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Kid Koala’s Nufonia Must Fall

When: Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 16, 4 and 7:30 p.m.
Where: Massey Theatre, 735 8th St., New Westminster
Tickets and info: masseytheatre.com

How many people does it take to turn Kid Koala‘s 2003 graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall into a live animated version that is acted, filmed, projected and scored in real-time?

The artist known for his work with such chart-topping acts as Gorillaz and Deltron 3030 laughs at the 30-plus crew tally that is coming to perform the work at the Massey Theatre as part of the venue’s Performing Arts & Technology Festival from Nov. 14-17.

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Nufonia Must Film

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Turning Nufonia Must Fall, a book about the romance between a lonely office girl and an unemployed robot trying to rise above the cacophony of the big city, into a live performance was years in the making. It involved taking Kid Koala’s original concept across 20 miniature sets being filmed by eight cameras while puppeteers manipulated characters through the narrative.

Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett, whose credits include Her, Where the Wild Things Are and Being John Malkovich, provided direction for the project.

“There are 15 puppeteers, the Afiara String Quartet, cinematographers, technical crew and me on more things than I can comfortably manage, and that was the plan,” he said. “When it comes to the Nufonia and Storyville Mosquito shows, there is an urgency to them that comes with the possibility that the whole thing could fall apart at any moment which is exciting. Whatever floats your boat stylistically in a live musical spectacle is fine, and I’ve done a wide variety, but I do love this kind of production that takes it way beyond the usual.”

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Way beyond the usual describes much of the output from the 49-year-old artist born Erick Yick Keung San.

Raised in Vancouver, he first came to prominence as a global scratch DJ phenomenon in the mid-1990s. From there he ventured into seven solo albums ranging from turntablist manifestos to space-jazz swing fests. Along the way, he also published a pair of books, released a board game, scored a trio of hit video games and contributed to soundtracks for films from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to Baby Driver and others.

Keep it weird, they’ll get it later

The tag line for Kid Koala’s website is also as close to a mission statement that the artist has every released.

Fans who have experienced one-of-a-kind live performances ranging from the Space Cadet Headphone concert, where audience members are equipped with their own headphones and seated in inflatable space pods to experience a group show individually, to children’s robot dance parties know that the “they” mentioned encompasses all ages and tastes.

A Kid Koala event is interactive, to the point that the audience can become the show, with the DJ dressed in a rabbit suit playing the part of conductor/chief-fun-bringer.

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“Almost 20 years ago, the Nufonia publication was the first time I shifted into this seated audience presentation model, because the publisher wanted me to do a book tour,” he said. “I pointed out it had no words, so a traditional book reading wasn’t going to go far. So we brought a projector, my turntables and piano, developed a Nufonia Bingo game and did a live-take on the included soundtrack. The Space Cadet book tour took that to the next level.”

One of the wonderful characteristics of all of Kid Koala’s presentations is how seamlessly they blend often cutting-edge digital technology with elementary arts and crafts to combine into an event that this writer once compared with an after-school fun day freakout.

Performing Arts & Technology Festival

Aside from Nufonia Must Fall, Kid Koala will also lead a Music To Draw To session, a game session with Koala’s Creatures of the Late Afternoon board game and the ever-popular Robot Dance Party for children. Other sessions at the festival include ace animator Jeff Chiba leading an Animation Workshop for ages seven to 12 and Writing Music for Film with composer Chris Catalano on Nov. 16. And numerous dance battles and more on Nov. 17. Full listings at masseytheatre.com.

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“We want to engage a more intersectional audience apart from the more routing theatregoers, so we recognized that performing arts are present in everyone’s lives in different ways as is technology,” said Massey Arts Centre executive director Jessica Schneider. “So we wracked our brains thinking about all the different ways performing artists use technology as well as how media and technological artists adapt the performing arts and to find a number of different ways for people to engage and experience these practices. So we have a range of performances, workshops and more for the festival.”

Another goal of the festival is to “bash away” at the perceptions that arts and culture are segmented into different ages and presentations.

“The idea that doing things as families or with as many people as possible is much more relevant now with inflation,” she said. “Plus, the idea that you can try new things and play games with others is super-healthy. Being able to focus on things like our local youth street dance and DJ group Battlezone was a way to acknowledge their talent alongside artists like Kid Koala, and has been very fun to program.”

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As Schneider notes, Kid Koala had his start working with local hip-hop youth groups before moving far beyond those origins.

What’s next for the Kid?

One thing about Kid Koala’s career is that he never does just one thing. When he took the call for this story at his Montreal studio, he was putting finishing touches on a film soundtrack for another “Chaplinesque” dialogue-free animated feature inspired by doodle sessions with his daughter.

“I am going to give you a scoop about this animated feature that we are working on, which has a lot of cool musical guests involved in the score,” he said. “Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Martha Wainwright and Ladybug Mecca from Digible Planets are just some of my fave vocalists and MCs that are on it. It’s mostly incidental, but there will be a few cover songs.”

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He is also working on new scratches for a coming Deltron 3030 album, with producer Dan the Automator and rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien. Release date TBA.

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