• Home
• About
• contact

Can You Make Your Puppet Sit?

In one of the plays we used to do, the prophet Samuel sits on a stool while waiting for David to arrive. So the question came up, “How do I make a puppet sit down?” After all, they don’t have legs and the audience doesn’t see the stool. How do you convince the audience that the puppet is sitting on a stool that they can’t see and that doesn’t exist?

To learn how to do it, I and studied the motions required to sit down. So, let’s think about it.

1. What’s the first thing a person does when they get ready to sit down? They bend forward and put their hands on the top of their legs or reach back to put them on the arm rests if the chair has them.
2. The next step is they bend their knees to get closer to the seat of the chair. 
3. Step 3, they drop down onto the seat of the chair. 
4. The final step is they lean back into the chair’s backrest.

If you haven’t already done so, try sitting down a few times focusing on each of the four steps. You’ve probably sat down hundreds of times without thinking about the specific motions. Now the goal is to make yourself aware of the motions so you can next transfer them to the puppet.

To make a puppet sit down, you’re going to have it go through the same four steps. Start off by sitting in a chair using slow and exaggerated movements. As you sit, think through the motions and then try it with the puppet.

1. Bend the puppet forward and down slightly. 
2. Drop the puppet about an inch or two only.
3. Move the puppet back an inch or two while dropping it another inch or two.
4. Straighten your arm.

Practice until you can do the motion in one fluid movement with little thought and then try it in the theater. Make sure you don’t drop your puppet so low the audience can’t see it. This is a simple movement that only takes a second or two to perform, but you’ll be amazed at the quality it will add to your program.

By the way, when it comes time for the puppet to leave, have it stand up first by reversing the motions.

7 Voice Altering Tips for Your Puppet Plays

When performing using a script, it’s a good idea to alter your voice a bit, especially if you’re performing before a group of people who know you. You don’t have to make a huge change, just enough so it sounds different. With the slightly different voice coming out of a puppet most people won’t know it’s you. How can you make those minor changes? Here are some ideas.

1. Raise the pitch (speak in a higher voice.) There have been times I’ve had to do a girl puppet in a skit. By simply raising the pitch of my voice I was able to do it in a convincing manner. I also do it when using a little boy puppet.
2. Lower the pitch. This is useful for doing an adult voice. 
3. Speed up your talking. This works for an excited puppet or one that has a lot of excess energy. 
4. Slow down your talking.
5. Speak with an accent. 
6. Use a nasal voice. If you don’t know how, lightly pinch your nostrils together and talk. Pay attention to what is happening and then try to mimic it without the pinching. With practice, you can learn to use a nasal voice quite easily. 
7. Speak in a monotone if it fits the character. In other words, talk on the same level without raising or lowering the pitch for any words.

As you read through the script, look for things that help you know what kind of voice to use. Put the puppet on and practice using a couple of different voices and choose the one that works the best. When you develop additional voices, you’re expanding and deepening your puppet experience.

How Consistent Are Your Characters?

We have a fairly large collection of plays to choose from, and included in that is a group of plays that use the same characters. The group includes one adult, five children, and a dog, but all the characters don’t appear in every play.

When we had a traveling team, it didn’t really matter who worked what puppet since the audience would only see the plays once. When determining who would do what puppet, I’d look at the overall program and disperse the roles as evenly as possible.

Now, we don’t have a traveling team, but one that ministers to the same group of children over and over. With that in mind, I want the characters to remain consistent in their mannerisms, mouth movements, and actions. To accomplish that, rather than randomly assigning parts for each performance, I assign roles.

One person is assigned the adult puppet so whenever that puppet appears in a play, that person performs the part regardless of how much or how little they are doing in the rest of the program. The same is true for all the other puppets in the series.

It doesn’t always work out for the same person to do the same puppet every time. Sometimes a puppeteer is missing on that Sunday and someone else has to fill in. Our team is large enough, that several of the roles are assigned to two people; the primary puppeteer and a backup puppeteer in case that happens.

That also helps during practice time. When practicing the play, the backup puppeteers listen to and practice the part using a different puppet. That way, they don’t sit idle during the practice time.

