Spring 2014 Program #1

Contents Spring 2014

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Issue 1

January 24 - February 6, 2014 A3

LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS: CINDERBOX 2.0

A7 THEATER OF BELIEF: Afro-Atlantic Costuming and Masking in Large-Format

Color Photographs by Phyllis Galembo A9 REMNANTS OF THE FLOATING WORLD: Japanese Art from the Permanent Collection

Lucky Plush Productions

Cinderbox 2.0

P r og r a m Not e s  Cinderbox 2.0

NCSU CENTER STAGE PRESENTS

FRIDAY & SATURDAY, JANUARY 24 & 25, 2014 AT 8PM Jones Auditorium  Meredith College Pre-show discussion with choreographer Julia Rhoads, 7pm, Carswell Concert Hall

Please,

during the Performance Silence your cell phone  No photography  No texting Thank You!

Photo credit: peterwochniak.com

Spring 2014  Issue 1  A3

About

Program Notes

Artistic Direction & Choreography: Julia Rhoads Created in collaboration with the Ensemble: Francisco Aviña Marc Macaranas Melinda Jean Myers Cassandra Porter Benjamin Wardell Meghann Wilkinson

Cinderbox 2.0 revisits the distinctive world of Lucky Plush’s Cinderbox 18 (2007, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) with new material.

A fascination with the widespread success of reality TV sparked my initial inquiries for Cinderbox 18. I was struck by how these shows frame “expert” ideas about virtuosity and failure, and package personal stories as easily consumable anecdotes. Cinderbox 2.0 similarly evokes media’s voyeuristic approach to reality, but in a way that digs deeper. My goal is to create a world in which the performers develop relationships, shift alliances, and try to make sense of the tragicomic circumstances of their confinement, which seems to have no beginning and no end.

Lighting Design, Stage Manager, & Technical Director: Kevin Rechner Original Music: Michael Caskey Video Design: John Boesche Costume Design: Jeff Hancock, Lucky Plush Productions Original Text: Julia Rhoads & the Ensemble Additional Music: Queen, Yes

My reasons for revisiting Cinderbox 18 were equally about both content and form. The work marked a shift in my creative process and deepened my values about presence and live-ness. Responding to the purportedly unscripted programming of reality TV, I wanted to blur the distinctions between what is improvised and what is rehearsed. To do this, I developed rehearsal strategies to disrupt the patterns of the ensemble as a way to provoke authentic, unscripted experiences. By supporting the ensemble to respond to the live circumstances of the now, every performance breathes differently. I am honored to work with such generous and talented performers, each of whom is essential to my process and to the work.

Cinderbox 2.0 is supported, in part, by Summer Cubed, a residency program at University of Chicago’s Theater and Performance Studies department in collaboration with the Logan Center.

Additional performances of Cinderbox 2.0 in 2013-14 include Purdue Convocations, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, and Kingdom County Productions.

The NCSU Center Stage residency project with Lucky Plush Productions is supported by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; and by South Arts, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the NC Arts Council.

This residency is presented in partnership with Meredith College Dance.

“In the cockeyed reality-show contests of Cinderbox 2.0, weird feats abound.

Remarkably, Rhoads maintains two very different perspectives on them: the young child’s delight in the body as a plaything and the world-weary adult’s vision of the competitive chaos engendered by that delight.”

- Chicago Tribune A4  ncsu.edu/arts

– Julia Rhoads, Artistic Director

ABOUT THE COMPANY

LUCKY PLUSH PRODUCTIONS is a Chicago-based ensemble dance theatre company led by Julia Rhoads, winner of the 2013 Alpert Award in Dance. Lucky Plush is committed to provoking and supporting an immediacy of presence – a palpable live-ness – shared by performers in real-time with our audiences. The Company is equally dedicated to creating work that is richly complex while also being accessible to broad audiences.

Critics and audiences alike recognize Lucky Plush for its evocative choreography, moving content, surprising humor, and incisive commentary on contemporary culture.

Since founding in 1999, Lucky Plush has premiered over 25 original works.

