Archive for the ‘ Puppet Theatre – All About Puppet Shows ’ Category

Puppet Shows

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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Being creative is the best way to see that your puppet show is successful. An imagination can make the sky the limit for what you can acheive through puppetry. Now that you have all your puppets ready, puppeteers chosen, and your theater created it is time to “break a leg” as they say.

Here a few tips to help you have the best and funniest puppet show ever.

  • Always know who you intend to be your audience
  • The length of your puppet script depends upon the age of your audience. One rule of thumb is to never go beyond one minute in length for each year of age.
  • Vocabulary should be appropriate to the age level of your audience.
  • Develop messages with positive attitudes.
  • Consider the age and cultural experience of your audience and also their spiritual maturity when working with churches.
  • Define relationships between characters before you begin writing your script. A relationship is the glue that holds a scene together. Are the puppets friends, siblings, strangers, etc.? All action should have a reason for happening and ring true to the characters.
  • Note specific movements for any puppet characters in your scripting.
  • Develop each character before you begin writing: physical description; likes; dislikes; age; mannerisms; idiosyncrasies. Dialogue is easier to write once you have established solid, multi-dimensional characters with specific personalities.
  • Interactive – puppet dialogues with the teacher standing in front of the puppet area and/or with the children
  • Consider your limitations before you begin writing a script: number of puppeteers available and their skill level; puppets you have; stage size and time constraints. Check to see if any of these obstacles have a creative solution, such as developing a tiered effect for the stage to provide more performance space or adapting existing puppets into new roles by adding wigs, beards, or changing costumes.
  • Make your characters distinctive and exaggerate their flaws or features. Name your characters according to their quirks. For example, Jolly Ginger laughs a lot, or you can not please Mr. Grumpy.
  • Incorporate music into your play if possible, especially at the beginning and at the end.
  • Print your skit so it is readable to those performing it. Design the outline in a script format and make the names of the characters in large capital letters.

Keep things simple. Don’t go overboard with props. Write the scenes so that your puppeteers aren’t climbing all over each other to get here and there. Practice and run through everything to make sure it is easy and doable for the performers.

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Puppet Theatre

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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There are many ways to create your stage or theater. You can build your own or buy them. They can be simple made with a PVC pipe frame covered in material or more complex with a wooden frame and painted. The most used puppets for performance is the hand puppet. Their stage should be a closed for the puppeteers to be hidden. It should not be too high if the ones controlling the puppets will be sitting down or too short if they will be standing. The stage should be designed for the number of puppeteers you will using so that they never have to cross over one another trying to get the puppet where it needs to be that would cause falls or a complete disaster to your skit.

One way for children to make a puppet theater is to put up a string in a narrow doorway and throw a lightweight curtain or sheet over the string. Simple and easy.

You can have the puppeteers behind a hidden platform or even have them in the open much like a ventriloquist who sits his puppet in his lap or on a stool beside him.

Darker colors seem to work best as a covering for the platform and it can be decorated with banners or signs if you are promoting educational subjects or with religious items for a church group.

The possibilities for making your own stage is endless. It all depends on who you are performing to, how many puppeteers you will be using and the type of puppets you will be using.

Once you have decided on your stage by either purchasing it or making your own it is now time to perform your puppet show.

Here is a good stage found at Amazon.

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Puppet Scripts

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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To begin writing your puppet script for your skit you have to decide who it is you are going to entertain. It is vital that you know who will hear your message, story or information contained within your script. Another choice to make is will children or adults be the target of your skit? Writing scripts for adults can have a more mature content than those for children. Knowing who it is you are targeting before you write will make writing easier making the decisions on what to write simpler. Writing for a particular audience will also give your underline message unity of purpose and style.

Now it is time to develop your puppet characters and how many will be in your skit. Each puppet should have their own unique characteristics and even be given creative names. They each need to be distinctive in some way: dumb, cranky, sweet, shy clumsy. Each character should be written in to be dealt with according to their character or name: sneezy sneezes alot.

Another thing you need to do is choose a protagonist (main character) and a antagonist (opponent of main character).  It’s always good entertainment and will keep your on lookers from falling asleep to have a villain and a super hero or someone good versus someone bad or thoughtful versus grumpy.

Next you want to determine what each puppet will sound like. Will they talk real fast or real slow, have a monotone, talk nasal or be whiny? If you find this difficult, it helps to think of people you know and imitate them.

It is also important to have your puppet characters appearance to match their character. You do not want your grumpy old man to look like a sweet little boy. Once you have done these things you will need to start developing your plot taking in considerations for time restraints.

A simple way to come up with a plot is to have the main character striving for something but unable to get it for some reason.

  • Who is it
  • What is it about,
  • Where is it happening
  • what is Wrong?

