Advance Program Notes Lucky Plush Productions Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip Friday, October 13, 2017, 7:30 PM These Advance Program Notes are provided online for our patrons who like to read about performances ahead of time. Printed programs will be provided to patrons at the performances. Programs are subject to change.

Lucky Plush Productions Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip

Created, directed, and choreographed by Julia Rhoads

Devised in Collaboration with the Ensemble Michel Rodriquez Cintra Springster Jeff Ewing Shadow* Elizabeth Luse Professor Visionné Jamy Meek The Big Liberjinski** Melinda Jean Myers Mmm Aaron R. White Rapid Glitch*** Meghann Wilkinson Sparky Lightstep Sojourner Zenobia Onstage Media Artist *Special thanks to Marc Macaranas for his contributions to originating the role of Shadow **Special thanks to Benjamin Wardell for his contributions to originating the role of The Big Liberjinski ***Special thanks to Daniel Gibson for his contributions to originating the role of Rapid Glitch

Collaborating Designers/Production Team Liviu Pasare Video/Media Design Michael Caskey Original Music Mikhail Fiksel Sound Design Kevin Rechner Lighting Design Jeff Hancock Costume Design Joshua Paul Weckesser Production Stage Manager Leslie Buxbaum Danzig Production Consultant Bradford Chapin Audio Engineer

Recontextualized References (In Order of Appearance)

Invocation salute, Patti Eylar and Micki Selander El año en que nací/The Year I Was Born, Lola Arias (2012) I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, The New Seekers (1971) Support for SuperStrip

Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip is commissioned and presented by the for Music and Dance and the Pamela Crutchfield Dance Fund through the Imagine Campaign. Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) at the University of Illinois supported SuperStrip through its 2015 Intensive Development Lab with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Further support for SuperStrip is provided through a creation grant and a residency grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a project grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, as well as development and residency support from The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard) and Hope College.

Director’s Notes

I could not be more excited about this project and inspired by my collaborators who helped me bring it to life. The idea for SuperStrip was sparked after reading the works of contemporary graphic novelists like Emily Carroll, Alison Bechdel, Fabien Vehlmann, and Kerascoët, followed by late-night binges of pulp superhero magazines. I started to draw parallels between the fictional realms of superhero leagues and the everyday dramas of real life do-gooders, which hit close to home with my experience running a nonprofit organization.

Lucky Plush’s ensemble-based approach is fitting for the community-of-supers context ofSuperStrip. In the studio, I began by orchestrating elaborate games with bygone costume pieces and anthropomorphic sidekicks, and the work started to emerge. The awkwardness, joy, chaos, and undeniable skill of my collaborators charged my ongoing curiosity about the ways in which comedy is often in close proximity to the tragedy of our lives. While we had great fun riffing on the exhausting tropes and circularity of meeting culture, we drew great inspiration from our collective efforts, and the efforts of people everywhere, to make the biggest impact with limited resources in order to simply do good.

Thank you for your presence here tonight.

—Julia Rhoads, artistic director About the Company

Lucky Plush Productions is a -based dance theatre company led by founder and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads. Lucky Plush is committed to provoking and supporting an immediacy of presence—a palpable liveness—shared by performers in real-time with audiences. A unique hybrid of high-level dance and theatre, Lucky Plush’s work is recognized for its layered choreography, moving content, surprising humor, and socially relevant storytelling.

Since 2000 Lucky Plush has created 30 original dance-theatre works, including 14 evening-length productions. In addition to regularly performing in Chicago, the company has presented work in over 40 U.S. cities from Maine to Hawaii, and its international partners span from New Zealand to Cuba. Presenting venues include Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (Massachusetts); Spoleto Festival U.S.A. (South Carolina); Portland Ovations (Maine); ODC (California); Maui Arts and Cultural Center (Hawaii); Skirball Center (New York); and NC State LIVE (North Carolina), among others. Commissioning presenters include Harris Theater for Music and Dance; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois; The Yard (Massachusetts); Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (Maryland); Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (Vermont); and Links Hall in Chicago.

Lucky Plush is the first and only dance company to receive the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, a recognition of the company’s exceptional creativity and impact. Lucky Plush has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, NEFA’s National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Illinois Arts Council, Metlife Foundation, and the Lester and Hope Abelson Fund. Press features include the Boston Globe’s “10 Best Dance Performances of 2013,” Chicago Public Radio’s “Best of 2011,” and Time Out Chicago’s “The Decade’s 10 Best Original Dance Works” and cover story “5 Reasons to Love Dance in Chicago,” among others.

