Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mana Noda. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mana, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I would say Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties was the most meaningful project to me. For those of you who don’t know this play, it’s written by Jen Silverman, and it’s about these 5 people all name Betty: Betty 1, Betty 2, Betty 3, Betty 4, and Betty 5. As you can probably guess from the title, it is about anger, but through the lens of women and queer people. I always find myself struggling to be angry, and sadness has always been my first reaction to distress or even when being mistreated. This play explores stages of anger that I really resonated with. It’s not instant but very gradual, and I felt really empowered playing my character, Betty 2’s journey of self discovery by learning to be angry truthfully and making some great friends along the way. I realized that a lot of frustration in my life led me to sadness when deep down, I’m just so upset that I could scream! To me that’s the power of art. It gives you these “aha!” moments about yourself, and it really changes you.

I also felt so welcomed by everyone working on this play. Especially my directors, Myah Durham and Clay Baker-Lerner are both incredibly passionate and talented artists I’ve looked up to during my time at this school. Being surrounded by kind, imaginative women and queer people who love what they do and are also just fun theatre kids!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an actor first, but also a writer and all around artist that focuses on bringing arts across the board. I was born and raised in Japan, and spent my middle school and high school years in Hawaii. I am now based in New York City, where I work as an actor and an international liaison between the US and Japan for fashion brands, magazines etc.

I believe you can do anything, if you’ve worked so hard to perfect one thing. I know that sounds a little optimistic but I think a hard worker will always be a hard worker wherever they are. I think my obsession with acting has made me a very particular person that pays attention to details. I really think that gave me a foundation to learn anything that comes in my way. I also find joy in working with people I think. No matter what project I’m working on, I find fulfillment in telling stories of people.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Making friends is so important. I can be introverted but once I started being more social, there were more opportunities to be creative. Also, I just feel so lively and inspired to be around my artist friends. I think it’s important to have a community like that who will encourage you to keep going.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One of my favorite media related stuff is this animated show called The Midnight Gospel. It’s basically a bunch of podcast episodes that the creator did with his friends, family and he later animated them. I’m love animations so I love it for that reason, but especially the last episode, it really made me think about grief and people in my life. And I also love hearing how conversations can jump to so many different topics in such a short amount of time!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @manan0da

Image Credits

Personal Photo
photo by Angela Gonzalez @angelaofyork

Additional photos

(the one with green kimono)
Photo by Isabel Bonnet

(black and white picture)
photo by Angela Gonzalez @angelaofyork