A Taiwanese artist directed a 3.6m-tall puppet through a neighborhood for homeless people in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday as part of an impromptu performance to bring awareness about refugees around the world.
The giant puppet, named Little Amal, depicts a 10-year-old Syrian refugee who is at the center of a global interactive live theater project called The Walk, created by The Walk Productions.
On Thursday, Amal was in Los Angeles’ Skid Row for an impromptu appearance, where she walked and silently interacted with audience members and passersby.
Photo: CNA
Skid Row is an area in the city where shelters and services for homeless people have been since 1976, with its high homeless population documented as early as 1930.
As the unofficial area for the homeless, the location is also home to many refugees and asylum seekers from war-torn nations.
“It’s really important for people to see the journey of these children and to see the struggles of refugees,” Lindsay Toczylowski of the Los Angeles-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center said.
She was a collaborator in Amal’s Thursday event.
“Our hope is that by people being able to see her walking and see her journey and be a part of that, they will be inspired to walk with the refugees and asylum seekers in their own communities,” she said.
Aside from the three puppeteers who operate Amal’s facial expressions and arms, an Asian man could be seen accompanying the puppet, speaking into a walkie-talkie while eyeing the crowd.
He is Taiwanese artist Enrico Wey (魏道揚). As the live theater’s director, he gave out observations and instructions to his puppeteers so that Amal might interact with the children, homeless population and refugees in the areas she visited.
“In this project, the audience experiences Amal, experiences the world at the same time,” he said. “So, every moment is live, every moment is real and she has to react to everything that happens around her. So, every event is different. You don’t know what you’re going to walk into and you don’t know how it will go. So, you have to improvise and keep things alive and living and true to how she might respond to that moment as a little girl.”
Little Amal has been traveling the world to bring awareness to global refugees since July 2021.
Since then, Amal has clocked 9,656km in 14 countries.
Wey has been a chaperone to Little Amal since the puppet’s initial journey in 2021.
As a member of South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company which designed and crafted Amal, Wey was selected as a director of the puppet production.
Since Sept. 7, Wey and the rest of The Walk Productions have accompanied Amal on a 40-towns-and-cities expedition across the US, starting out from Boston. Amal’s journey is set to conclude on Nov. 26th in San Diego before continuing her mission to Mexico’s Tijuana.
“Art can also engage with the big issues in the world,” theater producer David Lan said of the impact of art on the world’s problems. “Others can also be a part of changing the conversation and focusing on the potential that refugees bring with them in their imaginations and their experiences and the ways in which they can enhance the communities in which, as we hope, they will find new homes.”
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