PlayCo to Stage World Premiere of Aya Ogawa's LUDIC PROXY

The Play Company (PlayCo), led by Founding Producer Kate Loewald and Executive Producer Lauren Weigel, will present the world premiere of writer-director Aya Ogawa's Ludic Proxy, which PlayCo commissioned after producing Ogawa's translation of Toshiki Okada's play Enjoy (2010) to acclaim. PlayCo premiered Ogawa's translation of Okada's The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise in an extended run at JACK in May 2014. Ludic Proxy takes audiences on an immersive journey from 1980s Russia, to present-day Fukushima, Japan, and finally to an imagined future in which humanity has migrated underground. Ogawa will direct the world premiere production, April 1 - May 2 at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street) in Manhattan. Kate Loewald, speaking about Ogawa's work says, "We selected Aya for PlayCo's first commission of an original work because she is an American artist who shares our international vision and adventurous aesthetic. Over the past several years we have invested in commissioning and artistic project development. This play deepens our continuing commitment to provide meaningful production opportunities to artists and launch adventurous new works into the repertoire."

Performances will take place Mondays, and Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm and Sundays at 4:00pm. Critics are welcome as of April 9 for an official opening on April 12. Tickets, which are $35, Students $10-$15, will be available as of February 18 online at playco.org and by phone at 866 811 4111. The estimated running time is [110 minutes] with no intermission.

Written and directed by Ogawa, Ludic Proxy possesses the "stunning visual sense" and "riotously alive" quality The New York Times has attributed to her work. In the multilingual, multimedia triptych, memory, fantasy and virtual reality collide as three stories-one in the past, one in the present, and one in the future-unfold. Ludic Proxy captures what it is to live in our tumultuous times, as nature and technology evolve out of our control, and explores our eternal drive for human connection.

The cast features Christopher Henry, Ayesha Jordon, Yuki Kawahisa, Jackie Katzman, Megan Stern and Saori Tsukada. The creative team includes Jian Jung (sets), Jeanette Yew (lights and video), Loren Shaw (costumes), Michael Kiley (sound), Anne Erbe (dramaturg), and Ryan Gohsman (stage manager).

Ludic Proxy's global perspective and PlayCo's deepening relationship with Ogawa exemplify the company's commitment to advancing a dynamic, international experience of contemporary theater as part of the American repertoire. PlayCo, which began its current season with debbie tucker green's generations, co-produced with Soho Rep in the fall, has garnered awards and critical acclaim for its productions of works by Jonas Hassen Khemiri (Sweden), Toshiki Okada (Japan), Roland Schimmelpfennig (Germany), Vijay Tendulkar (India), Lloyd Suh (United States) and the Presnyakov Brothers (Russia), among many others.

The work of the Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based writer/director/translator Aya Ogawachallenges traditional notions of the American aesthetic and identity by creating plays infused with a multiplicity of perspectives, and by incorporating influences from outside the U.S.-of style, form, and content. Her work refines an international language of contemporary theater.

Ogawa's play Serendipity was a winner in the Ten Minute Play Festival at the 1996 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival and a finalist at the Humana Festival. SoHo Rep. produced her play Eating Dirt, which HERE subsequently presented as part of its Theaters Against War initiative. A Girl of 16 made its world premiere at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, and was praised by The New York Times for its "stunning visual sense." The New York Times described Ogawa's oph3lia, premiered at HERE, as "compelling, harrowing great theatre." Ogawa's Artifactwas presented as a work-in-progress at the PRELUDE '07 Festival as well as in the PERFORMANCE MIX Festival 2009. In 2011, the Foundry Theatre commissioned her to collaborate with Adhikaar, a human rights organization dedicated to serving the Nepali community in the U.S., and presented the resulting play, Journey to the Ocean, at the Rubin Museum.

Ogawa is one of the preeminent Japanese-to-English translators of contemporary Japanese drama. Her acclaimed translations have been produced in the U.S. and London, and published by Samuel French and various university publications and journals.For PlayCo, she translated Toshiki Okada's Enjoy and The Sonic Life Of A Giant Tortoise, which the company presented in their American premieres. Ogawa has a long relationship with Okada, as well as with Hiroshi Koike of Pappa Tarahumara and Yoji Sakate of Rinkogun, among others. Time Out called her translation of Okada's Enjoy(Play Company at 59E59, 2010; published by Samuel French) an "effortless, idiomatic translation." The Village Voice hailed her translation of Okada's Five Days in March(Witness Relocation at LaMama, 2010) as "a miracle of transposed idiom." Her translation of Okada's Zero Cost House was presented at Philly Live Arts 2012, the Under the Radar Festival 2013 and in Yokohama, Japan.

Ogawa has received an Artistic Fellowship at New York Theater Workshop (where she is now a Usual Suspect), a Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, a HERE Artist Residency, the WorkSpace grant and three Swing Space grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and a Space Grant from Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She is a 2013 recipient of the MAP Fund Grant, 2008 NYSCA Individual Artist Theater Commissioning Grant, 2006 Urban Artist Initiative Grant for Individual Artists administered by the Asian American Artist Alliance, and Axe-Houghton Foundation. She has been a guest artist at Mount Holyoke College, Yale School of Drama, and Stony Brook University.

This production is made possible with major support from the MAP Fund, Venturous Theater Fund, Edith Lutyens & Norman Bel Geddes Design Enhancement Fund, Dramatists Guild Fund, John Golden Fund, Puffin Foundation, Kaplen Brothers Fund, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Shubert Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts.