Puppet Kaos - where Kelvin Kao plays with puppets and tell random stories

Ah, been busy these two weeks, but these two weeks have actually been filled with a bunch of puppetry and theatre related stuff. I just didn’t get time to write about them yet.

LCC Theatre

Two weeks ago I went to a meeting of LCC Theatre Company, the UCLA theatre company that I performed with during my college years, where the new cast members, current cast memebers, and alumni meet one another. Each generation played an improv game. I played the interrogation game with Jarrett and Tru, two other alumni who I haven’t done improv with for quite some time, but there was no sign of rustiness at all. In fact, I think we did better than most newer generations because we are more used to listen to each other and a lot less likely to try to talk over each other, which just introduces unnecessary chaos confusions to the scene. I guess that sort of comes with experience. And then we also went on the retreat. It was good to meet the newbies. I think the producers picked a good mix of people for the new batch. But even more importantly, it was good to be able to see and hang out with the other alumni that I haven’t seen for a while. The bond is strong and the tradition shall carry on.

Taiwanese Puppet Show

The Music Center has this program called World City that invites a group from around the globe to put on a free show every month for family audiences. This month, they invited a well-known Taiwanese puppet troupe to perform. I grew up watching this stuff so it was really great to see it again. I will write more about it later.

New Puppets and Video

These two weeks had been pretty busy, not only because of those activities, but also because of a video that I was making. I built new puppets for it too, with my new sewing machine. It was quite time-consuming. I am not going to say that the end result is a masterpiece or anything, but I liked the way it turned out.

What to Expect Here Next

1. More info on Taiwanese puppets: I’ve always meant to do this but haven’t gotten to it. I would like to write more about the art that has, I guess you can say, major impact on my life. Also you’ll see a review of the performance I’ve just seen.
2. New video and the-making-of: I am going to post the video here. I’ve put a lot of work into it and tried a bunch of new things, so you will see more about the making of the video, and the making of the new puppets.
3. My new favorite show: I wrote about my second favorite PBS show, Between the Lions, earlier. And I am going to reveal and share with you guys what my new favorite PBS show is, as promised.

So look out for those things, as I have this list on my journal to cross out. (Oh yeah, and I have a new journal in which to jot down ideas.)

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