The Nosebleed

Aya Ogawa

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Past event

Price: $30*
Genre: Theater
Season: Winter/Spring 2024
DATE: FEB 1-3
TIME: THU-SAT, 8:30 PM
RUNTIME: Approx. 75 minutes, no intermission
COUNTRY: USA
Program: Download Program Notes (PDF)

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About

Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of our parents? Through a series of absurd, autobiographical vignettes, innovative playwright, performer, translator, and director Aya Ogawa’s hit 2022 Obie Award-winning show irreverently and boldly delves into what it takes to forgive. A trip to Ogawa’s home country of Japan, a child’s nosebleed, and the reality TV show The Bachelor come together in this darkly comical and psychologically insightful theatrical tribute to Ogawa’s father. Part theatrical memorial performed by an ensemble of five, part healing ritual for the audience, this darkly humorous, tender, and inventive play considers how we inherit and bequeath failure, and what it takes to forgive.

Presented in English and Japanese without supertitles.

The program includes a post-performance talk on February 2 with Aya Ogawa and Chi-wang Yang.

Please note: The Nosebleed contains loud sounds, the depiction of a nosebleed, estrangement with a parent, mentions of death, use of profanity, microaggressions, and mentions of sexual harassment.

Filled with profundity and delirious beauty.

—

Steve Smith, WNYC / Gothamist

Presented by REDCAT in association with East West Players.

The Nosebleed was co-presented by Japan Society and The Chocolate Factory Theater in October 2021.

Produced by Lincoln Center Theater, New York City, 2022.

about the artist

Aya Ogawa (they/them) is an award-winning Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based writer, director, translator and performer whose work centers women/non-binary perspectives and utilizes the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience. They have written and directed many plays, including: A Girl of 16, oph3lia (HERE), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre), and Ludic Proxy (The Play Company). Most recently they received an Obie Award for The Nosebleed (Under the Radar; Japan Society and Chocolate Factory; Lincoln Center Theater; Woolly Mammoth Theatre). They directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr and Ma-Yi Theatre Company), and Maiko Kikuchi and Spencer Lott’s 9000 Paper Balloons (HERE and Japan Society). They have translated numerous works of contemporary Japanese playwrights into English, including plays by Toshiki Okada and Satoko Ichihara. Ogawa is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship; Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting; Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity(Lincoln Center Theater); Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Grants to Artists; Playwrights’ Center’s McKnight National Residency and Commission; President’s Award in Performing Arts(Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); and Resident Playwright(New Dramatists).