Keeping consistency in your characters isn’t vital, but does show a desire for quality which is what every team should strive for.  

3 Tips for Beginning Puppeteers (and a Reminder for the Rest of Us)

In this post, I want to share three important fundamentals that if done properly will help your puppet look more lifelike.

1. When people talk, they drop their lower jaw, so your puppet needs to do the same. To do that, you need to drop your thumb when talking with the puppet. The normal tendency is to raise your fingers because that’s a lot easier, so you have to train yourself to drop the lower jaw. Try working a puppet in front of a mirror and pay close attention to the mouth. Practice dropping the lower jaw even if it means speaking slower than normal. Make note of how it feels and transfer that into the stage. The good news is that once you’ve learned to drop the lower jaw and do it enough, it becomes a habit.
2. Use proper lip synchronization. Have you ever watched a movie or TV show where the words and mouth movement don’t line up? It is very distracting isn’t it? The same is true for puppets. You should open and close the mouth for each syllable. Again, practicing in front of a mirror is a big help in learning proper lip sync.
3. As people talk together, they tend to move a bit. Sometimes it’s shuffling their feet back and forth, using arm or hand gestures, or moving slightly. If you stay in one position for a while, it becomes uncomfortable and causes you to move a bit. Carry that over to your puppet; it shouldn’t stand still like a stone statue but should have some slight movements. They need to be slight or they can become a distraction.

There you have it, three quick fundamentals that are important if you want your puppet to appear lifelike.

Puppets Can Kazoo, Can You?

The last post talked about using a kazoo during a recorded play. Since it worked so well, we began to experiment on how else we could use the kazoo. I began to wonder if a live puppet could actually play a kazoo.

We have a human arm style dog puppet used for adlibs and decided he should play the kazoo. To do it, we had him come up and talk to my wife who was out front and he shared that he learned a new skill and wanted to demonstrate it. He held up a kazoo and placed it in his mouth. At the same time, a puppeteer placed another kazoo in my mouth and I played a song and had the puppet act as though he was playing. It came across as very believable and added another new element to our puppet experience.

A word of caution though. Kazoos work by having air pass over a thin piece of paper causing it to vibrate. If you blow too hard, you can rip the paper and it will no longer work. I blew too hard on a couple of them before we realized the problem. We didn’t toss the broken ones though, because the ones the puppets use don’t have to work.

Since kazoos are inexpensive, we purchased several and put together a kazoo band that also gave good results. With some more thought and creativity, I’m sure there are many other ways you could use a kazoo to enhance your puppet experience. Give it a try and see what happens.

Can Your Puppet Play a Kazoo?

A number of years ago, we bought a cassette tape with several puppet plays and one of them included two puppets that played kazoos during a song. We kind of ignored the play for quite a while, but then had a program where song fit perfectly, but did it without the kazoos. That didn’t look right, so a trip to the local dollar store was in order. After buying two kazoos, we fastened them on to the puppet’s hands with rubber bands and that play became one of our favorites.

To fasten the kazoos, we placed them under the three fingers and wrapped a rubber band around them and the kazoo to hold it in place. Then the rubber band was wrapped around the thumb so it looked like the puppet was actually holding it. Then we put the puppet on and tried raising the hand to the puppet’s mouth and adjusted the kazoo to where it was relatively easy place it in the mouth. The puppets sang a verse of the song, lifted the kazoo to their mouth, and used them for the second verse. It was great to hear the audience’s reaction upon seeing the kazoos and added a new element to our puppet experience.

When having a puppet play the kazoo, just put the tip of it into the mouth and lightly press the mouth together. You want to be careful that you don’t bite too hard and put a crease in the puppet’s mouth.

Since the kazoo song went so well, we began to wonder what else could be done with the kazoos. I’ll share more of that in the next post.

Is Your Puppet Right or Left Handed?

While your puppets really aren’t right or left handed, your puppeteers are and tend to use their predominant arm every time they use a puppet. Most of the puppeteers on your team are likely right handed. Normally that’s fine but there are a couple of reasons why each puppeteer should develop their weak arm as well.

