Puppetry Resources

LoiS with signing tiger puppet from workshop, A to Z  Puppets Are Easy

Puppetry will never be my main focus, but it is a great supplement for my storytelling work with children.  Prior to this the Puppets label has been here 21 times, so here's another.  Librarian William M. Painter wrote three books: Musical Story Hours: Using Music With Storytelling and Puppetry; Story Hours With Puppets and Other Props; and a third, combining the two and adding artwork, Storytelling with Music, Puppets, and Arts for Libraries and Classrooms.  I acquired that last book recently from another storyteller/teacher.  Published in 1994, it had been years since I read it and, at that time was working as a full-time librarian, just storytelling in my time off.  This book is indeed best suited to the library and teacher audience, but it still had some value for me.  (Must borrow again the one with specifically puppets and props.)

I confess that the music I use in my programs is usually live.  CDs too often seem to take my focus, whether I'm the one operating the player or somebody else is.  (His ideas are enticing, so maybe I shouldn't give up too easily.)  Painter's use of art prints, especially the Norman Rockwell or Winslow Homer works was a good reminder.  I liked also his reminder about how audience members could enjoy operating the puppets and props.   Audience participation is always worth considering.  Librarians and teachers can get more use from his picture book recommendations, but I still found a few stories beyond Picture Books since I don't have the same Fair Use exemptions.

The back of the book has a Resource Directory.  Thought I'd update my book with websites since they weren't available in 1994.  Several companies were merged in both the library and puppetry fields or their existence ended, including puppetry advocate, Nancy Renfro, but also Russ Berrie.  Some puppets, like Dakin, are now only found by sites like re-sellers on Etsy and Amazon.  That usually requires searching for something fairly specific, but https://www.etsy.com/market/dakin_puppets gives 63 results currently for a company that was a long-time supplier.  The companies still around have mainly gone to fairly large sites and when searching you can try "puppet" for both finding puppets or puppet stages or "dramatic play":

• Constructive Playthings.com/category/dramatic-play
• Lakeshore Learning.com/products/dramatic-play
• Mansion Schools.com/dramatic-play-learning-play
• Pyramid School Products (again the category of dramatic play is used -- must be educational terminology?)

Stepping into the library world the term changes to "supplies" and then use "puppet."  Amalgamation among library suppliers reduced the number of sites:

• Brodart.com
• Demco.com (has absorbed several brands)

Looking further than the book I found two major craft sites include puppetry resources.  Again search "puppet."

• Jo-ann.com
• Michaels.com 

Beyond that I was saddened to find that both the email list, Puptcrit, which is still listed on the Puppeteers of America site, and the independent network, Puppet Hub, have shut down.  Archive.org's Wayback Machine lets you view the open discussions of Puppet Hub at https://web.archive.org/web/*/www.puppethub.com if that's any help to you.

The national organization, Puppeteers of America, produces its own quarterly journal and mentions the only comparable online resource, The Puppetry HomePage, saying it "is webmastered by Rose Sage and is one of the best for on-line puppetry resources."  The closest it comes to offering puppets is information on building them.  P.O.A. offers both regional and national festivals.  They also list what may be your best resource, Regions and guilds.  Getting together with other puppet enthusiasts can give you ideas beyond the pre-made resources here.  My own guild, Detroit Puppeteers Guild, is very welcoming and loaded with talented members of many kinds.

I also have some resources on my personal website: my handout, "An Alphabet of Puppets and Storytelling" which gives a wide variety of ways to use puppets, and on my page of Specialized Resources I have sections including Audience Participation and, of course, Puppets.  There you will find pattern sources and the commercial puppet manufacturers, Folkmanis and the team of Melissa and Doug.  Both companies are also sold by some of the suppliers above and in fine toy stores.

As almost a postscript, just today I received the National Storytelling Network's June edition of "Storytelling Magazine" and it has a Guest Editor's Section on Puppetry in Storytelling to take into even further possibilities.

I always remember the title of one puppet play collection:

Don't just stand there-jiggle!

May you and your audiences enjoy the jiggling!

