Yuki Rurikawa (Summer Troupe)
Lead actor in the Summer Troupe’s 2nd play, The Adventure for Sardines
Secondary lead actor in the Summer Troupe’s debut play, Water Me!
Lead actor in the mixed troupe play, The Last Runway
“I don’t wanna use making costumes as an excuse, so I’ll do my best in acting, too.”
Given that you did not have any prior experience when you started working at Mankai Company, what did you find difficult about stage acting?
I used to feel uncomfortable when performing in front of a crowd…because it felt embarrassing. It wasn’t that bad during our debut play because Scheherazade was characterized with my image in mind. I felt happy about wearing a costume that I made for myself, too. But Shiro, the role I played in our second play, was completely different from my actual self. My pride would get in the way and my acting wasn’t going well, either. Lately, I had the chance to watch a video of our past plays. I noticed how there were times at the beginning where my voice wasn’t audible enough, my actions weren’t lively enough and the expression on my face looks stiff. There were parts when I obviously looked embarrassed, and it made me feel ashamed of myself. I feel so pathetic for not giving my all back then and I feel sorry for the costume I did my best to make.
Are you the type of actor who portrays a character by getting completely immersed in his role?
Hmm…rather than doing that, I prefer molding my actual self into a person that’s similar to my role. I often get roles that are very similar to myself so I focus on looking for traits that I don’t have. For example, in our fifth play, I was a female ninja named Sae. There were scenes where I’d narrow my eyes or instead of using facial expressions, I’d make gestures using my hands to express something. I did my best in figuring out how to portray an adult and act a little seductive. If I were to act like myself just because I’m similar to my role, I will end up just being myself instead of the role I wanted to portray. There’s an advantage in having a role that’s similar to yourself but trying to avoid plainly being yourself can be quite difficult.
How do you spend your days off?
I make clothes as usual and go to clothing or sewing shops for ideas. I check magazines and movies, too. And then, I do some school work. Some of you who are reading might already know this, but schools around Veludo support stage plays. If a student decides to work for a theater company, the school will either limit the amount of school work they need to do or extend deadlines. All the students in our company study under this system.
Do you have anything you want to say to your fellow troupe members?
Among the company’s troupes, the Fall Troupe gets their costumes damaged the most, but I can’t blame them because they have a lot of action scenes. The Summer Troupe, though, causes almost the same amount of damage to their costumes.
I’m not asking you guys to be conscious about damaging your costumes while acting on stage, but handle them carefully after the play!
I’ve told them this a thousand times, but I thought this interview would be a nice chance to say it again.
Also…thank you for making my work load as light as possible because I’m also in charge of making costumes. But I don’t wanna use it as an excuse, so I’ll do my best in acting, too….I’m looking forward to performing more plays with you.
On play titles: Title translations from A3! Wiki (yaycupcake) were used for easy reference in case you want to look them up.
Special thanks to Terumi!
mikanzuki translations 
k
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