ENTERTAINMENT
July 16, 2009 | Patrick Kevin Day
Charlyne Yi, who co-wrote, executive produced and starred in the low-budget indie comedy "Paper Heart" (which screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival earlier this summer and will see limited release Aug. 7), came up with an inexpensive way to illustrate the true-life love stories of the interview subjects in her film: She used puppets, which she made herself. "I always enjoyed making puppets as a kid," Yi said. "I put on shows for my family.
ENTERTAINMENT
August 11, 2009 | Susan King
The beloved puppet show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie," the creation of puppeteer Burr Tillstrom, had millions of ardent fans, among them Orson Welles, John Steinbeck and James Thurber. The show was also a major influence on future generations of puppeteers, such as Jim Henson. In fact, the Muppets' creator publicly said, "We owe everything to Burr Tillstrom and 'Kukla, Fran and Ollie.' " The classic series is celebrating its 60th anniversary with the release today on DVD of 39 episodes of the show that aired on PBS and in syndication from 1969-71 and the unveiling of a new stamp commemorating the series, which was among the first to appeal to both children and adults.
ENTERTAINMENT
December 29, 2010 | By Daina Beth Solomon, Special to the Los Angeles Times
Warning to all nostalgic "Sesame Street" fans: The puppets in "Stuffed and Unstrung" are not the Muppets. They do hail from Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and they do exude childlike charm. An orange-haired girl with spongy purple skin accessorizes her tweed suit with pearls. Another, whose bright yellow nose sticks out 5 inches, wears blue hair tied in pigtails. And a rock-star gorilla sports sunglasses, studded bracelets and hoop earrings. But this cast of 80 puppets doesn't work from a script.
ENTERTAINMENT
June 3, 2007 | Diane Haithman
"ONCE there was a set of triplets, identical triplets to be exact. Of course, anyone with a basic understanding of human reproduction will say that is impossible, but these sisters knew otherwise ..." So begins Susan Simpson's short story "The Ditto Sisters," the tale of three siblings who live with the reality that only one sister is an original and the other two are copies.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 25, 2003
Los Angeles County's "National Day of Puppetry" celebration will be presented by the Hermosa Arts Foundation and the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hermosa Beach Community Center, 710 Pier Ave., in Hermosa Beach. The event, hosted by the Last Saturday Puppet Theatre, will include puppet shows, puppet historian Allan Cook's exhibition and a variety of workshops for children and adult puppeteers.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 5, 2005 | David C. Nichols, Special to The Times
Fifty years ago, the so-called Hiroshima Maidens, a group of young Japanese women gravely disfigured by the atomic bomb, arrived in New York City for reconstructive surgery. Their sociopolitical saga, rending in its historical context and application to current events, contributes mutely but vividly to the psychic and kinetic fallout from "Hiroshima Maiden" at REDCAT.