 

The four W’s are the focal point of what you need to use to outline your plot so that you can begin writing your script. What’s wrong? Something is making things difficult for the main character. Only through intelligence, cleverness and a few setbacks does our hero resolve the WRONG…just in time for the happy ending. Developing the WRONG  is the fun part of your skit for you as well as your audience.

Lastly you need to add humor to your script. If you can get the audience to laugh, groan, giggle or even get excited, you’re doing something right. Make a few jokes, give your characters a signature phrase and give your plot a few unexpected twists, turns and punchlines. Come up with some humor. Children love goofy humor. Make it fun and exaggerate everything as much as you can.

Use your puppets and exaggerate on their expressions. Draw out every detail in a groan or a sneeze. Use pauses for dramatic or comedic effect. A pause and a slow turn by the puppet to the audience can pull the viewers into the puppet’s exasperation or its “thought process.”  Sometimes a hesitation plays as well as a spoken line. Slightly vibrating the puppet can communicate fear or can be used to create a double-take of surprise. Holding up the puppet’s arms can communicate glee. A puppet’s hand on its chin shows it’s thinking. Hunching the puppet forward can mean sadness.A little humor and a few puppet gestures go a long way. Make your skit full of humor and try not to let the scenes in your script become stagnate. Puppets should not be preachy, boring (like adults) or long winded.

Now that you have your script ready to go, your puppet characters created, and your audience chosen it is time to move forward to deciding what you will do to create the stage and puppet theatre setting.

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Puppets

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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A puppet is an inanimate object or figure that is manipulated by at least one puppeteer. The puppeteer transforms the puppet into life by moving, talking and controling the puppet. Most puppets are made to imitate human behavior or characteristics. They can also be animals or objects. There are many different types of puppets that are made from different materials that depend on their form and intended use. They can be very detailed and complex in their design or relatively simple in construction.

Some examples of the different types of puppets are:

  • Body puppets – the puppeteer is enclosed inside the puppet costume.
  • Finger puppets – these are a simple smaller puppet that fits on one finger. These normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. They are used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children.
  • Hand or glove puppets – these are controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet.
  • Sock puppet – particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock.
  • Marionette – also known as string puppets. These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer.
  • Shadow puppets – these are cut-out figures held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Untypical, as it is two-dimensional in form, shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes, or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details.
  • Ventriloquist puppet – the puppets are operated by a ventriloquist performer to focus the audience’s attention from the performer’s activities and heighten the illusions.


Each type of puppet can become unique character by the way they are made, the voice give to it and the puppet script that is written to tell its story.

If you are wanting to put on a puppet show yourself you can make your own puppets or shop from the many sites online that sell all types of puppets to fulfill your needs. There are tips and how to’s to write your own script as well as ideas to building or creating the perfect stage or theatre setting.

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Puppetry

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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The art of puppetry is a performance which involves the manipulation of puppets by puppeteers that takes many forms but they all share the process of making inanimate have the illusion of life. The puppet characters are moved by human rather than mechanical aid. They may be controlled by one or several puppeteers, who are screened from a group of spectators.

The purpose of puppetry is to tell a story or share some kind of message whether important or just for fun. The impact of puppetry depends on the process of the transformation of the puppets. It is simular to magic and plays.

Puppetry has been used throughout the world for over 300,000 years for entertainment with their performance , cultural rituals and in celebrations such as carnivals. Evidence shows that puppet shows seem to have existed in almost all civilizations and in almost all periods of time.

In today’s times puppetry is still an important practice in many different ways. We watch television shows where the puppets are the main characters to help educate our children, in the streets in various festivals in other countries, and in our churches making our kids laugh as well as learn biblical principles.

There is one thing to know and that the art of puppetry has been around for a long time and puppets are here to stay.


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Puppet Theatre – All About Puppet Shows

Author: poohrona

Dec 10

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Who of us have never enjoyed a good puppet show when we were kids? A puppet captures our attention and captivates us.  The art of Puppetry been used throughout the world for over 300,000 years for entertainment with their performance , cultural rituals and in celebrations such as carnivals.

Puppet characters seem to capture the attention of both the young and the old. People of all ages enjoy watching puppets come to life and entertain them. No matter where or who is sponsoring the skit, puppet shows are a great way to educate, inform, tell a story and entertain.

The largest audience is children. Performing for children can be demanding but if done correctly it can be exciting. Children seem to identify with each character and are easily reached through puppet shows. With the puppet script catered to the vocabulary of a child full of humor, a puppet show can be a rewarding experience for both the children as well as the puppeteers.

Puppet shows can be used for many different churches, schools, police departments, fire departments, charity organizations, corporations, library’s, community events and event centers to get out a safety message, educate their audience to potential dangers, share a store, raise money etc…The puppet theatre can be decorated for the event with a stage for the puppeteers and what ever helps get the message out for the sponsor. The options for who and why to put on a puppet show is endless.


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