About LUCKY Plush
"A BRAND OF MOVEMENT-BASED THEATER THAT CAN BE COMFORTABLY CALLED, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, GENIUS."
–NEWCITY
Lucky Plush Productions (luckyplush.com) is a Chicago-based dance theater company led by founder and Artistic Director Julia Rhoads. The company creates original work recognized for its signature blend of technical choreography, casual dialogue, surprising humor, and socially relevant storytelling, and for provoking and supporting a palpable liveness shared by performers in real-time with audiences.
Since 2000, Lucky Plush has created 30+ original dance-theater works. In addition to regularly performing in the Chicago area, the company has presented work in 55+ US cities from Maine to Hawaii, and its international partners span from New Zealand to Cuba. Commissioning and development partners include the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Krannert Center at University of Illinois, The Yard (MA), Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Flynn Center for the Performing Arts (VT), Door Kinetic Arts Festival (WI), and Links Hall Chicago. Presenting partners include the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (MA), Joyce Theater (NYC), ODC (CA), TITAS (TX), Spoleto Festival/USA (SC), NC State LIVE (NC), Portland Ovations (ME), Skirball Center (NYC), and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (D.C.), among others. View a complete listing of the company's PERFORMANCE HISTORY.
Lucky Plush is the first and only dance-based company to receive the prestigious MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, a recognition of the company’s exceptional creativity and impact. LPP has also received competitive awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project and National Dance Project, National Performance Network, Illinois Arts Council, Metlife Foundation, MacArthur International Connections Fund, the Lester and Hope Abelson Fund. Lucky Plush performances have been cited in many “Best of Year” performance round-ups including in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader, Time Out Chicago, Chicago Public Radio and Boston Globe.
Lucky Plush is also recognized for its innovative organizational practices, and received a Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award for initiating Creative Partners, a shared fundraising model with other nationally-recognized companies, and an Arts Work Fund Idea Lab grant for Volunteer Cultivation Lab, a fellowship program that manages a pipeline of professional volunteers in support of LPP’s organizational structure.
Julia Rhoads
JULIA RHOADS, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Julia is the founding Artistic Director of Lucky Plush Productions. She has created over 25 collaborative works with the company, several of which have toured throughout the US, including: Punk Yankees, The Better Half, Cinderbox 2.0, The Queue, SuperStrip, Rooming House, and Rink Life. Additional choreography and movement direction credits include projects with Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Lookingglass Theatre, River North Chicago Dance Company, Walkabout Theater, and Redmoon, among others. Julia is the recipient of an Alpert Award in Dance, a Fractured Atlas Arts Entrepreneurship Award, and fellowships from Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, Chicago Dancemakers Forum, Cliff Dwellers Foundation, Illinois Arts Council, and the Jacob K. Javits Foundation. Julia is a former company member of San Francisco Ballet and ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group. She received her BA in History from Northwestern University, her MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she has taught in the dance and theater programs of several Chicago-area colleges and universities. She is currently Director of Dance and Lecturer at University of Chicago’s Department of Theater and Performance Studies.
PERFORMERS
Melinda Jean Myers
Jacinda Ratcliffe
Marc Macaranas
Kara Brody
Michel Rodriguez Cintra
Meghann Wilkinson
ABOUT rink life
Rink Life receiveD a 2018 New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project Production and Touring Award!
rink life SYNOPSIS
In Rink Life, Lucky Plush brings its highly integrated approach to dance-theater into a communal space that nods to the visual aesthetics and social dynamics of 1970’s roller rink culture, where relationships and storylines are as transient as the world that contains them. Rink Life’s staging and choreography are built from the rink’s spatial rules and social codes, and its script-turned-libretto—created from passing conversations, distant whispers, pop-song earworms, and found scripts—is entirely spoken and sung live. As the ensemble sings full-throatedly to score their experiences, they demonstrate through effort, risk, beauty, and failure that they—and we—are utterly dependent on one another.
Rink Life premiered at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, Chicago November 7-17, 2019.
RECONTEXTUALIZED SCRIPT SAMPLES
Charles Mee, “the (re)making project”
Peter Handke, “Offending the Audience”
MUSIC SAMPLES (in order of appearance)
Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive”
Jim Steinman, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”
Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony, "The Hustle”
James Brown, “Make it Funky”
Traditional lullaby, “Arrorro mi Niño”
Alan Menken and Tim Rice, “A Whole New World”
Lennon-McCartney, “Across the Universe
Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, “Let it Go”
Cat Stevens, “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”
Paul McCartney, “Hey Jude”
Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman, “Stay Awake”
Zack Smith (Scandal/Patty Smyth), “Goodbye to You”
Keith Forse and Steve Schiff (Simple Minds), “Don’t you Forget about Me”
Cyndi Lauper and Rob Hyman, “Time after Time"
Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman, “Time to Say Goodbye”
credits
CREATED & DIRECTED BY Julia Rhoads
COLLABORATING DIRECTOR: Leslie Buxbaum Danzig
DEVISED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ENSEMBLE: Kara Brody, Michel Rodriguez Cintra, Melinda Jean Myers, Jacinda Ratcliffe, Marc Macaranas, Meghann Rose Wilkinson
VOCAL COLLABORATOR: Bethany Clearfield
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Rachel Levy
COSTUME DESIGN: Patrick Burns
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER: Rachel Damon
AUDIO ENGINEER: Bradford Chapin
*Special thanks to Elizabeth Luse, A. Raheim White, and Rodolfo Sánchez Sarracino for their roles as originating ensemble members in the creation of Rink Life, and to the members of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago for their early contributions in Julia Rhoads’ Cadence.
PROJECT SUPPORT
Rink Life is one of eight projects to receive a 2018 New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Theater Project Production and Touring Award, with lead funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and additional support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Rink Life received support through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Development and production partners for Rink Life include Door Kinetic Arts Festival (Bailey’s Harbor, WI), University of Chicago’s Center for Theater and Performance Studies and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
RINK LIFE PRESENTATIONS
MEDIA
VIDEOS
Rink Life excerpt (9:10 minutes)
RINK LIFE IMAGES
More media
rink life PRESS quotes
“This fun-filled, nifty nod at skate culture in the disco era is complete with colorful tweeds and polyester galore”
“The entire cast really are easily among the best singers, dancers, and actors I’ve seen this season.”
“Supremely charming...producing moments of unison, balance, and coordination that arise like miracles from disorder”
“Refreshing as an Italian ice [and] continuously unexpected”
“An electric, adventurous, big-hearted, and hilarious tour-de-force”
rink life press articles
“Rhoads is a master of comedic timing and physical humor; she expertly tugs at the idiosyncrasies of human nature and seamlessly blends dance, theater and music. –Chicago Tribune”
Julia Rhoads press
Rooming House press
Tab Show press
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CONTACT
Julia Rhoads - Artistic Director
e: julia@luckyplush.com
p: 773.862.9484
To inquire about interviews, please contact Julia