The Costume is a GRAPH feature where Top Stars and Top Musumeyaku give a detailed photoshoot of costumes from their latest performance and explain their key details. In July 2010 Kiriya and Aono presented costumes from their Grand Theatre debut production, THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL.
Continue readingThis Month’s ‘Hana’ is the long-running Kageki column written by former Cosmos Troupe Top Musumeyaku Hizuki Hana.
In this issue she talks about the 2013 Snow Troupe production of Rose of Versailles: Fersen and her rediscovery of the character of Fersen.
(A few paragraph breaks are added to make it more readable.)
Continue readingWords and Pictures is an update on backstage events from each troupe, with the writers rotating quarterly.
Ootori Mayu was the Flower Troupe writer for the first quarter of 2013. This column features Ootori’s experience watching Ranju Tomu’s ‘Streak of Light’ concert, Ocean’s 11 rehearsals, and Ranju’s guest appearance in The Rose of Versailles.
Continue readingThe classmate interview column for the 89th class was written by Nanami Hiroki and ran in GRAPH in 2010. (The titles are usually elaborate puns, in this case Seven Seas=Nanami, 89 Records=a pun on the Japanese term for ‘white papers’.) Asumi’s interview was published in the July issue; she was still a Moon Troupe member at the time.
Continue readingThis Kageki feature from 2011 has the results of a survey of all the troupe members of the time, asking their impression of their Top Star through various questionnaires.
Otozuki’s was published in the November issue, and the survey seems to have been done during the performance or rehearsals for The Man in the Iron Mask/Royal Straight Flush!.
Continue readingThis offstage fashion overview published in the July 2016 issue of Kageki features Kurenai Yuzuru, Miya Rurika, Nozomi Fuuto, Shimon Yuriya, Ayakaze Sakina, Yuzuka Rei, Seo Yuria, and Urara Reimi.
Continue readingSenka Top Star Todoroki Yuu wrote this blog-style column in Kageki for many years until her retirement (first as ‘Talking to Myself’, then ‘Talking to Myself With Photo’ and finally as ‘Talking to Myself With…’).
In February of 2013 she wrote about weddings, among…other things.
Continue readingTroupe 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 are generally only replaced on retirement, unlike other backstage features that rotate monthly or quarterly.
This edition was written by Sahana Mako, and talks about events backstage of The Rose of Versailles: Fersen.
(Sahana consistently refers to otokoyaku with male pronouns and honorifics; this is not a translation error but her personal writing style, as is the various bold text, strikethroughs, etc.)
Continue readingIn this feature from Kageki, stars look back at their career and pick out roles that had an effect on their growth as a performer. This one was originally published in the June 2015 issue.
Posting outside the usual scheduling in commemoration of Ayakaze’s first retirement ceremony tomorrow.
Continue readingWINGS is a Kageki feature where a few young actresses answer questions about themselves and Takarazuka. This issue’s column includes Yuunami Kei, Shidou Ryu, Rui Makise, and Haruha Rara.
Continue reading