Recent presentations of the company include Spoleto Festival/USA (SC), DANCECleveland (OH), CRASHArts at Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston (MA), Skirball Center (NYC), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (IL), Jacob’s Pillow (MA), Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), College of St. Benedict (MN), Hancher Auditorium (IA), Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago (IL), Spring to Dance (MO), and the Dance and Physical Theatre Trust of New Zealand (NZ), among others.

Lucky Plush Productions is the recipient of two National Dance Project (NDP) Production Grants, two National Performance Network Creation Fund awards, an NDP Production Residency award, a Metlife New Stages in Dance Award, and the company’s work has been co-commissioned

by MCA Stage (IL), Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (MD), Flynn Center of the Performing Arts (VT), and Links Hall Chicago. Lucky Plush has been acknowledged by Chicago Public Radio’s “Best of 2011”; Chicago Reader’s “Best of Chicago 2010”; Time Out Chicago’s “The Decade’s 10 Best Original Dance Works”; Chicago Tribune’s “Best of Dance 2008”; Chicago Sun Times’ “Lasting memories in Dance” (2005, 2007) and Time Out Chicago’s “5 reasons to love dance in Chicago.”

Additionally, Lucky Plush recently spearheaded Creative Partners, a collaborative effort to provide professional fundraising for three Chicago nonprofit arts organizations: Lucky Plush Productions, Blair Thomas & Co., and eighth blackbird. Creative Partners allows these nationally recognized organizations to focus on what they do best: making world-class dance, theatre, and music. Lucky Plush is represented by Elsie Management, Laura Colby, Director, in Brooklyn, New York.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

MICHEL RODRIGUEZ CINTRA was born in Havana, is a former member of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, and has worked with notable choreographers Jan Linkens, Kenneth Kvarnstrom, Samir Akika, Cathy Marston, Luca Bruni, Rafael Bonachela, George Cespedes, Susan Marshall, and Andrea Miller. Rodriguez is currently a company member of CDI/ Concert Dance and former member of Hedwig Dances, where he created three works, one of which was a finalist in the A.W.A.R.D Show 2010.

He has also created a work for Columbia College Chicago’s faculty concert, where he is adjunct faculty. Other credits include: Khecari Dance Theatre and Chicago Moving Company, and he was named one of “The Men of 2010” by TimeOut Chicago. Current projects include the Nexus Project with Ben Wardell.

Rhoads was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2010 and twice included in NewCity’s feature “The Players: The 50 people who really perform for Chicago.” Julia is a former company member with the San Francisco Ballet and ensemble member of XSIGHT! Performance Group. She received a BA in History from Northwestern University, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute Chicago, and is currently dance advisor and part-time faculty in Theater and Performance Studies at University of Chicago.

BENJAMIN WARDELL began dancing at age ten in Memphis, TN. His professional career began with the Cincinnati Ballet, where he achieved the rank of soloist. From there he joined Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet in San Francisco, where he remained for two years. In 2007 he joined Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and remained until September of 2011, when he left to pursue life as a freelance multimedia artist. He is currently a member of Aszure Barton and Artists, in addition to teaching, photographing, filming, and performing all over Chicago. He is also the creator of The Nexus Project, a complex collaborative project performed by himself and fellow Lucky Plush Ensemble member Michel Rodriguez Cintra.

JULIA RHOADS (Artistic Director, Choreographer) is founding artistic director of Lucky Plush Productions and has created over 25 original works with the company. Her independent work has been commissioned

by Alaska Dance Theatre, Mordine and Company Dance Theater, twice for River North Chicago Dance Company, and she has choreographed for theatre companies including Lookingglass Theatre, Redmoon, and Walkabout Theater. Julia is the recipient of the 2013 Alpert Award in Dance, a fellowship from the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships for Choreography, a Cliff Dwellers Choreography Award, and a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship.

FRANCISCO AVIÑA is a former member of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company, and performer in Celine Dion’s A New Day at Caesars Palace. Francisco has choreographed works for Luna Negra Dance Theater, DanceWorks Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, and Ron DeJesus Dance, and created three works for Hubbard Street 2. Choreography for events include the 10th Annual American Choreography Awards, Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards with Justin Timberlake, TV Azteca Disney’s La Selección (Mexico City), and Yo Mexico, a multimedia production that celebrated the bicentennial anniversary of Mexico’s independence. In 2012, Francisco received the Outstanding Choreography Award at the Youth America Grand Prix competition.