Lucky Plush is also recognized for its innovative arts management practices. The company’s leadership received a Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award for initiating Creative Partners, a fundraising model that provides a shared development staff for Lucky Plush and another nationally recognized performing arts organization.

Exclusive touring representation is by David Lieberman/Artists Representatives.

For more information, please visit luckyplush.com and follow along on Facebook (Lucky Plush Productions), Twitter (@LuckyPlush), and Instagram (@luckyplush) or use #TeamPlush. Biographies

JULIA RHOADS (creator/director/choreographer) Julia Rhoads is the founding artistic director of Lucky Plush Productions and has created over 25 works with the company, several of which have toured extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally. Rhoads’ independent choreography credits include Steppenwolf Theatre’s Love Kills, Lookingglass Theatre’s The Great Fire, Walkabout Theater’s Mama: A Play for Voices, Redmoon’s Project Y, and River North Chicago Dance Company’s Oasis and Between Three, among others, and she will create a new work for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2017. Rhoads is the recipient of the 2013 Alpert Award in dance, a fellowship from the Maggie Allesee National Center for choreography, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, a Cliff Dwellers Choreography Award, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships for choreography, a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, and a 2014 Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award for her work with Creative Partners. She was named as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2010 and has three times been named in Newcity’s “Players: The 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago.” Rhoads is a former member of the San Francisco Ballet and ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Northwestern University, a master of fine arts in performance from the School of the Art Institute Chicago, and she has taught in the dance and theatre programs of several Chicago-area colleges and universities. She is currently a part-time lecturer and dance advisor at University of Chicago’s Department of Theater and Performance Studies.

MICHEL RODRIGUEZ CINTRA (Springster) Michel Rodriguez Cintra was born in Havana, Cuba, and is a former member of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba and Hedwig Dances. Choreography credits include three works for Hedwig, one of which was a finalist in the A.W.A.R.D Show 2010. Cintra was named one of “The Men of 2010” by Time Out Chicago and is the recipient of the 2013 3Arts Award in dance. In addition to being an ensemble member of Lucky Plush Productions, he is a member of the Cambrians, through which he has co-created two works, including the Nexus Project, which was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2014. Cintra is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.

AARON R. WHITE (Rapid Glitch) Aaron R. White, a Chicago native, earned a master of fine arts from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), both in dance performance and choreography. White’s performance experience includes the Sean Curran Company, Project 44, and Trainor Dance, among others. As a choreographer he has created work with Opera Lafayette of Washington D.C., UIUC’s Theater Department, Dance Africa in Pittsburgh, and for a variety of summer programs. As a master instructor he has taught at the American Dance Festival, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Point Park University, Barnard College at Columbia University, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Towson University, UIUC, Gibney Dance, and Dance New Amsterdam. As a Reiki master-teacher, he wishes to be a beacon of light to support others, illuminate fears, and facilitate healing through Reiki, education, dance, and dialogue.

JEFF EWING (Shadow) Jeff Ewing is from Torrance, California, where he began his classical ballet training at the age of six. He has trained at the Juilliard Summer Intensive, the apprentice program at the Chautauqua Institution, and assisted Cathy Young at Bates Dance Festival. Ewing apprenticed for Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance for three seasons and as a member of the company for another two. At the Boston Conservatory he earned a bachelor of fine arts in dance performance, where he worked with Danny Pelzig, Cathy Young, Gianni DiMarco, Diane Arvanites, Doug Elkins, Adam Barruch, Omar Carrum, and Claudia Lavista. He spent a year dancing with Charlotte Ballet’s second company, where he performed the works of Mark Diamond, Dwight Rhoden, and David Ingram. Biographies, continued

ELIZABETH LUSE (Professor Visionné) Elizabeth Luse started dancing at the School of Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, and continued her dance education at Indiana University, where she studied with Violette Verdy, Guoping Wang, and Leslie Peck. Professionally, Luse has danced with Winifred Haun & Dancers, Nomi Dance Company, Dance in the Parks, and . Her guest appearances include Ballet Quad Cities, Madison Ballet, and Ron de Jesus Dance, and she currently works as a guest artist with Emily Stein. Luse has taught for Visceral Dance Center and is on faculty at the Joffrey Academy of Chicago.