 

A to Z, Puppets Are EASY!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here's 10,000 from my workshop, "A to Z, Puppets are Easy", I will present at the Great Lakes Regional Festival, Motor City Puppet Blast.  (More on that after all the pictures.)

Buzz, my puppy puppet, is dressed like a pirate -- AAARF!  (He never learned a proper pirate's AAARGH!)

Nina the Teenage Ballerina

Puppets can be dangerous!

The Gunniwolf has caught me!

He's a lover of lullabies

(He's falling asleep)

This is Ivan, my Signing Siberian Tiger

Anansi, the trickster, has fingered a spot in the program, too

Here's a view of many of my puppet friends who help put on this workshop

Those great photos were taken last year at the program I did for the Birmingham Storytellers Guild by Kathy Calhoun.  THANKS, KATHY!!!  I'm awful when it comes to taking photos and so I'm immensely grateful to Kathy.

I promised more information about the 2014 Great Lakes Regional Festival, a.k.a. the

It will be held July 25-27 at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  They have a long history of puppet collections and performances and should be an excellent venue.

Here's the offiffiffic'al description of my workshop:
Story telling with puppets for all those interested, especially the beginner. Let puppets enrich your work! These unpaid co-performers can help tell a story, comment for humor, be “fillers” between stories, or serve as your assistant in story telling, teaching or preaching. Discover a combination of ways to use puppets, and easily located on line and print resources to help you craft programs “Out Front with your Puppet”. Be sure to bring a note pad and pencil. (one hour)

I've given this very popular workshop many times, including several times for my own puppeteers guild, the Detroit Puppeteers Guild, for their annual Day of Puppetry.  I'm also the coordinator for the group, Out Front with My Puppet on Puppet Hub, the "global network for professionals, amateurs, and people who just like puppets."  The purpose behind Out Front pretty well summarizes my own usage of puppets:  
A group for puppeteers who don't stay behind a stage. Whether storytelling, or performing music, or. . . it's just the puppet & their human performing directly to their audience.

Here are some ways to find out more about the festival and my suggestions on puppets

• http://www.greatlakespoa.com/Festival.html has the most information, but at the moment the exact time of my workshop is still being arranged.  I'll update this article so you know it right after I do.
• This wonderful link http://www.chicagopuppetguild.org/#!great-lakes-region/cshr from the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild gives a fine summary of the workshops, letting you see there's much more at the festival to learn.  (Yes, there will also be performances and puppets to buy and still more...look closely at the general festival link above.)
• My own website has two spots where puppets are featured, including on the Specialized Resources page, just scroll down to Puppets for my top 5 favorite links.
• Additionally here are some earlier articles here at Storytelling + Research = LoiS on Puppets.

You will notice the first of those articles here -- a rather long article on the Billy Bunny series -- is also part of my Keeping the Public in Public Domain series where I post stories from storytelling anthologies in the public domain. Billy Bunny was a toy to start children in their first explorations with puppets.  I'm uncertain if I'll find some additional stories for this month including puppets, but I'm certainly going to look.  Until then, happy storytelling and remember puppets, too, after all 
"A to Z, Puppets are EASY!"

Easy one-person puppet storytelling

Have you ever wished  for storytelling help and didn't know where to turn?  There are three good online networking resources.  The oldest is the email list, Storytell , hosted on the National Storytelling Network's 's website.  It's slightly international, but Professional Storyteller, with well over 2000 members from around the world, is very international.  Facebook's group, Storytellers,  is the newest and the least likely to be searchable for past information.  Storytell has an archive since 2009 which goes back to moving to the NSN site + long-time list member Jackie Baldwin has been archiving citations, discussions and references on specified storytelling subjects, themes and motifs posted on Storytell since 2000 at her wonderful Story-Lovers site.  Beginning in January of 2008, Professional Storyteller combines the visual -- and even audio -- nature of Facebook with the depth of archiving and possibilities of Storytell  in Professional Storyteller's various groups and the more general Forum discussion.  It also is open to the world to add to the internet presence of its members who can post their information including blog, videos, photos, events, and the opportunity to network with all those members interested in storytelling.