MARC MACARANAS is originally from Delano, CA. He graduated cum laude from the University of California, Irvine. Since 2006, he has performed in Chicago, across the US and abroad with Lucky Plush Productions, The Seldoms, DanceWorks Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theater and RUBBERBANDance Group. Currently, he presents his own solo work as The Visitor(s) and is the co-founder of a line of elevated popcorn called PoshCorn.

MELINDA JEAN MYERS is originally from Stevens Point, WI. She received her MFA from University of Iowa in 2012 and BFA from New York University in 2005. She is a former member of Trisha Brown Dance Company, and performed with the company throughout Europe, South America, and the US. In addition to working with Lucky Plush Productions, Melinda creates work that combines theatre, music, dance, and storytelling. Her choreography has been presented throughout the Midwest, New York City, Germany, and South Korea.

CASSANDRA PORTER trained with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago’s Giordano II, and is a former company member of River North Dance Chicago. Other professional credits include Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, where she performed the choreography of Harrison McEldowney, Jeremy Plummer, and Sherry Zunker, and was also a featured aerialist in the first grand scale illusion show at sea. Since 2003, she has danced in Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s annual Christmas show, Welcome Yule! In the summer of 2007, Cassandra was one of twelve girls to appear on the CW network TV show The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious.

MEGHANN WILKINSON is in her 10th season as an ensemble member with Lucky Plush Productions. She is a former company member of Mordine and Company, and has performed with Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts, Cie Felix Ruckert, Raizel Performances, and Peter Carpenter Performance Project. Meghann has been a guest teacher and choreographer for the Cecchetti Council of America, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and the Evanston Dance Ensemble. She was assistant choreographer for Lookingglass Theatre’s The Great Fire and movement director for Walkabout Theater’s Crow. Meghann has organized for the Chicago Seminar on Dance and Performance and the Society of Dance History Scholars. She has taught at Northwestern University, Dance Center Evanston, and Visceral Dance Chicago, and is currently on faculty in the theatre and dance programs at Columbia College Chicago.

COLLABORATING DESIGNERS

JOHN BOESCHE (Video Design) creates projected images for dance, opera, theatre, and music. Designs for dance include Lucky Plush Productions, Joffrey Ballet, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Erica Mott, and Mordine & Co. Projection designs for live music include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eos Orchestra (NYC), and The Ravinia Festival.

Designs for opera have been seen at the Austin Lyric Opera, Barbican Theatre Centre (London), Brooklyn Academy of Music, Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Lyon, Opera Lyra Ottawa, San Francisco Opera, and Theatre de la Monnaie (Brussels), among others. Scenic and projection designs for theatre include Lookingglass Theatre, Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Victory Gardens, Geffen Playhouse (LA), McCarter Theatre (Princeton), New York Shakespeare Festival (NYC), and Seattle Repertory Theatre among others. John has received Joseph Jefferson Awards for theatre designs in 1985, 2005, and 2011, and a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Video Design in 2012. He serves as Chair of Digital Media Design for Live Performance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Spring 2014  Issue 1  A5

P r og r a m Not e s  Cinderbox 2.0 ...continued

Program Notes (continued) MICHAEL CASKEY, aka Bunny Patootie (Composer/Sound Design) has performed with artists as diverse as Chuck Mangione, Koko Taylor, Toni Tenille, Danilo Perez, Marvin Hamlisch, The Heritage Blues Orchestra, and John Sinclair. He is a member of Eastern Blok, a pan-cultural ensemble, and The Claudettes, a neo-vaudevillian piano & drum duo. He also plays with Chicago artists including Grazyna Auguscik, Hood Smoke, and Leslie Hunt. A DownBeat jazz magazine award winner and five-time Detroit Music Award recipient, he has performed for audiences throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. At Columbia College Chicago, Michael coordinates the dance department’s accompanist program and teaches Music & Rhythm in Dance. He has composed original sound scores for Hedwig Dances, Zephyr Dance, Same Planet Different World, and Peter Carpenter Performance. Michael graduated magna cum laude from Western Michigan University’s School of Music in 1999.

