Little Puppet, Come Alive!

As I looked at Eric and Joey, they did not seem to be very impressive simply laying in the box. Their puppet bodies were lifeless as they laid there. I simply slid my hands inside the puppets and lifted them out of the box. Just like that the lifeless puppets came to life. Like all puppets, Eric and Joey just needed some help from a puppeteer to help them give the impression of life.

The most common type of puppets are moving-mouth puppets. With these puppets all you have to do is move the puppets mouth in sync with the spoken words. The technique here is to move the puppet’s mouth for each syllable that is spoken.

Here is an example. For the puppet to say “Hi,” its mouth should be open once and closed. To say “today,” the mouth should be opened twice, once for each syllable. Experiment by using the puppet to say “Hi, how are you today?” For this sentence the mouth should be opened a total of six times. Make sure to close the mouth completely when the phrase ends.

If you want to practice, pick a song that you know well, preferably one that is not too fast. Use your hands to make the puppet “sing” by opening and closing the mouth in sync with the words. If you can do this you are well on your way to being ready for a puppet performance.

Glove puppets are also common, but they are significantly different than moving-mouth puppets. With glove puppets you will use your thumb and middle fingers as arms for the puppet, and your index finger will simulate the head movements. With no mouth to open, the gestures and body language will be more important for making glove puppets interesting.

To simulate life you should cause the puppets hands to move during talking, and also use some light head nodding. Don’t move the puppets head sharply as it can be too intense and distracting for watchers.

Other types of puppets include finger puppets and stick puppets. With these puppets you can create the illusion of life just by making small movements back and forth. Use you wrist to make the puppets sway from one side to the other. Making realistic movements is the key to giving the illusion of life with the puppets.

When using puppets, these principles are always key.

(1) Be sure to keep each figure on stage “alive” even when it isn’t his turn to speak. A gentle nod of agreement or disapproval, a turn of the head, or slight wave of the hand will keep a puppet from turning to stone and becoming uninteresting.

(2) Keep the puppets visible to everyone in the audience. Avoid “hiding” puppets in the back or corners of the stage that will make them impossible or difficult to see. Puppets who are speaking should be facing the audience, but others can be looking at each other.

(3) Don’t forget to hold them up above the stage at their waist-level. It’s easy to let your little friends slip nearly out of sight as your arms tire.

(4) Simulate walking on and off the stage with a gentle bouncing movement as opposed to gliding or popping up and down.

Returning Eric and Joey to their box reminded me of a verse. Jesus said “Without me you can do nothing.” Just as the puppeteer is the source of life and strength to the puppet, so is He the source for us.

Father, thank you for being me source of strength in my daily life.

Dr. Ann Shorb is a counselor, speaker and writer. If you are working with puppets in your own ministry, check her website for puppet skits.