LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS
presents

RIGHT HERE    

CREATED & DIRECTED BY 
Melinda Jean Myers  

DEVISED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE ENSEMBLE: 
Kara Brody
Kim Goldman
Isabella Limosnero 
Melinda Jean Myers
Jacinda Ratcliffe
Meghann Rose Wilkinson

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to acknowledge that we are standing and performing on stolen land. This is the traditional homeland of the Council of the Three Fires comprised of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples who have stewarded this land through the generations. We would also like to acknowledge and recognize people of the African diaspora who were stolen from their native lands and forced to steward this land following the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

We express solidarity with those experiencing genocide and humanitarian crises in Palestine, Sudan, Tigray, and Congo and grieve with the ways so many are trying to stop this live unfolding of events. We join the millions of people worldwide calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Every single life lost is sacred. May all beings be free. 

ABOUT THE WORK

Right Here is created by Melinda Jean Myers in collaboration with Lucky Plush ensemble members and composer/musician Lex Leto. This new dance-theater work explores how the body holds opposing states of motivation and apathy, abundance and loss, and hope and despair during a climate crisis. Through visual storytelling and shared choreographies, the ensemble seeks a roadmap for greater awareness and collective action. 

Sensory Advisory: Audience will briefly experience a moment of flickering + bright lights in this production

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Kara Brody (she/her) is a Korean American movement artist based in Chicago focusing her practice towards community driven spaces. She joined Lucky Plush in 2016, originated roles in Rooming House, Rink Life, and Happy Returns and joined the touring cast of SuperStrip and Cinderbox 2.0. In addition, she has been a contributing collaborator and performer for Faye Driscoll, Erin Kilmurray, Melinda Jean Myers, The Fly Honey Show, Helen Lee, Danceable Projects | Erick Montes, and The Cambrians. She was a curatorial resident at Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre, creating a dance series that celebrated artists in process through a two-week production residency and performance festival.  Kara is a Lecturer at University of Chicago and has been on faculty at COMMON Conservatory, The Joffrey Academy, Chicago Movement Collective, Visceral Dance Center, Dovetail Studios, and Lucky Plush Productions’ Community Class. She has guest taught for The Cambrians, Chicago Danceworks, Hedwig Dances, Pro.Noun Dance Festival, Young Dancer’s Initiative, Brighton Dance Festival, Rutgers University, and Northern Illinois University. Additionally, she has led community and intensive workshops for Lucky Plush Productions at The Kennedy Center, Sonoma State University, Hamilton College, and The Dance Center of Columbia College. 

Cydney Patrice Cleveland (she/her) has dedicated the past two decades to mission-driven work, empowering incarcerated youth to find their voice. She's also lent her talents to Russell Talbert Dance Studio, 3rd Dimension Productions, and Link's Hall. Cydney is thrilled to be returning to Link's Hall, where her passion for the arts flourishes.

Kim Goldman (she/her) joined Lucky Plush as an ensemble member in 2004 and originated roles in Punk Yankees, Habituation, and The Better Half, and performed in works including Cinderbox 2.0 and Surrelium. From 2015-2020, Kim was Lucky Plush’s Managing Director, working in tandem with Artistic Director Julia Rhoads. As the company's lead administrator, she oversaw marketing, development, budgeting, and tour planning, and recruited and managed the company’s staff, interns, and volunteers. Kim continues as a member of the board of directors, supporting the company through grant writing, database administration, and event planning. Kim is currently Operations Manager for Citrine Investment Group where she implements the firm’s HR, financial, project management, and marketing systems. Kim has been an adjunct dance faculty member at the Dance Center of Columbia College and Illinois Wesleyan University. She holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA and BS from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Liz Gomez (she/her) is a Chicago-based lighting designer from San Antonio, TX. She typically designs lights for theatre, but has recently been enjoying delving into dance lighting. Her most recent design credit is for KNOCKOUT at the Dance Center. She is thrilled to be collaborating with Lucky Plush for the first time.

Lex Leto (they/them) is a multidisciplinary musician, maker, educator, and collaborator. With electronic music, song, improvisation, and looped flute at the heart of their sound exploration, Lex creates dense and dreamy sonic worlds. Lex performs as a solo electronic musician, a flute improviser, and as bassist/vocalist with their art rock band KL!NG. As a soloist, band member, or ensemble member, Lex has performed at 8035, Mission Creek Festival, FilmScene’s Refocus Festival, Public Space One’s Open Air Media Festival, The Englert Theatre’s Track Zero Series, and with Sioux City Symphony Orchestra. When not making music, Lex can be found teaching, looking at clouds, biking, watching movies, or on Instagram, Bandcamp, and Spotify.

Isabella Limosnero (they/them) grew up on Ohlone land known as Gilroy, CA. They trained at the Alonzo King Lines Training Program under the direction of Karah Abiog from. In the program, they had the privilege to perform work by Sidra Bell, Roderick George, Robert Moses, Carmen Rozestranen, Alex Ketley, Christian Burns, and David Harvey. Limosnero also had the pleasure of working with James Graham Dance Theater on their evening length work, The Grass is Sleeping. Since their time in the Bay Area, they have relocated to Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi); Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo); Myaamia; Očhéthi Å akówiÅ‹; and Peoria land, known as Chicago, IL and are currently based out of the Chicagoland area. They have presented their own work with LittleFire Artist Collective, and are currently working with Helen Lee/ Momentum Sensorium, House of Dov, and Melinda Myers in collaboration with Lucky Plush Productions. 