JEFF HANCOCK (Costume Design) has been designing and constructing costumes for over 20 years, and his design company, -ish, was formed in 2007. He has created costumes for River North Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Inside/Out, Gus Giordano Dance Chicago, Danceworks Chicago, Peter Carpenter, Molly Shanahan Mad/Shak, and Lucky Plush Productions, among many others. Jeff was a founding member of River North Dance Chicago, has danced for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Lyric Opera, and formerly directed Same Planet Different World Dance Theatre.

His independent choreography has been created for River North Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street 2, the Edinburgh Festival, Same Planet Different World, among others. He has been nominated for Ruth Page Awards for his dancing and choreography, is an Illinois Arts Council grant recipient, and currently teaches at Northwestern University.

KEVIN RECHNER (Lighting Designer, Technical Director & Stage Manager/Performer) has worked with Lucky Plush Productions on Cinderbox 18, The Sky Hangs Down Too Close and Punk Yankees.

Other designs include Natya Dance Theatre’s Alakshaya, and Mordine and Company’s 40th Anniversary. He has been the Production Manager, Technical Director, and Lighting Designer for the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago since 1996, where he has collaborated with many visiting artists, including designing the set and lights for Trisha Brown’s Set and Reset/Reset. He has also served as the LD / TD for the Dance Division of the National High School Institute for five years.

Kevin has a Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre from Illinois State University and spent three years in Paris studying Movement Theatre with Jacques Lecoq and Daniel Stein. He has created four solo performance works including I am Hugo.

SHARE AND CONNECT On Twitter @NCSUCenterStage @LuckyPlush On Facebook facebook.com/NCSUCenterStage facebook.com/LuckyPlushProductions

A6  ncsu.edu/arts

LUCKY PLUSH STAFF

Julia Rhoads, Producing Artistic Director Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, Collaborating Director Dana Horst, Development Director Deidre Huckabay, Development Associate Nora Younkin, Administrative Associate

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Stacey Recht, Chair Mary Carpenter Rechner, Vice Chair Julie Englander, Secretary Katie Leander James Lupo Julia Rhoads Pamela Crutchfield, Advisory Andrew Suprenant, Advisory Peter Taub, Advisory

REPRESENTATION Laura Colby, Elsie Management; www.elsieman.org 718-797-4577; laurac@elsieman.org

SPECIAL THANKS

Sharon Moore and the staff at NCSU Center Stage for their generosity, professionalism, and for bringing Cinderbox 2.0 here tonight. We are thrilled to share this work with you!

PROJECT & SEASON SUPPORTERS

Cinderbox 2.0 is supported, in part, through a development residency at the University of Chicago’s Theater and Performance Studies program, Summer Cubed. General operating support to Lucky Plush Productions is provided by the Alphawood Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Grover Hermann Foundation, Peter G. and Elizabeth Torosian Foundation, CityArts through the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

Lucky Plush Productions is a nonprofit organization. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law: www.luckyplush.com/support

THEATER OF BELIEF: Afro-Atlantic costuming and masking in large-format color photographs by Phyllis Galembo January 23-May 11, 2014  Opening reception Thursday, January 23 at 6PM

Installed at the African American Cultural Center Gallery, 2nd Floor, Witherspoon Student Center 2810 Cates Avenue, corner of Dan Allen Drive, Raleigh A concurrent exhibition of Galembo’s work will be installed by the Gregg Museum in the Frankie G. Weems Art Gallery, Gaddy-Hamrick Art Center, Meredith College, 3800 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh.

Runs January 23-March 30, 2014. Contact 919-760-8239, -8332, gallery@meredith.edu

P r og r a m Not e s  THEATER OF BELIEF: Afro-Atlantic costuming and masking

The Gregg Museum of Art & Design presents

Legba, Egungun Masquerade, Bohicon, Benin, 2006 by Phyllis Galembo

Spring 2014  Issue 1  A7

P r og r a m Not e s  Theater of belief ...continued

From the Museum Director

It is often difficult for outsiders to understand how fully immersive and complete the experience can be for participants in rituals involving masks and costumes. Several years ago in Benin, while shooting a segment of MANA—beyond belief (a feature documentary I co-directed with Peter Friedman for European public TV), I found myself on a swelteringly hot afternoon in Ouidah, Benin’s old religious center, worrying about the condition of the celebrants performing an Egungun ceremony in front of our lens.