JAMY MEEK (The Big Liberjinski)

MELINDA JEAN MYERS (Mmm)

Melinda Jean Myers is currently a visiting assistant professor in dance at the University of Iowa. Along with teaching dance classes and performing with Lucky Plush Productions, she creates interdisciplinary ensemble works and one-woman cabaret performances. Her works have been presented throughout the Midwest, New York City, Germany, and South Korea. She received a master of fine arts from the University of Iowa (2012) and a bachelor of fine arts from New York University (2005). She was honored to perform and tour internationally with the Trisha Brown Dance Company for four years (2006-2010) and currently re-stages their repertory.

MEGHANN WILKINSON (Sparky Lightstep) Meghann Wilkinson has been an ensemble member with Lucky Plush Productions since 2004, where she has originated roles in Lulu Sleeps, Cinderbox 18, The Sky Hangs Down Too Close, Punk Yankees, The Better Half, Cinderbox 2.0, The Queue, and Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip, among others. She has also been a recurring ensemble member of The Arrow with The Neo-Futurists. She is a former company member of Mordine and Company and has performed in Chicago with Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts and Peter Carpenter Performance Project. Meghann has been a guest teacher and choreographer for Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, Cecchetti Council of America, and Evanston Dance Ensemble. She was Assistant Choreographer for Lookingglass Theatre’s The Great Fire and movement director for Walkabout Theater’s Crow. In 2016, Meghann was a participant in Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute and completed a certificate in Permaculture Design with Midwest Permaculture. Meghann has organized for the Chicago Seminar on Dance and Performance and the Society of Dance History Scholars. She has taught at Northwestern University, Dance Center Evanston, Thodos Dance Chicago, and Visceral Dance Chicago, as well as national and international master classes with Lucky Plush Productions. She is currently a part-time faculty member in the dance and theater programs at Columbia College Chicago.

SOJOURNER ZENOBIA (Onstage Media Artist) Sojourner Zenobia graduated from Naropa University with a bachelor of fine arts in interdisciplinary performance and a minor in Buddhist philosophy. In 2008 she founded Soul Journey Productions, under which she works as a freelance solo artist and director. She completed the School at Steppenwolf in 2009 and Pantheatre’s experimental vocal technique training in 2011. In 2015 she joined Chicago Folklore Ensemble as the resident storyteller. She finds purpose working the “underground” Chicago performance scene, where the most innovative and heart-full artists dwell. She is excited to be a part of SuperStrip with Lucky Plush Productions, a company that boldly integrates text and movement with a diverse representation of bodies on stage. Biographies, continued

COLLABORATING ARTISTS & DESIGNERS

MICHAEL CASKEY (original music) Michael Caskey—a.k.a. Bunny Patootie—hails from rural Southwestern Michigan. He has performed with artists as diverse as Chuck Mangione, Koko Taylor, Toni Tenille, Danilo Perez, Marvin Hamlisch, Howard Levy, John Sinclair, Grazyna Auguscik, Patricia Barber, Oh My God, Goran Ivanovic, the Grammy-nominated Heritage Blues Orchestra, Striding Lion Theatre Company, Hood Smoke, Leslie Hunt, Ron Perillo, and most recently Davy Knowles. As a member of Eastern Blok, a pan-cultural Chicago-based ensemble, Caskey has presented concerts and master classes at numerous educational institutions such as Princeton, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Michigan, among others. A DownBeat jazz magazine award winner and five-time Detroit Music Award recipient, Caskey has performed for audiences all over the world. He has also provided original music and sound design for Chicago dance companies Lucky Plush Productions, Hedwig Dances, Zephyr Dance, Same Planet Different World, Peter Carpenter, and members of Mad Shak. Caskey is the music services coordinator at the Dance Department of Columbia College, where he also teaches Music and Rhythm for Dancers.

BRADFORD CHAPIN (audio engineer) Bradford Chapin is a sound designer and engineer from Grayslake, Illinois. Chicago sound design credits include Pocatello (Griffin Theatre Company), Cymbeline (The Waking Theatre), Your Problem with Men (Teatro Luna), Seven Doors (Premiere Theatre), and Arrangements (Pavement Group). He has worked as a sound engineer for American Players Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Theatreworks, Utah Shakespearean Festival, and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, where he helped create A History (Bebe Miller Company), Stardust (David Rousseve/REALITY), and WOLF (Deke Weaver). Chapin holds a master of fine arts in sound design and technology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

