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Energize Your Puppet Scripts

In judging at the Teens Involved competition each year, I’ve seen several hundred scripts performed. Some I still remember, but others faded from memory on the way home.

What made the difference? Here’s some insight I’ve gleaned from these presentations.

The First is Volume. Puppeteers have to speak loud enough, without yelling, for the audience to hear. Why?

• If an audience member has a hard time hearing a puppet, they usually do one of two things: lean forward and listen intently, or lean back and stop listening. Those who work to hear, often miss key words or phrases, can get frustrated, and the message is lost. The ones who stop listening, miss the whole message.

• Sometimes if you can’t hear someone, but observe their lips while they talk, you can determine what they’re saying. (Try it while watching TV. Turn the sound down, focus on the person’s lips, and see how much you can discern.) The problem with puppets in that scenario is you can only see the mouth move up and down. You can’t see the lips forming the words.

• If you have one puppet that is so quiet the audience has to strain to hear and a puppet with a booming voice talking together it’s hard for the audience to follow. They have to strain to hear one, but back off on the other. Often, they’ll sit back and opt to miss lines or words of the soft spoken puppet.

• Some puppeteers only speak loud enough for those in front to hear. The further back the audience member is, the less he or she hears and the odds increase that they may tune out.

• The easiest and best solution is headset microphones for each puppeteer. That way the sound person can adjust each volume so they all speak at the same level. It’s the best, but also the most expensive.

• Another option is to put a microphone on a stand inside the theater. The key is to position it closest to the soft spoken puppeteer.

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