We had been filming since midday, and although it was now almost sunset, the maskers had not had a single break. Both the temperature and humidity level had hovered around 100 all afternoon. Even though I was only standing stationary under a silvery “sunbrella” next to the tripod supporting our big camera and wearing ultra-lightweight tropical shorts and a breezy mesh shirt, I’d found it necessary to guzzle bottle after bottle of filtered water to keep up with the constant loss of fluids through sweat, but the Fon and Yoruba dancers we were filming had been whirling like dervishes for hours.

Atal Masquerade, Emanghabe Village, Nigeria 2004

Over the past two decades, photographer Phyllis Galembo has recorded hundreds of similar transformations on both sides of the Atlantic. Traveling widely through western and central Africa, Haiti, Louisiana and the Afro-Brazilian state of Bahia, she has documented participants in all kinds of masquerade events – traditional African ceremonies and contemporary “fancy dress” and carnival – who use costume, body paint and masks to become mythic beings.

The Gregg Museum’s joint presentation of Galembo’s largeformat color photographs, THEATER OF BELIEF, presents her discoveries. It includes two components: Ancestors’ Legacy: Fashion, Ritual, and Masquerade, exhibited at NC State’s African American Cultural Center, paired with a simultaneous installation at Meredith College’s Frankie G. Weems Art Gallery, entitled Kings, Chiefs, and Women of Power. Both exhibitions reveal Galembo’s fashion photographer’s keen eye for the details and drama of serious costume, as well as her anthropological appreciation for the contexts of deeply-held beliefs in which her portrait subjects live.

Concealed in cumbersome costumes that completely obscured them under layers of thickly quilted and appliquéd lappets, they were further weighted down with heavy screens of cowrie shells and dangling amulets. Inside all this, hidden by the outer layers, was an even more allencompassing burlap lining that completely covered the wearer’s entire body, with hands and feet further disguised with thick mittens and bulky slippers. In the frenzy of dancing, whirling and drumming that had thickened the afternoon air with orange dust and throbbing noise, I could only imagine that all the costumed participants must be nearly suffocating and on the verge of heatstroke.

I turned to Aniambossou, who had spoken with the local elders weeks earlier and negotiated our privileged permission to record the event. “Don’t they ever need a rest?,” I asked him. “Or at least drink some water? They’ve been going non-stop for five hours, and they must be exhausted. I don’t want anyone getting hurt. It’s just a film.”

He looked back at me as if this was the silliest thing he’d ever heard, but then answered with all the patience he could muster, as if explaining the obvious to a child. “They aren’t here for your film; you’re here for them.

And no, they don’t need rest, and they’re not thirsty, either. The ancestors are dead, and the dead don’t get tired or thirsty!”

Only then did it dawn on me that what I was watching was not a performance, but a transformation. Wrapped in sheets resembling the shrouds they used to bind corpses, buried under layers of cloth emblazed with family heraldry, the Egungun celebrants weren’t merely playing the role of the ancestors, but had actually become their deceased forebears. Their living bodies were on loan to the dead, so that les revenants, or “returned ones,” could come back and be among the community once more.

– Roger Manley, Director, Gregg Museum

Meet the artist THEATER OF BELIEF is accompanied by a symposium on February 12-13, featuring a keynote lecture by Phyllis Galembo at Meredith College’s Jones Auditorium at 7pm Wednesday February 12, and a panel discussion with other scholars and photographers at NC State’s African American Cultural Center at 6pm Thursday February 13.

A8  ncsu.edu/arts

P r og r a m Not e s  Remnants of the Floating World

Scene from unknown Kabuki drama, woodblock print by Kunisada ( Toyokuni III), c. 1850.

Gift of the Utagawa-Ha Jimukyoku Society of Japan and the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta.

The Gregg Museum of Art & Design presents

REMNANTS OF THE FLOATING WORLD: Japanese Art from the Permanent Collection February 6-May 23, 2014  Opening reception Thursday, February 6 at 6PM Installed at NCSU’s Historic Chancellor’s Residence, 1903 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, the future site of the Gregg Museum. Open by appointment; call 919-513-7244 or 919-515-3503 or email gregg@ncsu.edu.