LESLIE BUXBAUM DANZIG (production consultant) Leslie Buxbaum Danzig is a collaborating director with Julia Rhoads and Lucky Plush Productions, where she co- created The Better Half and The Queue. For over a decade, Danzig was resident director of the Chicago-based, nationally-touring physical theatre company 500 Clown, whose shows (Macbeth, Frankenstein, Christmas, and Elephant Deal) were performed in Chicago at venues such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Lookingglass Theatre. Other credits include stage directing Wild Sound, composed by Wilco’s Glenn Kotche for Third Coast Percussion, with performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, and with upcoming tours in the U.S. and Europe; directing Damon Kiely’s The Revel (House Theatre), Redmoon’s Hunchback, and About Face Theater’s Float; co-directing Redmoon’s The Elephant and the Whale; and touring nationally and internationally as an actor with New York City’s Elevator Repair Service. Danzig has taught for University of Chicago’s Theater & Performance Studies and Northwestern’s MFA Directing programs. She received a Ph.D. in performance studies at Northwestern University and trained in physical theatre at Écoles Jacques Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier. She is the curator of the University of Chicago’s Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry, a laboratory for experimental collaborations between artists and scholars.

MIKHAIL FIKSEL (sound design) Mikhail Fiksel is a sound designer, composer, musician, and DJ based in Chicago and New York. Recent Chicago credits include projects with the , , The Seldoms, Redmoon, Victory Gardens, The Inconvenience, Lifeline, Northlight, Albany Park Theatre Project, and The Hypocrites. New York and regional credits include Manhattan Theatre Club, The Pearl, The Flea, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Dallas Theatre Center, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Geffen Playhouse, 2nd Biographies, continued

Stage, and the Playwright’s Realm. International credits include TukkersConnexion (Arnhem, Holland) and Festival FILO (Londrina, Brazil). Fiksel recently composed film scores for Glitch, The Wise Kids, In Memoriam, and both/and. He has received eight Joseph Jefferson Awards, the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and an After Dark Award for an original musical. He performs under the moniker DJ White Russian with his band, Seeking Wonderland, or with DJ duo The Ordeal. Fiksel is a resident artist with Albany Park Theatre Project, a member of Strawdog Theatre Company and 2nd Story, an artistic associate with Timeline Theatre and Teatro Vista, and an instructor at Loyola University and University of Chicago.

JEFF HANCOCK (costume design) Jeff Hancock designs and constructs movement and costumes, examines their overlap, and identifies potential for mutual influence. Since 1990 and throughout his years dancing for River North, Hubbard Street, Same Planet Different World, and many others, his dance and design life collided, supported, and informed each other. The study of humans, movement, and curiosity about the semiotics of clothing has fueled a long history of aesthetic exploration, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, minimalism to excess. Recent design projects include Chicago Dance Crash’s Bricklayers of Oz, Khecari’s The Retreat, Winifred Haun & Dancers’ Trashed, Paige Cunningham Calderella’s On the Verge, Jump Rhythm Jazz Project’s Jimmie Blues, Walkabout Theater’s The Cure, Curmudgeon Productions’ Fantasmagorie, Lucky Plush Productions’ Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip, and Parsons Dance Company’s Train. Recent choreography inlcudes And We Shall Be Rid of Them, a collaboration with Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak; Ellipsis with Northwestern Univerity’s Danceworks; Love With/out Trembling with Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak; Northwestern University’s Danceworks 2017, Smear; The Great Gatsby at Northwestern University’s Josephine Louis Theater; and Impolite Society at the Kennedy Center. Hancock is currently a master of fine arts candidate at Hollins University (2018).

KEVIN RECHNER (lighting design)

Kevin Rechner has worked with Lucky Plush Productions on Cinderbox 18, Cinderbox 2.0, The Sky Hangs Down Too Close, and Punk Yankees. Other designs include Natya Dance Theatre’s Alakshaya and Mordine and Company’s 40th Anniversary. He has been the production manager, technical director, and lighting designer for the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago since 1996, where he has collaborated with many visiting artists, including designing the set and lights for Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset/Reset. He has also served as the lighting designer and technical designer for the Dance Division of the National High School Institute for five years. Rechner has a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Illinois State University and spent three years in Paris studying movement theatre with Jacques Lecoq and Daniel Stein. He has created four solo performance works, including I Am Hugo.

