Natsuko Ohama

Natsuko Ohama is a Canadian vocal coach, actress, and director. She is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, Company of Women, and Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company (LAWSC).

Early life and education

Ohama studied acting at University of Alberta for three years. She was part of The Working Theatre, an actor-teacher ensemble and training program created and taught by Joseph Chaikin, Peter Kass, and Kristin Linklater.

Early career

Ohama's early acting career was primarily in New York and in other areas of the East Coast and Canada. In 1981, she played Junko Teraji in ''Flowers and Household Gods'' at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York. In 1984 at Shakespeare & Company, she played Titania in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and Juliet in ''Romeo and Juliet'', both directed by Tina Packer.

Ohama worked repeatedly with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York. Some of her work there includes ''Teahouse'' (1983), ''Face Box'' (1984), ''Once is Never Enough''(1985), Lady MacDuff in ''Shogun Macbeth'' (1986), Nancy Wing in '' Yellow Fever'' (1988), Madame De Sade in ''Madame De Sade'' (1988), and Masha in ''Three Sisters''(1988).

She acted in plays including ''The Memento'' (Marie) at Yale Rep, directed by Dennis Scott (1987), ''The Love Suicides at Amijima'' (Narrator and Osan), directed by Jorge Cacheiro (1987) for New York Theatre Workshop, and ''Straight as a Line'' (Mum), directed by Jon Rivera (2000) for Primary Stages in New York City.

Mid-career

Ohama co-founded the Los Angeles Women's’ Shakespeare Company (LAWSC). She and Wolpe co-directed a production of ''Hamlet'' in 1995 and alternated the role as well. Ohama played Friar Lawrence in ''Romeo and Juliet'' in 1993, Don John in ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in 1999, Prospero in ''The Tempest'' in 2004, and Polonius in ''Hamlet'' in 2013, in a production that she again co-directed with Wolpe.

At the Mark Taper Forum, Ohama played June in ''Sansei'' (1989), Yanina in ''Widows'' (1991), the Duchess of York and Gloucester opposite Kelsey Grammer in the lead in ''Richard II'' (1992), and Sylvia in ''The Poison Tree'' (2000), all directed by Robert Egan. She also had roles in the Taper's New Work Festival throughout the 1990s.

At East West Players, Ohama played Lily in ''Ikebana'' (1996), Chiz in ''Sisters Matsumoto'' (2002), and Mom in ''Mixed Messages'' (2004).

Later work

In 2018, Ohama performed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival as Nurse Wong in ''Snow in Midsummer''.

In 2007, she played Imelda Marcos in ''Dogeaters'' at the Kirk Douglas Theater and Mark Taper Forum; she had played the role in 2004 for SIPA. She also played Angustias in ''The House of Bernarda Alba'' for National Asian American Theatre Company (NATTCO) in New York, directed by Chay Yew and had played the role in 2000 at INTAR Theatre.

At the Getty Villa in Malibu, she played Theonoe) in ''Helen'', directed by Jon Rivera in 2012.

In 2022, she starred in ''Out of Time'' at The Public Theater, and in 2023, she was in ''Deep Blue Sound'' at Clubbed Thumb.

Other theatre work

Along with co-directing with Lisa Wolpe for LAWSC, Ohama also directed several plays including co-directing ''A Man Cannot Jump Over his Own Shadow'' at La Mama ETC in 1987.

As a playwright, Ohama wrote ''Morgan O Yuki: The Geisha of the Gilded Age'' which was commissioned and produced at the Ventford Theatre in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 2006 and remounted in 2013.

In 2018, Ohama was the dramaturg for Virginia Grise’s translation of ''All's Well That Ends Well'' for the Play On! initiative of Shakespearean play translations.

Voice work

Ohama has taught master classes and workshops for decades, and she has been the vocal coach on numerous productions. She is a designated Linklater teacher.

Film

Television

Teaching and honors

Since 2006, Ohama has taught at University of Southern California. She previously taught voice and text at California Institute of the Arts and the National Arts Center of Canada.

She is a senior artist at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York.

Awards

Ohama received the Playwrights Arena Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Los Angeles Theatre Community in 2018. She received a nomination for Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play for ''Sound & Beauty'' at The Public Theater in 1993–94.

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohama, Natsuko
Living people
20th-century Canadian actresses
21st-century Canadian actresses
Canadian film actresses
Canadian television actresses
Canadian voice actresses
21st-century American actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
Year of birth missing (living people)