One of the great influences on the development of modern art was the sudden reintroduction of art from Japan in the late 19th century.

Although Christian missionaries and traders from Holland and Portugal were briefly tolerated by the Japanese aristocracy in the late 1500s, by 1635 fears of their destabilizing influence on the lower classes led to a policy of isolation that kept Japan shut off from the rest of the world for the next 220 years. During this time, Japanese society remained under the control of feudal warlords who allowed foreign ships to dock only at one small, manmade island in Nagasaki harbor, where foreign goods could be transferred to Japanese bearers and brought into the country via a single bridge connected to the mainland.

It wasn’t until the 1850s, under threats from the US Navy, that Japan reopened its borders to trade. Within a decade, an empire consolidated under the new Meiji emperor brought about the end of regional feudalism, and what had been an isolated, underdeveloped island country rapidly began developing into a new economic powerhouse. European and American ports were soon flooded with imported cargos of Japanese teas, silks, fans, parasols, lacquers, bronzes and ceramics.

Delicate porcelains and statues came wrapped in rice paper, much of it printed with woodcuts made with brightly colored inks. Originally intended as inexpensive reproductions of paintings for popular distribution, these ukiyo-e (浮世絵 , literally “pictures of the floating world”) depicted images of brothels, kabuki plays, fashionable eateries and famous (or bizarre) performers. Later, as travel became a new form of leisure, tourist sights and adventures encountered on journeys around Japan joined erotica and entertainment as popular subject matter for ukiyo-e prints as well.

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P r og r a m Not e s  Remnants of the floating world ...continued

Interest in these exotic pictures was so great that, rather than throw the colorful packing material away, artists like Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Beardsley, Cassatt and Whistler began saving the striking images, buying them for their own sake, and framing them on the wall.

The woodblock prints’ lack of perspective and shadow, their use of flat areas of strong color, and their compositional freedom and asymmetrical design all had a profound effect on European and American art. Blurring distinctions between the fine and decorative arts, they led away from the direct representation of nature toward interpretation and abstraction.

Many of the trends that would eventually coalesce as modern art began with these images of Japan’s “floating world” of illicit pleasures.

“Japonisme,” as the new fad for all things Japanese came to be known, affected the performing arts as well. Operas like Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Yellow Princess, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado and Puccini’s Madam Butterfly are prime examples of the genre.

In REMNANTS OF THE FLOATING WORLD: Japanese Art from the Permanent Collection, garments, accessories, toys, ceramics, and woodblock prints from the Gregg Museum’s collection of Japanese art and artifacts celebrate this major turning point in art history. Given to

the Gregg by the Utagawa Society of Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture in 1995, many of the woodblock prints are by the artist Kunisada, and depict scenes from 19th century Japanese plays and famous actors of the day.

Kunisada (also known as Toyokuni II, a professional name he adopted in honor of his famous teacher) was born in 1786 in the Honjo district of Edo (now Tokyo). He was still a young man when he gained fame as an actor-artist, after painting portraits of his fellow performers as publicity for his troupe.

Prizing idealized feminine beauty, Kunisada built his reputation still further by including beautiful women and pleasing landscapes in his prints whenever possible. Among the Gregg’s collection are several prints of Kunisada’s illustrations for Chushingura: Revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin, a tale based on a gruesome real-life event in Japanese history. The original story, emphasizing the ideals of honor, loyalty and revenge embedded in the Samurai code of bushidō, was the basis for dozens of later plays and novels.

REMNANTS OF THE FLOATING WORLD: Japanese Art from the Permanent Collection is accompanied by programming that includes musical performances, ceramics demonstrations, films and a tea ceremony. Visit the Upcoming Events tab at ncsu.edu/gregg for the latest schedule. All events are free and open to the public.

Scene from Act III of Kabuki play “Meiboku Sendai Hagi” (“The Disputed Succession”), woodblock print by Kunisada ( Toyokuni III), c. 1850.

Gift of the Utagawa-Ha Jimukyoku Society of Japan and the Japanese Consulate in Atlanta.

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