1. It helps with proper positioning to work the puppet on the left side of the theater (facing the audience) with the left arm instead of the right. If you have a left handed puppeteer, that’s a great spot for them, but they shouldn’t always be there.

2. There are times when a puppeteer will need to work two puppets at once. Then they will need stronger weak-arm muscles. It’s not as difficult if they are singing a song in unison as you work both hands together. If you are doing a play with two different parts and one arm is a lot stronger than the other, the weaker one will tend to sag, lean, or drift around which weakens the performance.

Something that’s worked well for us during our practice time is to take about 10-15 minutes to run through the fundamentals with the strong arm, then go on to the normal practice routine and finish up with another 10-15 minutes working on fundamentals using the weak arm.

Also, I occasionally place a right-handed puppeteer in a left-handed position and ask them to use their weak arm during the play. When you practice with both arms and develop good solid puppetry skills with each one, it improves your confidence and the quality of your team.

Should Puppets Get “Saved?”

A couple of times, I’ve watched puppet plays where a puppet prayed to receive Jesus as his Savior which got me to thinking. Should a puppet get saved? My initial thought was no, but decided to look into it more. It is my opinion that a puppet should not get saved during a performance and here are some reasons:

1. A puppet is an inanimate object that cannot get saved. Jesus didn’t die for puppets, he died for people.
2. It can give a wrong impression. In a child’s mind, if a puppet can get saved, what about their stuffed animals or dolls?
3. Even though the puppet is acting when it prays to receive Jesus it can send mixed signals. Children tend to take things at face value and often forget that puppets aren’t real.
4. A friend of mine once saw a play where a Miss Piggy puppet prayed to receive Jesus. One of the children later commented that she was excited because she’ll see Miss Piggy in Heaven. I personally don’t want children leaving my programs thinking they will see a certain puppet in heaven. I’m more concerned that the children understand how to get to Heaven.

Does that mean you can’t use puppets to present the gospel? Not at all; in fact, we do it quite often. We just don’t have a puppet pray a salvation prayer. We present the gospel during the play, but then a live person shares how to receive Christ. Sometimes we’ll have a puppet say “I’m not real. I’m just cloth and foam, so I can’t receive Jesus. But the boys and girls here can.” Just be careful that you don’t stress that last part too much. You don’t want boys and girls praying a prayer just to please their favorite puppet.

Did We Forget Something? (Part 2)

The last post talked about creating a master checklist that you can personalize for each performance and create a check list for loading supplies. I used a spreadsheet program and saved the file. Then for each program, I would remove the unneeded items and print it as my checklist. The problem was, once I made changes and accidently saved them, I lost the master sheet. Fortunately, I had made a backup copy, but I had to go through the process of finding and renaming it. I thought there had to be a better way.

It turns out there is. If you save the file as a document template, every time you open it, a new document is created. Any changes you make on that document don’t affect the original template. Once you finish the document, you can either save it or delete it if you won’t need it again.

How do you create a document template?
Step 1: Create your document using a spreadsheet or word processor program. Take your time and make sure it’s the way you want it. It’s easy to create a template, but some programs make it difficult to save changes to that template. (If you create a document template and realize you need to make a change and have a hard time, simply give it a new name and delete the original one.)

Step 2: Go to File and then Save As…

Step 3: Click on the down arrow to the right of Save as type… in the dialog box that opens up

Step 4: Click on the template setting in the drop down list.
               MS Word—Word Template
               MS Excel—Excel Template
               Lotus WordPro—Lotus WordPro SmartMaster
               Lotus 123—Lotus-1-2-3-SmartMaster
               Open Office Calc—ODF Spreadsheet Template
               Open Office Writer—ODF Text Document Template

Step 5: Give your template a name and click Save.

To open your template, click on New and then look for available templates.

Did We Forget Something?

When we first started traveling with our puppets, I’d go through our equipment and pack everything I thought we’d need. It worked great until one day we got to a venue about three and a half hours away from home and discovered we forgot all of our cassette tapes. The majority of our plays for that program involved cassettes so we were in a real bind. Fortunately, my brother was willing and able to bring the tapes to us, but it taught me a valuable lesson. From that point on, I created a packing list for every program we did and after that we never forgot any important items.

