Kamishiro Rui A Step Towards My Dream 4* Side Story

Title: A Step Towards My Dream
Characters: Rui, Tsukasa, Nene, Emu

Part 1

Cafe

Rui

(Tsukasa and the others…aren't here yet, it seems.)

(Guess I'll read the pamphlet I bought earlier until our meeting time.)

*Page flip*

Rui

(The newest hit which had the involvement of a sci-fi movie maestro-)

(The space shuttle's build itself was superb, but so was the CG used to represent the celestial bodies visited throughout the journey.)

(I wonder what kind of methods I'd have at my disposal if I were to depict space like that on stage?)

(While projection mapping is certainly an option, that alone would lack impact. In that case-)

???

…Rui… Rui…

Rui

I'd also like to approach the audience in some way. Like, say, by using a drone and…

Tsukasa

Oooi, Rui!

Rui

Ah, you're all here.

Emu

Ehehe! Rui finally noticed us~!

Nene

You seemed to be mumbling about something… Were you're thinking about directing again by any chance?

Rui

Hehe! Lots of ideas came to me thanks to the movie I watched before coming here.

Tsukasa

Ooh! So what kind of movie was it?

Rui

It's the sci-fi flick that was released just recently. I could probably sum it up as an action-adventure set in space.

It's lauded for its intricate CG, so I wanted to have a look at it for myself.

Nene

Huh… That sounds kinda interesting.

Emu

Yeah, yeah! ☆ So what kinda ideas did you come up with, Rui?

Rui

I've got one for a gadget that enables space to be depicted on stage like how it was portrayed using CG.

Plunge into a sea of stars and watch meteors pass right before your very eyes-

I was thinking I could surprise and bring joy to our audience if I could make such an experience a reality.

Tsukasa

You mean, portraying space in the theater itself?! That's a grand vision…!

Nene

It does sound interesting, but isn't it really difficult to pull off?

Rui

Indeed it is. I was wondering if it could be depicted well while using drones to represent the stars-

But in order to accomplish that, the body of each drone has to be minimised, and their whirs might need to be kept to an unnoticeable volume on top of that.

However, if this can be accomplished, I believe it can be utilised effectively for staging other scenes as well.

Emu

Wow~ Like what, like what?

Rui

Like say… How about combat scenes and the like?

If I could portray the arc of a sword being swung and the sparks from blades clashing using light shone by drones, I think those scenes could be made even more impactful.

Tsukasa

Oohh… That sounds like a treat for the eyes!

Rui

Moreover, it could also be used for dancing or singing scenes.

Creating an effect in which light can bounce at the venue according to a gorgeous dance-

Or making a faint light float in the room after the spotlights have been turned off so that the singing could reverberate in an ephemeral setting… Effects like those might even be possible.

Emu

Dancing under sparkly lights…?! That sounds like so, so, SO much fun!

Nene

Yep. I'd love to know how it feels to sing under an effect like that.

Rui

Yeah, and it should be able to bring about a novel experience for the audience as well.

Tsukasa

-As always, you really sound like you're having lots of fun whenever you're talking about this sort of stuff.

Rui

That's because there's truly no other moment that could compare.

I feel the same about the time I spend thinking about stage effects- The fact that I have teammates who will realise those ideas with me…

Reliable actors who so easily and casually surpass my expectations.

That's exactly why the ideas I want to test come to me continuously, one after another.

I was inspired by a variety of other sources too, so I hope you'll all look forward to these new effects.

Tsukasa

As expected, our director is truly reliable.

Emu

Ehehe~ I wonder what kind of effects they'll be~ ☆

Rui

-Oh, right. I just thought of something else.

Nene

By that, do you mean an idea for staging that uses drones that you talked about earlier?

Rui

Yeah. I was thinking that it could also be used for, say, explosion scenes and the like.

Tsukasa

Hm…?

Rui

I'll draft a plan that allows the audience to enjoy the most impressive effects while accounting for safety-

Tsukasa

Hold the phone! I'm glad you're having fun, but that doesn't mean you should be deriving that from explosions!

Part 2

Wonderland Sekai

*Rustling*

Rui

(…Found it. The Tale of the Traveling Troupe. It really has been a while since I last picked this script up.)

(The last time we performed this wasn't too long ago… But still, it feels so nostalgic.)

???

-Oh, so this is where you were.

*Footsteps*

Rui

Hey guys. What are you all gathered together for?

Nene

Miku and the rest said that you're also here in the Sekai, so we were wondering where you went.

Tsukasa

What were you doing in a place like this?

Rui

I was looking for this.

Emu

That's… The script for The Tale of the Traveling Troupe?

Rui

Yeah. We performed it together in the dream, right?

That might've been the reason why I felt like reading it again.

Tsukasa

…I see. I can't say I don't understand how you feel.

Nene

It's an important show to us, after all.

Emu

Yeah! Even though it was in a dream, I was suuuuper happy we could perform it together again!

Rui

…I agree.

Now that I think about it, I feel that this show was always present during significant moments for us.

Tsukasa

Because to us, it's the show that marked our beginning.

Without this show, Wonderlands x Showtime might not exist.

Rui

Yeah. On top of that, it was also the show we put on to mark our departure from the Wonder Stage.

Emu

…Ehehe! The Wonder Stage back then was full of smiles and so sparkly~

Nene

It really was. It feels kinda…nostalgic…

Rui

Back in the dream-

The fact we could recall important things, including our memories of the past, might be thanks to this show in my opinion.

Emu

Important things?

Rui

Yeah. For example, the growth that was achieved precisely because you were all present-

-as well as how greatly I treasure the time I spend putting on shows as part of Wonderlands x Showtime. Things like that.

Nene

The time we spend putting on shows together… It might really be thanks to this show that we could remember that.

Rui

When you think of it that way, you start to feel something special about this play¹.

Tsukasa

The fact that this play is witness to what we consider as important moments, huh…

Rui

Yeah. Perhaps, the next time we perform this show might mark a new milestone for us yet again.

Nene

Just when would that be, I wonder…

Tsukasa

Well, the one thing I can say is-

When that time comes, we have to make that performance of The Tale of the Traveling Troupe better than anything we've done so far!

And that's another reason why we must continue to grow with everything we've got!

Nene

You're concerned about how the show turns out instead.

Emu

But, but! I want the show to be way, waaaay more exciting when that time comes too!

Rui

Getting outdone by my past self isn't on my to-do list either, that's for sure.

-As director of Wonderlands x Showtime, that is.

(What kind of show will be created after we grow from this journey together-)

(Just imagining it makes my heart race in excitement.)

Notes

1. He says 演目 instead of ショー here. Sometimes they do that when they want to refer specifically to the program for a show or the title (e.g. when Rui mentions a few lines ago that The Tale of the Travelling Troupe was on the program when they departed from the Wonder Stage. In this case, since the show was the only one on the program, I just omitted the extra mention of program.) so in this case I called it this play to mark this distinction of referring to the play itself instead of the times it was performed.　(Return to text)