DANCE LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS Emmet Robinson Theatre at College of Charleston May 31 and June 2 at 8:00pm; June 1 at 12:00pm and 7:00pm Creators/Directors Leslie Buxbaum Danzig and Julia Rhoads Original Script Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, Julia Rhoads, and Ensemble Composition/Sound Design Mikhail Fiksel Lighting Design Heather Gilbert Video Design John Boesche Costume Design Jeff Hancock Stage Management Clare Roche CAST Nancy Francisco Aviña Mr. Manningham Adrian Danzig Detective Rough Timothy Heck Mrs. Manningham Julia Rhoads Elizabeth Meghann Wilkinson PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. Support provided by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts. NDP is supported by lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation, and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust. The 2013 Dance Series is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. Additional support for the 2013 Dance Series is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance. These performances are made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. DIRECTOR’S NOTE ABOUT LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS We are thrilled to be here at Spoleto Festival USA. Our journey Lucky Plush Productions is a Chicago-based ensemble dance theater with The Better Half began over two years ago when we decided company led by founder and artistic director Julia Rhoads. Lucky to co-create a dance-theater production, bringing together our Plush is committed to provoking and supporting an immediacy shared interest in complex narratives, inventive adaptation, of presence—a palpable liveness—shared by performers in real- popular appeal, impulsive play, and presence in real-time real- time with our audiences. The company is equally dedicated to space with the audience. We had been working for years on these creating work that is richly and uncompromisingly complex while approaches to performance in our respective fields of dance and also being accessible to broad audiences. Often recognized for its theater and were excited to see what would happen when we playful interactions, surprising humor, and incisive commentary brought our very different vocabularies into the rehearsal studio. on contemporary culture, the Chicago Tribune referred to Lucky The Better Half is close to our hearts and we are grateful to Plush’s work as “a terrific odyssey, full of amusing, varied and our amazing collaborators: our performers, designers, production tireless dancing by a troupe of dancers who ably double as personnel, and producing partners. We are also honored to comics.” Since its founding in 1999, Lucky Plush has premiered receive awards, commissions, and residencies from the Museum over 30 original works including performance installations, 2 of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts dance films, and 10 evening-length productions. The company Center, the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance has been presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art Project, the National Performance Network Creation Fund, and Chicago, Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Clarice Smith Performing Arts many others. Center (MD), Painted Bride (PA), Institute of Contemporary Art/ And now we are grateful and honored that you are here! Boston (MA), Dance Cleveland (OH), Hancher Auditorium (IA), Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, Steppenwolf Garage –Julia Rhoads and Leslie Buxbaum Danzig (IL), Joyce SoHo (NYC), Spring to Dance (MO), Cusp Conference (IL), College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University (MN), and Chicago Humanities Festival. Lucky Plush has also collaborated with Lookingglass Theatre, Redmoon Theater, Walkabout Theater, and the interdisciplinary collective M5. Lucky Plush’s work has been supported through regional and national awards to Julia Rhoads, including a CliffDwellers Choreography Award, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist grant, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships in Choreography, and a fellowship from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography. 42 DANCE LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS THE COMPANY JOHN BOESCHE (video design) designs projections and scenery for dance, opera, theater, and music. His designs for dance include LESLIE BUXBAUM DANZIG (co-creator/co-director) is the Joffrey Ballet, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (Washington, co-founder of the Chicago-based physical theater company 500 D.C.), Lucky Plush Productions, and Mordine & Company Dance Clown, where she co-created and directed 500 Clown Macbeth, Theater (Chicago). Projection design accompanying live music Frankenstein, Elephant Deal, and Christmas. 