How To Be A Puppeteer

Want to be a puppeteer when you grow up? Watch and learn as our host John Kennedy gives insider tips on how to develop your puppet character, make your puppet move and perform in front of an audience.

a puppet and a HUGE imagination!
pen
piece of paper

REMEMBER THAT IT'S IMPORTANT TO ALWAYS WORK UNDER ADULT SUPERVISION. SOMETIMES WE USE OBJECTS THAT COULD BE HARMFUL, LIKE SCISSORS, SO DON'T EVER ATTEMPT TO MAKE THESE PUPPETS ALONE.

1. Imagine what your character can do. Playful assessment of your puppet.
2. Imagine what your character would say. Having a conversation with someone will jump start a character.
3. Imagine where your character comes from. I like to develop a little character sheet for this part of the process. Let’s each fill one out for our puppet. Character sheet, Age, Background, Likes / Dislikes.
4. Figure out who your character is…the next ingredient is believing in your character or in puppeteer terms, Putting imagination to the physicality of the puppet. We’ll demonstrate this with some movement skills. Puppeteer Skills: Lip synch - Open the mouth on the syllables. How I open the mouth. Eye Focus - Where is your puppet looking and for how long? Body Movement – Arm rod technique and isolations.
5. Give your character a voice. This in puppeteer terms is…Putting imagination to the physicality of speech. So tell me how you think your puppet will talk.
6. Pin down the puppets behavior. We want to think about The puppet at rest / levels of movement Breathing / gasping/ Looking / double take Reacting / big expressions Let’s experiment with our puppets and just make-up what we think they would do.
7. Now we need to think about performing. Wanting to entertain people is half the fun. Can anyone tell me where you can entertain people with your puppet? Children’s hospitals, Birthday parties, Local TV station.
8. There are tons of places that a puppeteer can perform but do any of you know if there are schools or organizations for puppetry? University of Connecticut, Local Puppetry Guild, Puppeteers of America.
9. Are there jobs for puppeteers? And the answer is yes! That’s how I make my living! Can any of you name some places where you think a puppeteer can work? Theme parks and Entertainment agencies.