Ai Nagai Wiki, Biography, Age, Husband, Net Worth

Nagai and another playwright, Hisashi Inoue, have similarities in their approaches because they both aim to write about ordinary people going through extraordinary situations. Both playwrights also write differently compared to other playwrights in their own generation — such as Toshiki Okada and Oriza Hirata. The clear and logical structure of Nagai’s plays makes it naturalistic The characters are caught in some predicament and the motor for the play’s theatricality is how the characters are liberated from the predicament. Nagai’s plays are easily accessible to Western audiences because her works are both traditionally Japanese while also being very universal at the same time. Another playwright, Yōji Sakate, also resembles Nagai because the motivation behind his dramas is his social conscience. Sakate and Nagai both combine elements of Shingeki and Angura.

Nagai is active in other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Korea. Her plays are also presented as staged readings. For example, on February 22, 2010, Japan Society in New York read the English translation of Women in a Holy Mess (片付けたい女たち , Katadzuketai on’na-tachi) in an English translation developed in late 2007.

This play is first staged in 2005 by the Nitosha Theatre Company. The casts included Keiko Toda, Ryosuke Otani, Moeko Koyama, Masami Nakagami, and Yoshimasa Kondo. This play is available in the English language from the Nitosha Theatre Company.

In 1981, Nitosha (The Two Rabbits) Company was established as a theater company. Nagai and Ōishi named their theater company “Nitosha” because they were both born in the Year of the Rabbit. They also acted in original Nitosha productions as they alternate as playwrights. Their quick-changing two women shows such as Kazuo (かずお , Kazuo) helped them gain popularity. In 1991, Ōishi left the company to have a career in TV scenario writing. This left Nagai to direct her own plays herself for Nitosha’s productions. This company is still active and it is located in Nerima, Tokyo. Nitosha has consistently provided plays that do not only entertain the audience but also make them feel actually involved and committed to the issues presented on stage.

After graduating in 1974, Nagai was invited to join the theater company, Spring and Autumn Group (Shunjūdan), where she met Shizuka Ōishi. Since the company disbanded after two years, Nagai and Ōishi decided to write and produce their own plays.

After graduating high school, she became a member of the Friends of the Haiyu-za theater company, which enabled her to watch all the company’s productions. In 1970, Nagai studied at the theater department of Tōhō Gakuen College for four years, including two years in the postgraduate drama program. The theater department used to be an acting school that was affiliated with the Haiyu-za, where many professional actors had been trained. She chose this college because she became a fan of the actress Etsuko Ichihara and aspired to become a member of the Haiyu-za company. As the popularity of the “Angura” (underground) theater movement grew, she attended performances at small underground theaters. Examples include Jūrō Kara’s Jōkyō Gekijo, Makoto Satō’s [ja] Kuro Tento and Ren Saitō’s Jiyū Gekijō. Seeing these types of performances made her lose her aspirations of joining a theater company of the Shingeki genre.

Ai Nagai (永井愛 , Nagai Ai, born on 16 October 1951) is a Japanese playwright, stage director, and the co-founder and leader of the theater company Nitosha. She is known for adopting realism as her primary writing style. Two of her major works, The Three Hagi Sisters (萩家の三姉妹 , Hagi-ke no san shimai) and Time’s Storeroom (時の物置 , Toki no mono oki) , both exemplify her utilization of realism.

Ai Nagai was born on October 16, 1951, in Tokyo, as the daughter of a painter and a member of the Communist Party, Kiyoshi Nagai. Since her parents divorced when she was still young, she was raised by her father and her paternal grandmother, Shizu Nagai. Her father’s connections with the theater world when she was young influenced her to take on a path to a theatrical career. In Time’s Storeroom (時の物置 , Toki no mono oki) , the character Grandmother Nobu is modeled on Nagai’s own grandmother. Also, in Look, How High the Plane Flies! (見よ、飛行機の高く飛べるを , Miyo, hikōki no takaku toberu wo) , Nagai writes about her grandmother’s experiences at a teachers college.