"...a contemporary subtext about the true cost of war: There's nothing childish about Tri-Pi Theatre Company's modest but effective family puppet play."
--LA Times

Premiered in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles
July 29-August 20, 2006

Artists:

Story:
Leslie K. Gray &
Sam Koji Hale

Directed by:
Leslie K. Gray

Puppet Design:
Sam Koji Hale
Leslie K. Gray
additional design by
Mirna Lozano

Puppeteers:
Sam Koji Hale
Eli Presser
Michael Oosterom
Janet Song

Original score:
George Abe

Musicians and Foley:
George Abe
Leslie K. Gray

Sets:
Leslie Gray
Michael Gray

Costumes:
Leslie K. Gray

performed at:
Centenary United Methodist Church
300 S. Central Ave.
Los Angeles, CA


 

 

 

Performed as part of Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Day and as part of the annual Nisei Week Festival in Little Tokyo

Kitsune no Cho-chin, or The Fox Lantern is a wordless table-top bunraku show set in feudal Japan. A poor rice farmer sends his son off to war under the banner of a heartless official. When the son is killed, the father journeys to the land of the dead with the help of a mysterious "kitsune" or fox-woman. With her help the father and son are eventually reunited and the official gets his just reward. With Japanese instrumental score of bamboo flute, taiko and percussion, composed and performed by George Abe, The Fox Lantern drew even the youngest audience members into its spell. Puppetry included shadow, rod, marionette and minatures.

Please click the link for more information about the compact, traveling version of this show known as "Autumn Leaves"

Or to book this compact version, click here.

Table-top bunraku puppets of the farmer and his son

Farmer harvesting rice bundles

Farmer and the fox woman with her fox mask on

Portrait of the fox woman puppet without her fox mask