Kaori Nishio

Playwright, Director.

Born in Tokyo in 1985. After spending her childhood in Malaysia, Nishio conducted undergraduate research on Shuji Terayama at the Tokyo University of the Arts and then postgraduate research on Shogo Ota at Graduate school of the same University. She writes and directs all works for theater company Tori Koen (Bird Park), which she founded in 2007. In her works, she uses mild humor in attempts to cast a gentle light on marginalized, yet undoubtedly present, existences excluded from “proper” society. Her work is characterized by a directing style that is persistently tied in with the concept of undeniable existence. Her drama, in which words and situations are savagely collaged, shows physiological sensations like substances and exposes the sense of incongruity in people having to live in a given world. Her plays “Kanro” and “Yobu yonderuyo” (“Job is Calling”) were nominated for the 58th and 62nd Kishida Kunio Drama Award respectively.