How To Build A Simple Puppet Stage Or Theater

Suggestions for Making Easy Puppet Theaters

Librarians, school teachers, and children’s ministry workers all find puppets a great way to engage and interact with children, (and adults). Stages can be expensive and often outside the budget for a classroom.

Most of us remember the beautiful and elaborate puppet theatre used in The Sound of Music, where a dozen or more marionettes appeared on tri-level stages.

However, for most of us, such a magnificent piece will have to remain on our wish list. And that’s okay! We’re providing tips herein on various ways to make puppet theaters out of cardboard boxes and household items. They’re easy to create, will fit any budget, and will further your journey to providing great puppet shows for your classes. Below are four styles of puppet stages that can be done on a shoestring—well, maybe a piece of clothesline!

The PVC Pipe Stage

A PVC Pipe Stage is great for permanent locations or for taking from location to location. Because the pipes just slip in and out of the connectors, set up and tear down are a snap.

I suggest at least a 2″ PVC pipe. You will join the pipes at the corners with elbows and T’s. The basic design is two PVC rectangles for the front and back joined together with pipes running on both sides.

The back rectangle is higher than the front and can be raised a foot or two higher to create a contrasting backdrop. You may even want to paint scenery on the back curtain. Puppeteers work between the curtains, sitting on chairs. Additional puppeteers can work, standing behind the back curtain. Side curtains hide the puppeteers in front.

You can get complete instructions from the link at the bottom of the article.

The Curtain Stage.

The curtain stage. This stage is simply a piece of clothesline with a bed
sheet draped over it. Puppeteers use the edge of the clothesline as the stage, and puppets appear immediately above it. Puppeteers sit or stand behind the sheet and play the puppets over their heads. You can do this by running a clothesline from one wall of your classroom to another. The stage is the area covered by the sheet.
While this is certainly the easiest stage to make, it is challenging to use for a couple of reasons:

• First entrances and exits of puppets are awkward. Kids are distracted from the story when puppets merely drop out of site for an exit or pop up suddenly. It isn’t realistic for them. We recommend that if you use this type of stage, have puppets act like they’re going downstairs to exit and coming upstairs to enter.
• Second, there is no shelf to put props, which means your puppets will have to hold any props. Having their little arms wrapped around something limits their movement and hence their responses. One solution to this is to line their hands with Velcro and also put Velcro on the prop. Have the puppet act using one hand with the prop secured in the other.

The Folding Stage

The Folding Stage. This can be made from a large cardboard box. The
front is the largest piece of cardboard, which should be five to six feet tall and at least four feet wide. The sides are equally tall but perhaps only two feet wide.
They can be attached to the front piece with strips of gaffer’s tape so that they fold in after the production and fold out halfway for the production, to give the stage area the ability to stand.
A hole should be cut in the front pieces, which will be your stage. The hole
should be at least four feet wide (remember, you may need three people backstage, and all should fit behind). You can use the gaffer’s tape to hold a curtain in place or hang a curtain rod on stick-hooks such as those for a college dorm room.
Puppets will appear in front of the curtain.
Most puppet Theaters need a “shelf” or “flat” stage to hold props. This can be made by cutting a strip of cardboard that is three inches wide and six inches longer than the hole for your stage. In each end, cut one slit and fit the flat piece across the bottom of the hole with the slits holding it in place. You can secure it with triangular shelf supports from your local hardware store. They will stick to the cardboard if you use hot glue, gaffer’s tape, or even nuts and bolts. The securing pieces will prevent the stage from tilting and dropping props onto the floor.
Puppeteers sit or stand behind the stage, depending on how tall they are
and how tall the cardboard piece is.
A folding stage can be made from a box that contained a garden bench or other piece of furniture. Sometimes you can secure a box this size by calling a furniture store or a large-volume supplier such as Sam’s Club. While harder to find, some Sunday school teachers opt for this stage because it folds up and can be stored easily.

The Table Stage

The Table Stage. This is a puppet theatre made of a cardboard box that
sits on top of a table. The box still needs to be sizeable—perhaps four feet tall and at least four feet wide, but teachers often opt for this theatre for several reasons:

• First, this size box is easier to find; a large air conditioning unit might come in such a box or a large vacuum cleaner.
• Second, the table means that there is a place to put a script and extra puppets and props. Puppeteers sit behind it, putting a table cloth over the table first so that their legs don’t distract children.
• Finally, it is smaller and therefore easier to decorate. While it can’t be folded and stored as easily, you can leave it in the room and allow children to play with the puppets during free time.

The table stage follows the instructions for the tri-fold puppet theatre above in how you make the shelf and attach the curtain.
Some important notes for all puppet theaters. One piece that can’t be neglected in a puppet theatre is the curtain. It is the “frame” of another world that separates the puppets from the puppeteers, and children want to be a part of that world. Curtains should be thick and/or dark in color so that the lights from the room don’t shine through and make you visible. If children can see the puppeteers—either their legs or their faces behind the curtain, it cuts into their belief in the story.

Stage Lighting

If you perform your puppet shows in a dark room using spotlights, flashlights can be used. However, they must be stationary, not held by people who will fidget and accidentally move them. That can be distracting. Lights must be tested to make sure that they reflect off the fabric and not illuminate the person behind it.

Tips on Decorating your Puppet Theater

Tips on Decorating your Puppet Theatre. You can make elaborate designs on your puppet theaters and really use your imaginations.

Backdrops: Various curtains can be made to show different background settings. You can cut squares from a white sheet and paint on them to provide backdrops for various scenes. White sheet backdrops should be hung in front of the dark curtain and should not replace it.

Curtains: Curtains should be plain so that they don’t eclipse the little characters in front of it. However, they can be royal blue or red or deep green; they just shouldn’t be plaid or paisley, etc.

Theaters: Theaters can be colorful, and some classes have done things like posted pictures and bios of the puppets as if the theatre was a Broadway playhouse. Some make computer banners stating the name of the production to run underneath the staging area. As with the curtain, you want bright and cheerful colors, but not something that will distract from the characters once the production starts.

To get your creative juices flowing, we suggest you look at puppet theaters
online and use their ideas when possible. Your puppet theater should be your own creation or those of your students, but wonderful ideas are available to those who like to surf. And again, feel that meager talents with a paintbrush won’t be good enough. Children have great imaginations, and what you believe in, they will believe in. Put most of your effort into making your puppets come to life.

If you are looking for an inexpensive, simple puppet stage, I like this ONE