Backstage Journal is a short Kageki feature where very young cast members write anecdotes about what’s going on behind the scenes of the productions. They’re not very deep, being full of emojis and more like blog entries than articles, but they are a good way to get to know the newest actresses in each troupe.

This one is by Flower Troupe member Kashiro Kiho (of the 87th Class), and was published in the February 2003 issue.

Backstage Journal – Kashiro Kiho (Elisabeth, Flower Troupe 2002-3)

🌸 Hello, everyone!
This is Kashiro Kiho of Flower Troupe. It’s already a month since we’ve welcomed the New Year. I hope none of you have caught colds! Right now, I’m in the middle of performing Elisabeth in the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre. Now, I’ve written you a little Backstage Journal from our dressing room.

🌸 The Priest
This happened during the dress rehearsal, when Osa-san (Haruno Sumire) was in the wings for a moment before the wedding scene started. And who did she see before her but her classmate Happa-san (Masaoka Nao), in her gorgeous priest’s costume. “Happa-chan’s priest costume is so much prettier…” she said. “You’re just a FAKE PRIEST, so it’s fine~” Happa-san retorted. Osa-san apparently thinks her priest costume from the coronation scene in Act Two is a ‘space suit’, and not at all like a priest should look, and seeing Happa-san in costume for her role as a genuine priest made her even more annoyed. Everyone, when you go see the show, make sure to compare the costumes of the two ‘priests’.

🌸 Dance of Death
One day, during a performance, I ran into Tsukiji (Kanade)-san in the stage right quick-change room, as usual. Shihou (Nanami)-san, next to me, was getting ready for her appearance in the next ‘Dance of Death’ scene. Tsukiji told her ‘Come and dance for me afterwards!’ We didn’t get what she was talking about at all, so in our minds we were just ‘???’. But after a while we figured it out. Tsukiji-san’s classmates call her ‘Hinomai’. So, ‘Hinomai’=’Shi no mai’ (Dance of Death). Ahaha…

🌸Body stockings
Do you all remember the masked statues in the prologue scene? Under the statue costumes they’re all wearing white body stockings, and one day as they were changing into the statue costumes, Toshiko-san (Suzukake Miyuki) looked over Maa-kun (Asaka Manato) in her body stocking and said “You’re #1 at body stockings, aren’t you.” Maa-kun is so slender that the white body stocking really does look great on her. Unrelated to that, Maina (Rion)-san plays Elisabeth’s (Ootori Rei) little brother in the next scene, so she would wear another pair of normal white tights underneath her body stocking to help with her quick change. It made her look like she was about to enter a gymnastics competition, and all of us around here found it so funny we burst out laughing. Maina-san, I’m sorry about that.

🌸 Dear Readers
Thank you so much for reading to the end. I hope you all have a wonderful year 😄 Good-bye.