Shadow Puppets
Developmental Levels: Pre-K and up
General:
Shadow puppetry can be a simple as children placing their hands in front of a light source and experimenting with the shadows they create. It can be as advanced as figures intricately designed and cut to perform folktales, legends, and original stories. This style of puppetry allows for a wide range of puppetry experimentation. Shadow puppetry requires three things: the puppets, a light source, and a screen on which to perform.
Shadow Puppets Basics
Even the youngest of students can be introduced to shadow puppetry. Their curiosity and imaginations will be engaged by experimenting with placing hands, bodies, objects, shapes, and colored filter gels in front of the light source to project onto the screen. Nursery rhymes and songs can be acted out through the use of shadow puppets made from die cuts. Move the light source and screen farther apart to create human size porjections. Use a die cut of a school bus with cutout windows where students can project their shadows as part of the performance when they "ride" on the bus as they perform songs such as “Wheels on the Bus."
Older students are able to create shadow puppets at a variety of levels. Everything from simple solid shape figures to figures that include a single moving part will be possible for students ages 7 and older. Portions of the figure can be punched out and covered with tissue paper to make the designs even more advanced and intricate. By performing their own original scripts and creating their own scenery on transparencies, students can learn advanced puppetry.
Shadow Puppet Construction Procedures
1. Depending on age, students will create either simple cutouts traced from patterns or drawn freehand on construction paper or tag board. The type of paper should match the level of durability needed for the puppets. A medium colored paper will produce the best shadows while still allowing children to see their cutting lines easily.
2. Decorating the shadow puppets is not necessary, but if children are interested in doing this, encourage them to create small holes with a paper punch, or add stripes, feathers, etc. Any holes can be covered with colored plastic or tissue paper taped to the back of the puppet.
3. Control rods are used to move the shadow puppets around. These can be made from flexible drinking straws, straightened pieces of coat hanger wire, or 12" bamboo food skewers. Taping the rods to the back near the top of the puppet helps keep the puppet from drooping.
4. Older students can add moving parts to their puppets. Cut the desired moving part (such as an arm or jaw) from a separate piece of paper, leaving space to overlap the body. lay the part over the body. Hold it down with a pencil and move it around to be sure its placement is correct. Use a hole punch to punch through both pieces, and then insert a ¼" brad to hold the part in place. Add a control rod to the movable part as well.
Shadow Puppet Stage Procedures
1. Cut the bottom out of a medium to large-size rectangular cardboard carton, leaving a "frame" around the edge of approximately 2". When turned on its side with the long sides at the top and bottom, the carton should sit steadily on a tabletop, but if it does not, carpenter’s C-clamps can be used to fasten it in place. An empty picture frame can also be used. Attach "feet" to the frame to enable it to stand upright on a table. Make the feet wide enough to ensure stability.
2. Stretch a piece of translucent white plastic, such as a piece of plastic tablecloth, across the inside of the frame.
3. With a second person holding the plastic taut, staple or tape the fabric to the frame to create the canvas on which your puppets will be projected.
4. Set up a light source behind the screen. Overhead projectors work the best. Puppeteers will sit on the floor below the light source or stand to the side to avoid being projected onto the screen with the puppets.
5. Scenery can be drawn and displayed right on the overhead’s stage. Changeable scenery can be drawn on acetate sheets.
"Puppetry is an art - a performing art."
- Peggy Davison Jenkins
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