TOP MANIA! was a 2017 Kageki feature where Top Stars and Top Musumeyaku talked about their work routine during performances. Kurenai\u2019s was published in the April issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
TOP MANIA – Kurenai Yuzuru, Star Troupe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the performance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1)<\/strong> 3 hours before curtain, warming up and rehearsal in the practice room Although I\u2019ve eaten my breakfast at the theatre occasionally, in general I eat before leaving the house. On opening days in the Grand Theatre, there\u2019s usually a dress rehearsal in the morning, so I go to the practice room 4 hours before then and begin practicing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1) <\/strong>Before I go to the dressing room, I\u2019ll do vocal exercises and stretches in the practice room as warmup, and try out things I where I had thought \u201clet\u2019s try it this way\u201d as solutions for problems I noticed the day before. After reviewing things I was concerned about, I go through all my lines and songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2)<\/strong> I do my makeup based on my role in the play, so depending on the show, the angle I draw my eyebrows at and the way I draw my eyes, my foundation and all the other colors will be different. The main point is the eyes, of course, but if my skin is in bad shape there\u2019s no point to the makeup, so I take great care when doing the base foundation. While I\u2019m doing my makeup it feels as if I am changing into my character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3)<\/strong> When I think \u201cI want to respond to this\u201d about someone else\u2019s lines or actions, first I think about where that motivation comes from and why I would do that. Focusing on parts where I hadn\u2019t responded satisfactorily the day before, I visualize not just the basic timings and movements, but re-run it over and over with fine adjustments in emotion so that I absorb everything deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something that you have to have on your dressing table<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I always decorate my dressing table with fresh flowers. Once in a while Aa-chan (Kisaki) will put them there for me. I want to go on stage in an energized mood, so I keep everything around me cute and sparkly. Even my hand mirror and hair dryer are decorated with Swarovski crystals, so they\u2019re super sparkly. I don\u2019t want to use anything un-cute (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the show<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A must-have for performances<\/em> Your beverage of choice during a show<\/em> What you focus on during quick changes<\/em> Your favorite moments onstage<\/em> How far can you see into the audience?<\/em> After the performance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing you do after a show<\/em> Do the roles you are playing affect your daily life?<\/em> Bonus round<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What moments make you really feel like an otokoyaku<\/em> TOP MANIA! was a 2017 Kageki feature where Top Stars and Top Musumeyaku talked about their work routine during performances. Kurenai\u2019s was published in the April issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[13,360,283,42,115],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zukalations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Go to the dressing room 2 hours before curtain
2) <\/strong>Stage makeup
3)<\/strong> Visualization exercises<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perfume. I change my perfume depending on the role I\u2019m playing. As one of my steps in putting together a role, I decide \u2018this person would probably have this kind of scent\u2019 and collect a lot of different perfumes, then choose from among those. Therefore, sometimes there are times where the role calls for something I never use. Even if it\u2019s a scent I personally don\u2019t like, using it since it suits the role will make me strangely fond of it. But then as soon as the show closes I\u2019ll go straight back to disliking it (laughs). I\u2019ll change my perfume according to my image of the revue as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pocari Sweat and licorice tea from China, also really nice water (laughs). I generally drink about the same amount of everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I\u2019m in a hurry, I don\u2019t rush. I always match up with the time. Definitely, for sure!! I\u2019m always defying the time limits: \u201cI won\u2019t rush just because I\u2019m pressed for time!\u201d Since once before I had a quick-change where I had to change a wig and a kimono entirely in twenty seconds, that gives me a strange sense of confidence since I can tell myself if that went fine anything else will be okay (laughs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moments when the pinpoint spotlight hits me and the audience applauds. Of course if makes me happy, and coming out like that and getting applause really makes me feel like I\u2019m standing on the stage of Takarazuka. During the shinjin kouen of The Scarlet Pimpernel,<\/em> the applause from the audience was so huge\u2026I was able to discover how much I could ride on the applause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can see everything. In the Tokyo Takarazuka Theatre, I can see to the standing area in the very back of the second floor. I can tell \u2018oh, there are kids watching today~\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I gargle with the licorice tea. Next I wash my hands and take off just my eye makeup. After that I talk to the people I interact with in the play and so on about things that day I think I could have done better, or things where I think I would like to do something some other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve never had a role rub off on me ever. Even when I\u2019m actually thinking about my role, my emotions aren\u2019t affected by the characters\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After all, I think it\u2019s times when I\u2019m sitting in a chair with my legs spread, or when I have my arms folded in a way a woman wouldn\u2019t do, that I really feel \u2018I\u2019m that kind of being known as an otokoyaku\u2019. Onstage, when I was performing as a junior actress, I would think sometimes \u201cRight now I\u2019m being an otokoyaku!\u201d, but gradually those kind of things began to feel normal to me. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m being an otokoyaku, now, but that I\u2019m playing my role, so right now I don\u2019t have such an awareness of it, it just feels like \u2018oh, this is how it is\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"