Cinderbox 18 - Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Artists uP cLose
Join us for these upcoming programs with the artists.
Thursday, November 15
First Night
Audience members are invited to join Peter Taub,
Director of MCA Performance Programs, in an insightful
postshow talk with Julia Rhoads and members of
Lucky Plush Productions.
Saturday, November 17
Dance Pulse
11 am–1 pm
Members of Lucky Plush Productions lead this openlevel
dance-theater workshop. Drawing from the process
used in the creation of Cinderbox 18, participants
will choreograph their own responses to what they
perceive as the most important cultural and social
phenomena shaping their lives.
Saturday, November 17
Roundtable
2–4 pm
Join the discussion with Julia Rhoads and guest artists
and scholars including Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, Artistic
Director of 500 Clown, and Daria Tsoupikova, Assistant
Professor in the School of Art and Design at the
University of Illinois at Chicago. Rhoads and Danzig
will use examples from their work to launch a talk
about the ways artists are responding to our highly networked
culture. Tsoupikova will address technology’s
ubiquity and accessibility with respect to phenomena
such as YouTube, MySpace, and reality tv as well as
the broadening range of interdisciplinary work in the
arts. Questioning the influence of the media and vast
Internet platforms, the group will talk about issues of
authenticity and appropriation. Attention will also be
given to the ways that artists maintain rigor in their personal
inquiries and speci>c >elds in a culture increasingly
drawn to hybrid works.
From the Artist
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
—Albert Einstein
A few years ago I broke a long hiatus from watching
television. Not only was I surprised to realize that
just about every other show is reality tv or some
type of criminal drama, I was even more bothered
by my own late-night attraction to this voyeuristic
and purportedly unscripted programming. My fascination
with its widespread success became the
basis of my initial inquiries for Cinderbox 18. In the
studio I began working with the performers to generate
material around related ideas of spectatorship,
competition, anxiety, vulnerability, virtuosity, failure,
violence, the manufacture of personal story into
anecdote, and the gray area between reality and fabrication
in our networked culture.
Cinderbox 18 has been created over nearly a yearlong
process, and these initial conceptual ideas
have been overshadowed through an extended
process of sedimentation. Movements that were
originally developed in relation to concept are now
the basis of a vocabulary rooted in relationship and
history. This has allowed the performers to inhabit
the work with immediacy and response rather than
to perform a prescribed choreographic score.
Cinderbox 18 is both consistent with a trajectory in
my work and a point of departure for the company.
I have always been interested in creating conceptbased
works that explore individual behavior
and relationships. I have also been challenged
to explore the intersection between dance and
theater that allows for the expression of technical
dance, but with a more human and responsebased
sensibility. Cinderbox 18 has been the first
process where we have had the time to focus on
performance intent in a deep way. Throughout
the process I have layered the structure with
unknown variables to increase the level of risk as
the performers become vulnerable in experiencing
the unknown. In this way, they are intentional
agents in the subtle di=erences that define every
performance.
I would like to emphasize that Cinderbox 18 is a collaborative
e=ort. The distinct environment of the
work could not have been achieved without the
ongoing input of our composer David Pavkovic and
designers John Boesche, Kevin Rechner, and Je=ery
Hancock. But most of all, I would like to acknowledge
the role of the performers whose contributions
have truly shaped the speci>c character of the work.
We are absolutely thrilled to premiere Cinderbox 18
at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Julia Rhoads
Artistic Director of Lucky Plush
Productions
About the Artists
Led by choreographer Julia Rhoads, Lucky Plush
Productions is a dance-theater company that
creates immersive environments through striking
visual design and movement that is intensely
physical and surprisingly gestural. Rhoads, known
for her theatrical savvy, is often recognized for
the boldness, modern sensibility, and intelligence
found in her work. Since founding the company in
1999, Rhoads has facilitated the relationship among
dance, performance, and new media technologies,
o=ering a distinctive interdisciplinary platform for
innovative artists in Chicago.
Lucky Plush Productions has premiered 27 original
works including performance installations, a
CineDance work, and six evening-length productions.
The company has partnered with Chicago’s
Redmoon Theater, Walkabout Theater, and the
interdisciplinary collective M5. Due to Lucky Plush
Productions’ distinctive brand of dance theater, the
company has performed in a wide range of dance,
theater, and performance venues. Beyond performing
extensively throughout the Chicago area at locations
such as the Great Hall in Union Station and the Lurie
Garden in Millennium Park, Lucky Plush has toured
in Alaska and created site-speci>c work in Wisconsin,
Michigan, and Illinois. For more information, visit
www.luckyplush.com.
Julia Rhoads
earned a bachelor’s degree in history from
Northwestern University and a master of fine
arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of
Chicago. She has been a company member of the
Salt Creek Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet, as well
as a performer and artistic associate of XSIGHT!
Performance Group (1995–2000). Rhoads has
created more than 25 original works with Lucky Plush
Productions, including numerous repertory dance
pieces, performance installations, a dance film, and
six evening-length productions. Rhoads’s independent
work has been commissioned by Alaska Dance
Theater, Mordine & Company Dance Theater, and
twice by River North Dance Chicago. She has also
directed and choreographed projects for Redmoon
Theater, Walkabout Theater, Hyperdelic, and the
interdisciplinary collective M5. Rhoads has received a
Cli= Dwellers Foundation Award for choreography, an
Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for choreography (2000
and 2006), a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, and a Chicago
Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award. She is currently
on faculty in the theater department at Columbia
College Chicago.
John Boesche
last worked with Lucky Plush Productions for Lulu
Sleeps in 2005. His set designs and productions for
dance, theater, and opera have been seen by Chicago