Additionally I'm active on Puppet Hub with my own group Out Front with My Puppet for puppeteers who don't stay behind a stage. Whether storytelling, or performing music, or. . . it's just the puppet and their human performing directly to their audience.

Because puppetry is part of my storytelling, when Betty Diles, on the Forum for P.S. asked: I'm looking for some quick easy skits or stories that I can do with puppets for my Pre-K and Preschool classrooms.  Any suggestions, websites, books would be greatly appreciated. :)Thanks!!

Here is a slightly revised version of how I responded and hope it helps you, too, find "Easy one man puppet stories":
Hi Betty,
I'm not at home right now, but saw your request and did a quick search of an online library catalog for puppet plays that specifically mention being for one person. I also followed it up with a look in Amazon since it often gave more information. (There's always more than 1 way to separate a feline from its epidermal layer!)

Even if you were clear around the world in Australia, I'm sure these online resources will be especially helpful. If you go to my website at http://www.lois-sez.com/SpecializedResources.html and go to the resources listed under Participatory, several sites may help you. The section called Puppets is right under that. I was surprised to see none specifically had on their sites what you need. They are worth your visiting, however, and I strongly recommend this Ning network, http://PuppetHub.com. If you put this question on my group there, "Out Front with My Puppet", I'm sure you will get some great suggestions.

For books that came up:
I know I own and would recommend One-Person Puppet Plays by Denise Anton Wright
* also Storytelling Made Easy with Puppets by Jan M. VanSchuyver.
* There are puppet scripts and great ideas in Caroline Feller Bauer's Leading Kids to Books Through Puppets. While I don't recall if they are suited to early childhood groups, her ideas are great and it is worth owning.
* I have Dee Anderson's Amazingly Easy Puppet Plays: 42 New Scripts for One-Person Puppetry, but don't recall if it works for the "littlies" as an Aussie storytelling friend, Mabel Kaplan, liked to put it. The summary says "Enough puppet programs for every week in the school year." That may mean it is meant for older children. It's hard to tell without the book in hand.
* Another good resource is Connie Champlin's Storytelling with Puppets and there are 2 editions. Get the 2d, more recent 1997 version. I don't recall it having scripts, but you'll definitely get other suggestions from it.
*Two books I don't own, but look promising are How to Do "the Three Bears" With Two Hands: Performing With Puppets by Walter Minkel and A Show of Hands: Using Puppets with Young Children by Ingrid Crepeau and M. Ann Richards. If you read their descriptions, it should help you decide if they're for you.

I don't tend to limit myself to existing scripts as so many folktales are simple enough to adapt. Another great thing is to be the narrator talking with another puppet or puppets as you tell the story.

Puppets are so great to use in so many ways. At the risk of once again leading you to my own site, many have found useful an alphabet I created of ways to use puppets in storytelling at http://www.lois-sez.com/Puppets.html. Hope these suggestions help, Betty!

A bit later I added:

Here's another book you may like. Fun Puppet Skits for Schools and Libraries by Joanne F. Schroeder. The stories, songs, et cetera would all work with preschool through primary grades. Some are specifically for 1 person and there are ways like stick puppets to manage stories that require several characters quickly.

I'll keep looking as time permits. I have a workshop in Petoskey, MI specifically about using puppets specifically for this age group, so it will help me, too, to have additional resources. Glad to help us both!

and yet a bit more:

Hi Betty,
When I had a chance, I went hunting online to see if there are any sites you should visit. There are many for Biblical puppetry, but I only found http://www.puppetresources.com/ for general purpose scripts specifically prepared for puppets. Some of them will work for solo puppetry. Of course your adapting folktales will still be the option I would recommend as it's the most flexible to meeting both thematic needs and your own.

****************************
I hope this month's blog, in honor of the National Day of Puppetry, which comes each year comes on the fourth Saturday of April, gives you some good resources both for puppetry and storytelling.

If you're looking for more puppet fun and are near the Detroit metro area, you can also go to my local guild, Detroit Puppeteers Guild.  If you are in the U.S. and seeking a guild, check with the Puppeteers of America to find your region and closest guild.