Lucky Plush set to premiere new work in 2016

Chicago’s Lucky Plush Productions will celebrate its 15th Anniversary with the creation of a new dance-theater work, Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip. Commissioned by Chicago’s Harris Theater for Music and Dance and the Pamela Crutchfield Dance Fund of the Imagine Campaign, the newest evening-length work from Lucky Plush draws from classic pulp novels and comic books in a blend of dance, theater and visual design that moves between live performance and projected video in unexpected ways.

Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip will premiere Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 7:30 p.m., marking the debut of Lucky Plush Productions at the Harris Theater, located at 205 E. Randolph St. in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

“This commission is a significant and bold new step for the Harris Theater. Through it we announce a multi-year dance initiative that will encourage renewed creativity throughout the entire Chicago dance community,” said Michael Tiknis, president and managing director of the Harris Theater.

“With the commissioning of new works from world-class dance theater companies like Lucky Plush, the Harris fulfills its role as an important force in Chicago dance. Thanks to the success of the Imagine Campaign, this is just the beginning of some exciting new things to come from the Harris Theater and for dance in Chicago,” Tiknis added.

A collaboration among Lucky Plush Founder, Director and Choreographer Julia Rhoads, Composer Michael Caskey and Visual Designer John Boesche, SuperStrip balances dance, music, video and visual design in a graphic novel-inspired style.

Loosely inspired by the sensational stories and larger-than-life characters in classic pulp magazines, SuperStrip follows a group of washed up superheroes attempting to reinvent themselves by starting a non-profit think tank for do-gooders. Unable to agree on their mission, the unlikely league of supers begins a strategic planning process to determine their brand, create a manifesto, and codify their powers into specialized movement techniques. Comic book-style graphics, Foley effects and real-time video will create an experience like none other—contemporary dance meets an animated graphic novel.

Though Rhoads finds inspiration from classic pulp superheroes, and has fun weaving in riffs on the exhausting trend of hyper-personal branding via social media, the themes of SuperStrip are particularly relevant to her experience leading a non-profit organization.

“So often organized efforts to effect change—to improve workplace, community or more broadly to make the world a better place—can be incredibly circular, stunted by non-consensus, or limited by the politics that frame the efforts,” explained Rhoads. “While the characters of SuperStrip are invested in deeply held values, they are challenged to uphold their importance within contemporary platforms that support empty self-promotion and flavor-of-the-day innovation, like so many people today from all walks of life.”

Ultimately, SuperStrip reveals how communication—physical, verbal and online—is constructed, laid bare, breaks down, and evolves within small, and often insular, communities.

Tickets for SuperStrip are $10-$40. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.luckyplush.com or harristheaterchicago.org.

Image: Lucky Plush dancers in Trip the Light Fantastic: The Making of SuperStrip. Photography by Cheryl Mann. Graphic design by Alex Brenneman.