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Proper Puppet Positioning While on Stage

Today, I’m sharing a couple of tips from my course on beginning and advanced puppetry. They deal with puppet positioning when on stage.

Something you need to be careful to avoid is the dreaded “quicksand” patches that seem to infiltrate almost every theater. In the movies, when someone steps into quicksand, they slowly begin to sink out of sight. In puppetry, if you don’t pay attention to your puppet, the same type of effect often occurs. As your arm tires, you slowly begin to lower the puppet until just the top of its head is showing.

The normal response when someone realizes his or her puppet has dropped is to quickly pop it back up in place. The problem is that the action causes the audience to turn their attention to that puppet and they may miss some important lines. If you find yourself in that position, slowly raise it back up again. But the ideal is to keep an eye on your puppet so that it doesn’t sink.

Another thing to guard against is leaning the puppet on the stage. This usually occurs when the arm is tired or you aren’t paying attention to the puppet. The puppet should be held about three to four inches away from the stage. This helps give a proper appearance and gives room for arm motions and body movement.

When two or more puppets are onstage talking with each other, it is important that they maintain eye contact with each other. Don’t look at the audience while talking with another puppet—look at that puppet. You can glance at the audience now and then, but keep your focus on the puppet doing the talking. When you do look at the audience, remember that they are lower than the puppet, so bend your wrist some so your puppet is looking down.

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