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 & co-creator
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.
LESLIE BUXBAUM DANZIG, CO-CREATOR
Leslie is a collaborating director with Julia Rhoads/Lucky Plush Productions with whom she co-created The Better Half, The Queue, Rooming House, and Rink Life. For over a decade, Leslie was co-founder and resident director of the Chicago-based physical theater company 500 Clown, whose shows performed in Chicago and throughout the US. Other directing credits include Third Coast Percussion’s Paddle to the Sea and Wild Sound, composed by Wilco’s Glenn Kotche, with performances at MCA Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), National Forum of Music (Wroclaw) and De Doelen (Rotterdam), and a number of productions in Chicago at The Actors Gymnasium, House Theatre, Redmoon, Chicago Children’s Theater, About Face Theater, and in New York, at New Victory Theater and PS 122, among others. Prior to turning to directing, Leslie toured nationally and internationally as an actor with NYC’s Elevator Repair Service. Leslie is Assistant Professor of Practice in Theater and Performance Studies, University of Chicago. She is currently developing a circus-puppet-theater adaptation of the myth of Atalanta with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
Leslie Buxbaum Danzig
PERFORMERS
Jacinda Ratcliffe
Meghann Rose Wilkinson
A. Raheim White
Kara Brody
Michel Rodriguez Cintra
Rodolfo Sanchez Sarracino
ABOUT rooming house
CREDITS
PREMIERE: Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre - Chicago, IL, November 2017
CO-CREATORS: Julia Rhoads & Leslie Buxbaum Danzig
DEVISED IN COLLABORATION with the original ENSEMBLE: Kara Brody, Michel Rodriguez Cintra, Elizabeth Luse, Rodolfo Sánchez Sarracino, A. Raheim White, Meghann Rose Wilkinson
ORIGINAL MUSIC: Michael Caskey
LIGHTING DESIGN: Alexander Ridgers
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER(2019): Rachel Damon
STAGE MANAGEMENT (2017): Ariela Subar
SOUND ENGINEER: Bradford Chapin (2017), Dennis Huston (2019)
COSTUME DESIGN: Patrick Burns
rooming house SYNOPSIS
Playful and personal, Rooming House synthesizes contemporary dance and theater to create a dynamic blueprint for exploring the question: what makes a person do something that could have life changing consequences? Rooming House begins with an intimate conversation among friends, slipping easily between Spanish and English, as they recall stories of people who’ve taken actions with potentially devastating costs. When the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is mentioned, varied interpretations propel the group into a physically and psychologically complex game of whodunit, taking them down a rabbit hole into the lives of everyday people who do extraordinary things—from life endangering rescues, to defecting from Cuba, to letting go of someone you love.
PROJECT SUPPORT
Support for Rooming House is made possible, in part, by creation grants from National Endowment for the Arts, MacArthur International Connections Fund, Network of Ensemble Theaters, 3Arts, and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Major development support through production residencies was provided by NC State LIVE (Raleigh, NC) and Door Kinetic Arts Festival (Bailey’s Harbor, WI), and creation residency support was provided by City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Danza Teatro Retazos (Havana, Cuba). Additional production support provided by University of Chicago’s Center for Theater and Performance Studies and Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre.
MEDIA
rooming house IMAGES
VIDEOS
Rooming House excerpt (1:56 minutes)
More media
PRESS
“Over its brisk 75 minutes their light-footed, sometimes cheeky production grows into something expansive and challenging, exploring deeper aspects of storytelling and human behavior.”
Rooming House press
“An ambitious accessible fusion of dance and theater that will leave you smiling and thinking long after the play is over.”
Julia Rhoads press
“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. ”
CONTACT
Julia Rhoads - Artistic Director
e: julia@luckyplush.com
p: 773.862.9484
To inquire about interviews, please contact Julia
