Keishi Nagatsuka
Keishi Nagatsuka
Keishi Nagatsuka leads the theater production unit “Asagaya Spiders.” While studying at Waseda University in 1994, he formed the theater group “Gekidan Warau Bara” (Laughing Rose Theater Company). After the dissolution of that company, Nagatsuka created the production group “Asagaya Spiders” in 1996 with the desire to do small theater productions using fewer people and not depending on the theater company format. With this group he has been active as playwright, director and actor. He has continued to expand his fields of endeavor to include writing scripts for television dramas and acting in movies while also drawing considerable attention and expectations in the theater world as a progressive director whose activities have included mounting commercial productions of contemporary Irish plays. Besides productions of his own plays, the Asagaya Spiders group has also brought together talented outside actors from the small-theater scene in productions of plays by other playwrights. Nagatsuka’s own works are characterized by depictions of human relationships like between parents and children or lovers with a sense lying somewhere between reality and fiction. In 2004 his play Hataraku Otoko (Working Men) toured nine Japanese cities and drew a total audience of 14,800.