LIVIU PASARE (video/media design) Liviu Pasare has a Chicago-based practice creating works and visual experiences using new media and technology. He works as a video designer, cinematographer, editor, and animator, and has produced, directed, and performed for live multi-media experiences. He has been affiliated with theatres and artists such as Luftwerk, Collaboraction, Redmoon, Manual Cinema, Blue Man Group, The Seldoms, Claudia Hart, Maria Marshall, and Takao Kawaguchi, and is excited to work with Lucky Plush.

JOSHUA PAUL WECKESSER (production stage manager) Joshua Paul Weckesser is a lighting designer, production manager, and stage manager. He is co-founder of Bread & Roses Productions, dedicated to providing production support to art-based originations. He works closely with LEVELdance as resident lighting designer, as well as Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak Dance Company as a lighting designer and core collaborator and as lighting designer for the Chicago Human Rhythm Project. Biographies, continued

In addition, he is production manager for the Studebaker Theatre in Chicago. TimeOut Chicago said that Weckesser’s “name seemed to pop up in every program.” Career highlights include lighting the first ever evening-length production of American Tap at the Kennedy Center, working with Karole Armitage in the Netherlands, and touring internationally with the Argentinian group Che Malambo.

LUCKY PLUSH STAFF

Julia Rhoads, producing artistic director Kim Goldman, managing director Laura Flamion, finance manager Patrick Burns, volunteer Cultivation Lab fellow

REPRESENTATION

David Lieberman/Artists Representatives P.O. Box 10368 Newport Beach, CA 92658 714-979-4700 | [email protected]

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Susan O’Connell, chair Julie Englander, secretary Stacey Recht Julia Rhoads

ADVISORY BOARD

Pamela Crutchfield Jennifer Edgcomb Dan Goldman Matt Hoffman and HMS Media

CONTACT US

Julia Rhoads, producing artistic director 773-862-9484 | [email protected] luckyplush.com

Lucky Plush Productions is a nonprofit organization. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. For more information, please visit luckyplush.com/donate. Engagement Events

Thursday, October 12, 2017 WORKSHOP: DEVISED MOVEMENT During their visit, members of Lucky Plush Productions will conduct a movement workshop for students of theatre arts in the School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech.

Friday, October 13, 2017, 6 PM LOBBY DISPLAY: NONPROFIT SUPERHEROES OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY Before experiencing Lucky Plush Productions’ Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip, engage with some of the New River Valley’s very own nonprofit superheroes and learn about the work of their organizations. Presented in collaboration with the Community Foundation of the New River Valley.

Special thanks to Kim Thurlow, Jessica Wirgau, and the Community Foundation of the New River Valley

For Virginia Tech Students

The Division of Student Affairs invites you to engage in the Aspirations for Student Learning to do more, be more, and aspire to be your best self.

Aspirations for Student Learning

Commit to unwavering CURIOSITY Pursue SELF-UNDERSTANDING and INTEGRITY Practice CIVILITY Prepare for a life of COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP Embrace UT PROSIM (That I May Serve) as a way of life

One way to work toward these aspirational goals is to engage in Keystone Happenings. Keystone Happenings highlight the Aspirations for Student Learning, provide opportunities for learning, and challenge students to reflect. Search “keystone” on GobblerConnect at gobblerconnect.vt.edu/events to discover these opportunities.

Keystone Happening Reflections for Lucky Plush Productions

What are some of the variables that complicate the characters’ ability to simply “do good” for society in Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip? What presence have those variables or others had in your experience of embodying Ut Prosim (That I May Serve)? How did you navigate them?

For more resources for educators, students, and lifelong learners to help you dig deeper and engage with this performance and our other season performances, view our Learning Guide at artscenter.vt.edu/experiences. In the Galleries

PIA FRIES September 14-December 9, 2017 Ruth C. Horton Gallery and Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor

Internationally acclaimed artist Pia Fries (Swiss, based in Dusseldorf, Germany) integrates silkscreened fragments of 16th- and 17th-century Baroque and Mannerist prints into a hybrid fusion of figuration and abstraction, art historical tradition and adventurous innovation. Intense color and lush paint careen, halt, retreat, then advance across expanses of empty white surfaces in a statement about the intersection of movement and stasis, past and present, and art and life. This exhibition presents a selection of paintings and prints from renowned private collections and prominent galleries in New York and California. For more information on this artist, please visit piafries.com.

GALLERY HOURS Monday-Friday, 10 AM-5:30 PM Saturday, 10 AM-4 PM To arrange a group tour or class visit, please contact Meggin Hicklin, exhibitions program manager, at megh79@ vt.edu.