Good puppetry requires mastery of basic puppeteering skills. Proper handling of your puppet during a show will create life and believability. This will create a more interesting and memorable program for your audience. Great puppeteering is engaging and fun to watch. Poorly handled puppets are not.
The five basics to puppeteering are:
- Entrances and Exits
- Height & Position
- Lip Synchronization
- Eye Contact
- Believable Actions
Entrances and Exits
The first important basic of puppetry is entrances and exits. A puppet should appear to walk up on stage just as a person would.
If you start your puppet towards the back of the stage, held low, and gradually raise the height while moving the puppet to the front of the stage, it will appear to be entering from afar. This is very natural.
If you just have the puppet pop up at the front of the stage, that is weird. Very unnatural.
The puppet can also come in from the side, raising it one little hop at a time as if climbing stairs. With each little bounce, the puppet will finish “one step” higher. You can exit the same way, wiht the puppet going lower with each bounce.
The bounces should not be large but should convey the idea the puppet is taking steps. Unless you are Neil Armstrong, on the moon or Tigger of Winnie The Pooh fame, you should not be bouncing high when you walk.
Always put a little hop in the movement to create the illusion that the puppet is taking steps.
Older puppets will move without a lot of bounce while younger puppets will move a little faster and bouncier. Lots of energy is what a little girl or boy should have. Not all puppets enter the same way.
Animals move differently than humans do. So animal puppets should move differently than human puppets. Animals will be bouncy, if they are puppies and move slowly if they are larger animals.
Strange entrances and exits like elevators, escalators and trap doors are distracting and detract from your performance. Your entrances and exits need to look like entrances and exits. Anything else is just bad puppetry. The only exception to this is if the elevator, trap door or escalator is pertinent to your script or the puppet’s personality.
Height And Positioning
The next basic is height and positioning.
If the puppet is too low, it looks bad and it usually means someone’s arm is getting tired. You need to keep your puppet at the proper height. How high should it be? Belly button level. If the puppet had a belly button, it should be even with the level of the stage. That way we can see the entire puppet.
If the puppet is held too low, you can end up with just a head peeking over the stage. If held too high, the puppeteer’s arm may be exposed. Puppets of the same age should be on the same eye level, as in a child talking to a child. If one puppet is older, like a grandfather to a child, the younger would normally be a little lower.
The puppet should never lean on the stage. It’s distracting. It looks bad. It doesn’t allow them to move their arms and the stage could fall. Try to keep the puppet about a foot back from the front of the stage.
Tired arms are usually the reason for leaning the puppet against the stage. I know I have been guilty of this. Regular rehearsal and exercise will help you strengthen your arms and hold the puppet up longer. Good arm strength is important to good puppeteering.
Knowing how quickly arms can tire when puppeteering, there are a few things you can do to help your team.
- Keep skits short, or work in spots for puppets to exit the stage and return later.
- When lip-syncing to music, keep the songs short. A one to two-minute song is great, but a four-minute song or longer can be grueling.
- Upbeat music can allow the puppet to move around more. Even when holding the puppet up, the ability to move the arm around and even up and down a little helps prevent fatigue.
- Use appropriate size puppets. Larger puppets are heavier and wear out your arm quicker. Adults can use large heavy puppets, but children may not be able to. My 9-year-olds prefer a 14″ puppet with no foam in the body. They are light and easy to use. My wife and I use larger 20″ puppets, but even then, my wife often switches to a lighter puppet to do songs.
Lip Synchronization
Our next basic is lip synchronization or lip-sync correct. Lip Sync is opening a mouth one time for each syllable.
Lip sync or lip synchronization is moving the bottom jaw for each syllable. The mouth is closed before the word begins and that it stays closed when the word is finished. Don’t leave your mouth open or you will bite your words. You need to open your mouth on the syllables. Not Close it.
Avoid flipping the lid. When puppet speaks, we should drop the lower jaw and keep the head stationary. People talk by moving the lower jaw, not the upper pops.
One way to control the movement of the top of the head is to place your middle finger on top of your index finger inside the puppet. Try it now without a puppet and move your hand as if a puppet is speaking. Notice how the upward movement is naturally restricted by this hand placement.
Do you always open your mouth the same amount when you speak? No question here. I move my mouth a lot more when I yell. Your mouth movements need to be appropriate to the words that you are saying.
For yelling or laughing, the mouth should be wide open. For normal talk, about half way and only a slight opening for whispering.
Eye Contact
Proper eye contact is looking where you’re supposed to. You have to see who you’re speaking at. Focus on the audience. The eyes will be pointed down at the audience if the audience is lower than the puppet stage. You don’t want to be staring at the ceiling. When two puppets are on stage together, they need to look at each other and the audience.
When one puppet is speaking, the other puppet should be looking at them. The puppet doing the speaking will be looking at the audience. When the non-speaking puppet looks at the speaking one, this cues the audience to also look at the speaker.
If the speaking puppet is looking at the non-speaker and the non-speaking is looking at the audience, the audience will be subconsciously drawn to look at the one facing them.
Believable Action And Movement
The fifth and final basic is believable action and movement.
Believable action is bringing your puppets to life. Everything your puppet does should be believable and he should look alive. Keep your movements very expressive.
You can throw back the head and open the mouth wide to laugh or hang the head down to show sadness. Looking up and away can signal the puppet is being evasive and avoiding answering a question.
Arm rods allow a puppet to point or clap. The puppets we build also have articulated hands that can hold props. Hand and arm movement can convey information and emotion.
One of the keys to bringing life to your puppet is to keep moving. Don’t stand still like a statue. A nonmoving puppet is a dead puppet. Little nods of the head while listening to the other puppet speak, or slight movements keep the puppet alive. A dead puppet is very distracting.
So those are the five basics to good puppeteering. Be sure to share them with your team and be sure to practice them every time you pick up a puppet.
If you want hands-on training for your puppet team, I am available to come to your church.
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