Troupe Report is a Kageki feature where an appointed reporter will write about current events in the troupe or ask troupe members for questions to answers sent in by readers. Reporters rotate more slowly and in many troupes are only replaced on retirement or transfer, unlike other backstage features that rotate monthly or quarterly.

The July 2023 column for Star Troupe was Otosaki Itsuki and features backstage commentary from 1789: Les Amants de la Bastille.

Star Troupe Troupe Report, July 2023

How are all of you?

I’m Otosaki ‘forgot an umbrella even though she’s fully aware it’s the rainy season’ Itsuki.

Even though I constantly forget umbrellas exist, there’s one thing that’s got stuck in a corner of my mind and I simply can’t stop thinking about it.

That is…the bottle of aphrodisiacs carried around by the man targeting the throne, the Comte d’Artois, in 1789 – Les Amants de la Bastille. I keep thinking, what’s going on with that!

I got so obsessed that I asked the person in question, Seo (Yuria)-san, how she feels about having the aphrodisiacs…

“The aphrodisiacs? That’s so wild, right. Well, to be honest, he’d manage perfectly fine without them. But using them makes everyone even more mad for him. He keeps them on hand since sometimes there are people like Olympe, who won’t be swayed. But in the end he’s foiled by Ronan anyway (laughs).”

And how does that billowing smoke get created?

“That’s a trade secret! But I can tell you, there’s a lot of technique involved to get it to billow like that… It’s hard to get it to keep smoking nicely.”

So how does she do it so skillfully?

“Hm? That’s… Because I am a god!!!”

She said it so passionately that I thought the intro for the number ‘Je Suis un Dieu’ was about to turn on.

In short, the reason why she’s wearing colored contacts onstage, the reason she’s drawing her eyes differently, and the reason why she’s wearing necklaces in the show are all:

“Because I am a god!”

There was one other thing I kept thinking about.

In the second half of Act 1, when the Dauphin Louis-Joseph passes away and they hold his funeral mass at the Basilica of Saint-Denis, you hear such a clear and beautiful voice singing…

And that voice belongs to none other than Miyako Yuuna. She has the offstage solo.

When I asked her what she was focusing on…

“The goal is to make my voice sound like a pipe organ, but…I can’t keep my breath going that long (laughs). But my alma mater was a Catholic school, so I feel like ‘That’s doing some good!!’ (laughs)”.

I see!! Ahhh, I wish I could just listen to that voice forever. Everyone, please make sure you don’t miss listening to her beautiful pipe-organ voice!

Finally…Makki (Yuuhi Maki) gets to show off her unique self in so many scenes, starting as Manelon in the start of Act 1. She’s always so fun and teaches me so many things, and when I asked her ‘So is there anything you’ve discovered recently?’…

“I always thought that ‘Strawberry Moon’ was the name for a color, but apparently that’s what they call the full moon in June!”

…she went above and beyond my expectations.

And this is where I hit the word limit… Please look forward to the next edition!!

~FIN~