500 Clown has played includes The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eos Orchestra (New in Chicago at venues including Steppenwolf and Lookingglass, and York), and Ravinia Festival (Chicago). His designs for opera have tours regularly throughout the U.S. Other credits include directing been seen at Austin Lyric Opera, Barbican Centre (London), Redmoon’s Hunchback at New Victory Theater (NYC); Float (About Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Canadian Opera Company Face Theater); touring nationally and internationally as an actor (Toronto). His scenic and projection designs for theater include with NYC’s Elevator Repair Service; assisting director Julie Taymor; Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Denver Center Theatre Company, and appearing as Masha in Chekhov’s The Seagull at Lake Lucille Geffen Playhouse (Los Angeles), Goodman Theatre (Chicago), in NY (director Brian Mertes). Danzig received her BA from Brown Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), McCarter Theatre (Princeton), University and PhD in performance studies at Northwestern and New York Shakespeare Festival (NYC). Boesche has received University, and trained in physical theater and clown with Jacques Joseph Jefferson Awards for his theater designs in 1985, 2005, Lecoq and Philippe Gaulier. For the past five years, she has taught and 2011. Currently, he serves as chair of digital media design at the University of Chicago, and is currently at the university as and production for live performance at the University of Illinois. program curator for the Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. MIKHAIL FIKSEL (composer/sound design) is originally from Siberia and is currently a Chicago-based sound designer, JULIA RHOADS (co-creator/co-director/Mrs. Manningham), composer, musician, DJ, and a member of Strawdog Theatre choreographer and founding artistic director of Lucky Plush Company and 2nd Story. He is also an artistic associate with Productions, has created over 25 original works with the com- Teatro Vista, Collaboraction, and Redmoon Theater, and is on pany. Her independent work has been commissioned by Alaska the faculty at Loyola University. Recent Chicago work includes Dance Theater, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, and twice for projects with The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Redmoon, River North Chicago Dance Company. She has choreographed for Victory Gardens, Lifeline, Northlight, Albany Park Theatre Project, theater companies that include Tony Award-winning Lookingglass The Hypocrites, Teatro Vista, About Face, and Collaboraction. Theatre, Redmoon Theater, Walkabout Theater, Hyperdelic, and Regional and Off-Broadway: Dallas Theatre Center, Berkeley M5, among others. Julia has received a Cliff Dwellers Foundation Repertory Theatre, The Geffen Playhouse, 2nd Stage, St. Louis Award for Choreography, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships for Repertory, and Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. International: Choreography, a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, a Chicago Dancemakers TukkersConnexion (Arnhem, Holland) and Festival FILO (Londrina, Forum Lab Artist Award, and a fellowship from the Maggie Allesee Brazil). Recent film composition credits include The Wise Kids, In National Center for Choreography, and her collaborative work Memoriam and both/and. He has received six Joseph Jefferson with Lucky Plush has been awarded a National Dance Project Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, and an After Dark Award for an Production Award and a National Performance Network Creation Original Musical. He had also been nominated for the Henry Fund Award. In 2010, she was named one of Dance Magazine’s Hewes Design Award and was recently honored with The Michael “25 to Watch” and has been included in NewCity’s feature Maggio Emerging Designer Award. “The Players: The 50 people who really perform for Chicago” in 2010 and 2012. Rhoads is formerly a company member of the HEATHER GILBERT’S (lighting designer) Chicago credits San Francisco Ballet and collaborating ensemble member of include The Caretaker, The Real Thing, A Streetcar Named XSIGHT! Performance Group. She earned a BA in history from Desire, and The Old Settler with Writers’ Theatre; Home, Comedy Northwestern University and an MFA from the School of the Art of Errors, and The Mystery of Irma Vep with Court Theatre; Honus Institute Chicago, and is currently the theater and performance and Me, Esperanza Rising, and The Hundred Dresses with Chicago studies dance advisor at University of Chicago, and part-time Children’s Theatre; The Front Page, Master Harold and the faculty in the theater department at Columbia College Chicago. Boys, and Not Enough Air with Timeline Theatre Company; Our Town and Cabaret with The Hypocrites; and A Separate Peace with Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Regional credits include A Streetcar Named Desire with Williamstown Theatre Festival and The Broad