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.