spring 2027.
Distinctions and awards include 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, 2023-24 Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight National Residency and Commission, 2023 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, 2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists, 2023 MacDowell Fellow, 2022-23 Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theater, 2015 President’s Award in Performing Arts from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Resident Playwright at New Dramatists, and Usual Suspect at NYTW.
Free
Sunday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. Monday, November 4 at 7:00 p.m. In-person reading at Playwrights' Center
Pregnancy. Puberty. Parenting PTSD.
Work-life imbalance. Societal erasure. Loss of self.
Meat Suit is an unapologetic collage of vignettes and songs that captures the chaos, absurdity, and heartbreak of motherhood. By centering mothers as a powerful key to the cycle of birth and death, Meat Suit unleashes the rage, reclaims the humanity, and reinvents the paradigm of motherhood.
After having worked at Playwrights’ Center last season as a McKnight Fellow and getting to know the incredible talent of the Minneapolis acting pool, I’m just so thrilled to be able to flesh out MEAT SUIT with largely the same ensemble who helped me find the play’s footing. I didn’t know what to expect last year and found such a vibrant and supportive community. I’m honored and excited to get wild and weird with these folks again.
This reading will be recorded and made available to view online November 18–24. You can sign up to watch that recording here.
Having trouble signing up? Please email rsvp@pwcenter.org.
If you are making a reservation for more than 6 people, please email rsvp@pwcenter.org to arrange. If you make a reservation for more than 6, a member of our Advancement team may be in touch closer to the reading date to confirm final numbers for your group.
Aya Ogawa
