TOP MANIA! was a 2017 Kageki feature where Top Stars and Top Musumeyaku talked about their work routine during performances. Sagiri’s was published in the February issue.
TOP MANIA – Sagiri Seina
Before the show
Schedule after entering the dressing room
Arrive 2 hours before curtain
1) Warmups
2) Light breakfast
3) Stage Makeup
It varies depending on the performance, but in general I do my warmups before putting on my stage makeup. Sometimes, If it is a traditional Japanese-set show where I am wearing a wig made by traditional wigmakers, due to the time it takes to put on the silk base I will do my stage makeup first.
1) I’ll do vocal exercises while using a long StretchPole to help make my body more limber. After that, I’ll pick one of the songs from the show that I have concerns about at that time, and sing it while listening to a music track without vocals.
2) I can’t eat breakfast right after getting up, so a lot of the time I eat after arriving at the dressing room. Sometimes I’ll eat some light bread while drinking something hot, or sometimes onigiri, or if it is a Grand Theatre or Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre performance, I’ll eat the ‘Sunny-side-up rice bowl’ or the ‘fluffy rice bowl’ from the Violet Kitchen.
3) For my stage makeup, especially for plays, I try not to put it on too heavily. There are lots of people who think “Takarazuka makeup=Super Intense” (laughs), but that is because it is meant to allow people even in the very back row of the second floor of the 2000 person plus theatre tell ‘those are her eyes’; it’s not that I’m playing a person that likes really intense makeup (laughs). I focus on doing makeup that lets me perform exaggerated expressions and lets my eye movement and expressions really live.
Something you have to have on your dressing table
In addition to the large mirror that is already there, I put another smaller mirror on my dressing table for when I’m drawing the more detailed parts, and I set it up so that the height of that mirror exactly matches where my face is. Also, so that I can figure out where everything is right away, I have everything arranged simply, and I lay out things that I use often on my right side.
During a performance
A must-have for performances
Aromatherapy spray. I discovered it when a junior actress gave it to me. It has propolis1 in it, and when I spray it in the air it instantly makes a slightly sweet and invigorating smell. As for the effects of it, it helps me to release more of the energy I have inside myself. Since it’s what I already possess, it can’t take me further than that (laughs), but when I’m feeling nervous on opening day or things like that I will spray it a lot. And of course when I feel like I want to calm down, or I feel like I need to do my best.
What you focus on in quick changes
Entrusting myself to the costume staff (laughs). In my case, if I am thinking about too many things and chatting with someone while I’m changing, I’ll end up doing something wrong somewhere, so I entrust myself to the costume staff’s instructions.
What you drink during performances
Generally water. In a performance where I’m sweating a lot I’ll also have sports drinks, and drink in a ratio of 1 sports drink for 2 bottles of water.
Your favorite moments onstage
When I can feel a really strong response from the audience. I’m really happy when there is the fresh reaction on the opening day of a show, or in shows with adlibs, when the audience really likes an adlib. More than just ‘I did it!’, I feel happiness that I got something back from what I did.
How far can you see into the audience?
In a brightly lit scene during a revue show, I feel like maybe I can see to around the 15th row.
After a performance
The first thing you do after a show
I take off my false eyelashes and remove my lipstick and eye makeup. I do that before getting into the bath. But while I’m doing that Yuumi-chan (Sakihi) will arrive and then the ‘self-reflection time’ will start (laughs).
Do your roles affect your offstage life?
When I was playing Lupin, I tried to avoid wearing red clothes as much as I could. Since I didn’t want people to think I was being too conscious of playing Lupin (laughs). So I suppose in that way, it was actually the opposite, since it felt more like I was working hard to keep it from affecting me (laughs).
Bonus
When you most feel like an otokoyaku
Since I’m a totally dyed-in-the-wool otokoyaku, generally it feels like I’m just playing my role and I don’t feel anything about being an otokoyaku particularly, but in the rehearsal for Caleb Hunt, Private Eye, and during the show, I did really feel like ‘I’m being an otokoyaku’. I think it might be since the type of man Director Masatsuka wrote was really close to the kind of role that made me long to be in Takarazuka. I don’t really understand that clearly, but I enjoyed performing that even more than normal.
1 – Propolis is a substance produced by bees.