To create the list, I used a spreadsheet program. For the theater, I didn’t just list “Theater” but broke it down into parts. It looked something like this:
Theater
[  ] Wooden Bases (2)
[  ] PVC Pipe Uprights (6)
[  ] PVC Long Horizontal Pieces (2)
[  ] PVC Short Horizontal Pieces (2)
[  ] PVC “L” Shaped Pieces (2)
[  ] Kneeling Pads (2)
[  ] Theater Curtains

I created a master list with the theater parts, all our puppets, cassette tapes/CDs, props, sound system, gospel tricks, object lessons, and anything else we might need for a program. As a precaution, I also created a backup copy.

Then when the program was set, it was simply a matter of going through the program and deleting anything we didn’t need and then print the list. That gave me a packing list where I could check off items as they were packed and we had everything we needed.

The problem I ran into was that once or twice when I closed the file, and accidentally saved all the changes I had made. That’s when the backup file was helpful. I then learned to save the initial spreadsheet as a template. Then anytime you open that template, it creates a new document, so the template remains the same regardless of the changes you make to the document.

Back to the Basics and Then Some

In previous posts, I’ve talked about various fundamentals and how important it is to consistently work on them. When your fundamentals are solid, your puppets appear more lifelike and you have a greater potential of communicating your message. Today I’d like to touch on a new one.

The mouths of most puppets are lined with cardboard and tend to hang open when not being used. In order to close the puppet’s mouth and keep it closed, you have to press your fingers and thumb together. That’s one of the reasons why your arm gets tired. As your arm tires, the tendency is to relax your thumb and fingers which causes the puppet’s mouth to hang open.

One of the major goals in working a puppet is to make it as lifelike as possible. People don’t go around with their mouths hanging open during normal activities and conversations and puppets shouldn’t either.

There’s no real skill involved in keeping the puppet’s mouth closed, it just involves strengthening the muscles and that comes through consistent practice.

There are times though when people’s mouths do hang open, like after they’ve been running or exercising. They are breathing through their mouth to get more oxygen to their lungs, but it’s only for a brief time.

If your puppet comes running on stage, have him “breathe” through his mouth for a few seconds. Open the mouth most of the way and partially close it then open it all the way and slightly move the head up and down. Do that several times to allow the puppet to “catch his breath.” Just be careful that you don’t draw undue attention to the puppet.

Should a Christian Puppet Team do Secular Programs?

In past posts, I’ve talked about looking for opportunities to minister outside of churches like parades, nursing homes, parks, camps, etc. The focus was on presenting Bible programs and sharing the gospel in those venues. But what if you get invited to do a program in a secular setting where you aren’t allowed to mention the name Jesus or quote chapter and verse from the Bible?

My personal opinion is that if God opens the door to do puppetry you should follow his leading even if it is a secular situation. The key is to make sure the opportunity is from God. Here are my reasons.

1. If you know the opportunity is from God, doing the program is a step of obedience. God often does things in unexpected ways and asks us to do things that don’t make sense. If you miss out on a God opportunity, you don’t know what you will miss out on farther down the road. 
2. If you put on a quality program and people find out that you regularly do puppets at your church, some may want to come and check it out.
3. Biblical principles work regardless of who uses them. You may not be able to quote chapter and verse, but you can teach biblical principles without telling the audience where they came from. The Bible tells us in Ephesians to put away lying and replace it by speaking the truth. Your program could emphasize the character quality of being truthful and share the consequences of lying. 
4. Your program may prompt some people to approach you afterwards with questions that can lead to ministry opportunities. 
5. It gives you an opportunity to get involved and help out your community. Too often in church, we expect people to come to us when Jesus said we are to go out into our communities. When people in your community see that you really do care by reaching out to them it can give them a better impression of your church and the people in it. 
6. It quite often will lead to further opportunities, some of which you will be able to share the gospel. There may be people in the audience that go to a different church and once they see you in action may invite you to minster at their church.

Should We Charge for Our Programs?

When we first began traveling to other churches with our puppets we had to answer the question of whether or not we would charge. We looked at several possibilities.

