Arizona State University alum Toussaint Jeanlouis returned to Tempe on the “Life of Pi” national Broadway tour, where he voiced and puppeteered the head of Richard Parker, the tiger, while also acting as the hyena and Cook.
With an impressive background in music, singing, dancing, martial arts and more, Jeanlouis first realized his passion for performance in high school where he saw the impact of the arts firsthand.
“If I can make a change in the world by performing, then this is totally what I’m interested in doing,” Jeanlouis said.
As he moved into his years as an ASU theater major, Jeanlouis found that the support from his teachers and the knowledge they gave him helped him “develop the sense of being an artist.” Following his graduation, Jeanlouis attended the California Institute of the Arts, and after years of performing and teaching the arts, he is making his way back to Arizona this summer.
Joining the “Life of Pi” cast to play an animal through puppetry was no easy task. In order to bring inanimate puppets to life throughout the show, Jeanlouis and his fellow cast members had to research how tigers, hyenas and more interact with the world around them by watching videos.
Through this process, Jeanlouis learned how to effectively communicate what an animal needed, what they were feeling and how they see the world.
