"Life of Pi" at the Ahmanson Is a Must See Magnum Opus! Now thru 6/1!!

Winner of three Tony Awards® and the Olivier Award for Best Play, Life of Pi, will knock you off your seats with its exquisite enchanting enthralling exhilarating exuberant excellence! Whether or not you've read the best-selling critically-acclaimed award-winning novel by Yann Martel or have seen the 2012 Oscar winning film adaptation directed by Ang Lee, you will be blown away by this outstanding out of this world over the moon one of a kind wonderful one singular sensation.

"Life of Pi" tells the story of Pi, played by A+ ace adept adroit astonishing astounding actor, Taha Mandviwalaa, a young Indian boy who survives a shipwreck and is left alone on a lifeboat with a 450- pound Royal Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, a zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan.

Many of the compelling commanding captivating charismatic cast members are from the original Broadway production. However, Richard Parker is the stellar sterling stunning striking smashing superstar.

Scarlet Wilderink, (Global Associate Puppetry and Movement Director) said, "The reason to make Richard Parker a puppet is, I think, quite clever, because puppetry can toe the line of what's real and what's not real in an incredible way. Puppets can try and represent things that we already know to be true and things that are very abstract as well...we're trying to tell the audience about things that are not really there."

Finn Caldwell (Puppet & Movement Director, and Puppet Designer) said, “We look at anatomy. We look at pictures of skeletons of tigers, blow that up to a real tiger size and start marking on pieces of paper on the wall where the joints are all going to be. Because when we build on a framework, our armature, it wants to move like a tiger, because the limbs are all the right length. The joints want to move in the right way.”

“One of the most helpful tools for us is imagination. If the puppeteer is really seeing the thing, the audience will see the thing. The tiger’s fur, you know, he doesn’t have real fur. But if you imagine the softness of it, this sort of stretchiness of their skin, the weight — like if he collapses into Pi, how do you make him look like he’s soft in his lap? It’s part of the design because we’ve got all those bungees that tie all of the armature together, which makes him look like that. But the sensory stuff, I think, is in our minds.”

Richard Parker may be one tiger but he is portrayed by a team of eight puppeteers. Each night, the tiger is operated by three puppeteers in different places across the puppet - the head, heart, and hind.

Toussaint Jeanlouis, the premiere preeminent prominent proficient puppeteer and accomplished actor playing Richard Parker, said that the performance process has been collaborative from the start. "It's like jazz musicians, you all have your instrument and then you have to figure out how to play with each other."

The cornerstone of that process is breath. The puppeteers cannot speak to each other during the show, so they have learned to communicate to each other through breath. According to Jeanlouis, "a deep inhale while puppeteering the head can signal to the team that they are about to start moving, whereas a sigh could signal that they should slow down when already in motion. He also must tie these breaths into his performance as the head, which requires him to sometimes vocalize in a low, gravelly voice in lieu of spoken dialogue."

No wonder it's the puppeteers who represent the magical majestic marvelous magnificent mastery that raise the bar and bring the production to another level. Hurry on down to see this terrific tremendous top notch tantalizing team of talents take your breath away. They had me at hello!!

Venue: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90012

Dates: Now through June 1, 2025

Schedule: Tuesday through Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m. Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Sundays at 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Added Performance Thursday, May 29 at 2.p.m.

Tickets: Prices — begin at $40.25
Website — CenterTheatreGroup.org
Phone — Audience Services at (213) 628-2772
In person — Center Theatre Group Box Office (at the Ahmanson Theatre)
at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. 90012
Groups —centertheatregroup.org/tickets/groups-and-corporate-offers

Venue: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Segerstrom Hall

Dates: Tuesday, June 3 to Sunday, June 15, 2025

Schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 2:00pm and 7:30pm, Sundays at 1:00pm and 6:30pm

Tickets: Prices start at $44.07
In-Person – Box Office, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Monday 10am to 2pm, Tuesday through Friday, 12pm to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday: Closed
Phone - Monday – Friday 10am to 5pm (714) 556-2787
Online – SCFTA.org
Group Sales – (714) 755-0236