Charge a Set Fee
It costs money to put on a puppet show at another church. There are travel expenses which can include gas, tolls, and parking, food expenses, and others. The Bible says that the workman is worthy of his hire, so it is perfectly permissible to set a fee for your performance. The fee could be all inclusive or you could charge so much per program plus travel expenses. By charging a set fee, the church will know how much to budget for the program and won’t have to guess at what would be a fitting honorarium.

Come on a Love Offering Basis
Rather than charging a set fee, you could ask for a love offering. Most, if not all, of the churches we’ve worked with were willing to take up a love offering for us. The benefit is that sometimes you receive more than you would have charged for a set fee. The downside is the church may forget to take up the offering or it could be less than what you would charge on a fee basis. Sometimes it might not be enough to cover your actual expenses.

Don’t Charge at All, Just Ask for the Opportunity to Serve
This is the option we went with. I had a full time job and didn’t need the extra income from charging a fee. We traveled to a lot of small rural churches that didn’t have much money. For some, if we had charged a set fee, they probably wouldn’t have been able to have us come. We discovered that even without charging, almost all of the churches gave us some kind of an honorarium. We even had one pastor tell us that they couldn’t afford to give us anything and we said that was fine, we just wanted the opportunity to serve. When the program was over, he gave us a check from the church for one hundred dollars.

The bottom line in our decision was that we didn’t want to look to the churches to provide income; we wanted to trust God to provide for us. As long as you are trusting God to provide any of these options will work. You have to choose the one that fits your ministry as the Lord leads.

Puppets Are Tools, Not Toys

Whenever we add a new member to our puppet team, we always go over some basics before they start. One truth we emphasis is that puppets are tools and not toys. Most of the puppets we have cost over a hundred dollars each and when you multiply that by twenty or so puppets, you have a fairly substantial investment.

Since puppets are fun and a novelty, it’s easy to treat them as toys, but when you do it can affect the way they look and work and greatly reduce the amount of time you can use them.

Case in point. One of the things beginning puppeteers tend to do is bite things with the puppet. Don’t let them do it. Most puppet mouths are lined with cardboard and if you bite something it can put a crease in it. Once you have a crease in cardboard, you can’t get it out and it can change the puppet’s facial appearance and make it hard to work.

Unfortunately we learned this the hard way. When first starting our puppet experience, we didn’t really know what we were doing and made the same mistakes most beginning puppeteers make. Sure enough, it didn’t take long until one of our puppets had a big crease in the cardboard on the mouth. It gave his mouth a lopsided appearance and made him difficult to work. He went from active use to occasional use real quick and we ended up getting rid of him.

After that we learned the importance of treating the puppets as tools to use for God’s glory. We still have puppets we purchased over twenty years ago that are in great shape and are used often. Treat your puppets right and they’ll give you many years of use and enhance your puppet experience.

It’s Important to Start and End Well

In too many cases, I’ve seen teams that have put the majority of their work into the puppetry aspect and quickly run through the introduction and application. It’s like they rush to get to the puppets and then once done, rush to finish the presentation. That probably isn’t true in most cases, but that’s the way it often comes across.

The problem with that is the puppet play is part of an overall presentation. It is the tool that God uses to communicate Bible truth, but the application is where you make it personal and challenge the audience to act on what they’ve just seen.

Here are some reasons why you should start with a well-crafted introduction.

1. It’s the first thing the audience sees. First impressions are important and often set the tone for the rest of the performance. If you have excellence in your introduction, they will look forward to the presentation.
2. It gives you a chance to set up the play and prepare the audience for what’s to come. You can set the scene so the children know what’s going on.
3. It helps you to introduce your purpose and give the group something specific to look for in the play.
4. It allows you to focus the audience’s attention where you want it.

Here are four reasons why you should end with a well prepared application and invitation.

1. The audience has watched the truths in action by the puppets. The application now helps you to personalize those truths the audience members.
2. It turns the focus from the puppets acting out a truth to asking how that truth will impact their own life.
3. It moves the audience toward a decision to act on the truth they just watched.
4. Without a solid application and invitation, the play becomes just entertainment.

Copyright Puppet Training and Ministry Tips | Theme by DailyBlogTips