Melinda Jean Myers (she/her) joined Lucky Plush in 2012, originated roles in Cinderbox 2.0, The Queue, SuperStrip, and Happy Returns, and joined the touring cast of Rink Life. She is a multidisciplinary artist who creates in the areas of dance and choreography, theater and storytelling, and music composition. Her research includes solo choreography and performance, and collaborations with theater artists, filmmakers, writers, music composers, media designers and dance artists. At University of Iowa, she is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance and Choreography.  Myers earned her MFA from University of Iowa (2012) where she received a Stanley Graduate Award for International Research and Iowa Arts Fellowship. She earned her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (2005). She was honored to perform internationally with the Trisha Brown Dance Company for four years (2006-2010) and has been privileged to re-stage repertory works. As a member of The Cambrians (Chicago, IL), her collaborative work Clover (2015) was named one of Chicago Tribune's Top 10 Dances of 2015.  Her interdisciplinary dance works have been presented in South Korea, Germany, NYC, and throughout the Midwest. 

Jacinda Ratcliffe (she/her) joined Lucky Plush in 2018, originated roles in Rink Life and Happy Returns, and performed with Lucky Plush in Tab Show at the Harris Theater. She has additionally danced with Winifred Haun & Dancers as well as Project Bound Dance. Her recent productions include short films Happy Songs About Unhappy Things (co-choreographer & various featured roles), Winner (choreographer & Sallie Mae), and Hidden Note (Woman Creature). She is on faculty at the Actor’s Gymnasium and Chicago Movement Collective, the latter of which she also serves as Collective Manager & sits on the Board of Directors. She is represented by Big Mouth Talent.

Meghann Wilkinson (she/her) is a mover, teacher, bodyworker, bumblebee monitor, home herbalist, and fan of being outside. She has been an ensemble member with Lucky Plush Productions since 2004, where she has originated roles in over a dozen devised works and has toured the country and abroad.  She has also performed in the ensembles of Mordine and Company Dance Theater and The Arrow with The Neo-Futurists. Working toward regenerative practices for people and planet, Meghann has participated in Urban Bush Women’s Summer Leadership Institute, attended immersive programming at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and completed certificates in permaculture design with Midwest Permaculture and Earth Activist Training with Starhawk. Meghann was a 2017 recipient of the 3Arts Make a Wave grant and received an Embodied Research Grant from Lucky Plush in 2021 to investigate dancing with scoliosis. She has been a movement consultant for Walkabout Theater and Curious Theater and has presented choreography with Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, Cecchetti Council of America, Evanston Dance Ensemble, and Columbia College Chicago. Meghann has taught at Northwestern University, Dance Center Evanston, Thodos Dance Chicago, University of Chicago, and Visceral Dance Chicago, as well as national and international master classes with Lucky Plush. She is an adjunct faculty member in the dance program at Columbia College Chicago and teaches an ongoing Gentle Modern Dance class via Lucky Plush’s Virtual Dance Lab. www.meghannrose.massagetherapy.com

ABOUT LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS

Lucky Plush Productions (luckyplush.com) is a Chicago-based dance theater 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 theater, Lucky Plush’s work is well-known for its carefully crafted dramatic and rhythmic arcs, pushing its artists to move beyond the predictable by earning the exciting slippage between – and surprising coherence of – technical choreography, casual dialogue, music, and humor. Though rigorously composed, much of the company’s work feels like it is generated spontaneously.

Since 2000, Lucky Plush has created 35+ original dance-theater works. In addition to performing in Chicago, the company has presented in over 60 U.S. 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 the 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.

Lucky Plush Productions 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. Other awards include creation, residency, and touring awards from National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, and National Performance Network; exchange awards from the MacArthur Foundation International Connections Fund; a presentation award from MetLife Foundation; and an achievement award from the Lester and Hope Abelson Fund for the Performing Arts at The Chicago Community Trust
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. New City hailed Lucky Plush “a brand of movement-based theater that can be comfortably called, without exaggeration, genius.”

Lucky Plush Productions is a resident company at Harris Theater for Music and Dance and is a partner organization to the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies at University of Chicago.

Julia Rhoads (Producing Artistic Director) (she/her) is the founding Artistic Director of Lucky Plush Productions. She has created over 30 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, and Rooming House, and Rink Life. Additional choreography and movement direction credits include projects with South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Lookingglass Theatre, River North Chicago Dance Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, 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 the Director of Dance and a Senior Instructional Professor in Theater and Performance Studies at The University of Chicago.

SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This performance was made possible with generous support of Lucky Plush Productions’ Embodied Research Project,  University of Iowa’s Office of the Vice President for Research and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Iowa’s Department of Dance, and University of Illinois

Additional thanks to: 
Extensions Dance Center, Links Hall, bim bom studios for studio space -
University of Iowa Dance Company 2022-2023 -
University of Iowa Production Unit for costume and set support -
HMS Productions for documentation support -

CONTACT US
Julia Rhoads, Founding Artistic Director
julia@luckyplush.com
773-862-9484
www.luckyplush.com

Facebook: LuckyPlushProductions 
Instagram: @luckyplush #TeamPlush 

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