Puppets can be very effective tools in the hands of one who has learned to use them as a skilled craftsman. Most puppeteering however is haphazardly done without skill or much thought to its powerful impact. An ill-used puppet can be as embarrassing and ineffective, as a poorly preached sermon, or as useless as a badly written book.

Puppets have been used for centuries to entertain and enthral crowds. They can sing, teach, communicate political satire, entertain, warn, they touch the heart, and they always make us see ourselves in them, and laugh. They can get away with saying things that most humans would never be allowed to say.

Even in today's sophisticated, high tech society, a good puppeteer can make them laugh, make them think, make them cry, make them stand in awe, and fall in love with the puppet. Whether puppet be a ventriloquist doll as Egar Bergen performed with, a sock puppet like Sheri Lewis used, a simple green headed frog that Jim Henson introduced, a string puppet like Howdy Doody, or a mouthless still puppet like Mr Rogers employs, puppets can come to life to do a variety of things. It matters not the size or quali ty of the puppet itself. It could be an oversized full bodied elephant, like Snuffluficus or Big Bird or a tiny rag-tagged sewer rat. The mystery of a puppet's success is not in the material that it is made of but in the heart and personality of the puppet through the puppeteer.

A puppet is not a toy. A puppet is not a rag doll. A puppet is not a thing that is manipulated on the hand. A puppet is a person...yes, a person, as real and living as the puppeteer himself. Ask any professional puppeteer. Each puppet is an individual, as clearly defined in personality as the neighbor next door. When the puppet is worn on the hand it comes ALIVE! It is an extension of the puppeteer's personality. It is in effect, his alter ego, a split of his personality. If it is anything less, th en it is not a real puppet, it is just a sock with a human or animal face.

If your puppet or puppets never go deeper than the end of your hand then they are not alive, and will not appear alive or real to the audience, no matter what script is given to them. A puppeteer must have a vivid imagination, be able to immitate personalities, do voices, and take on a character totally different than his own. You might say he has to become incarnate in his puppet. He must WEAR the puppet inside and out. The moment he puts that sock on his hand it comes to life with a personality, voice , and mind that is the puppet's own.

Needless to say, not everyone can be a puppeteer, though anyone can manipulate a puppet. A puppeteer must be an actor. He does his acting through the puppet. He hides his alter ego manias behind clothe and string.

A puppeteer must love acting, pretending, playing the fool, imitating voices, manipulating the puppets so as to give it expression and life. A puppeteer cannot be a prude, a serious person, or a puritanical moralist. A puppeteer must be a humorist. Not necessarily a comedian, but he MUST have a good sense of humor, and an ability to ad-lib is essential to good puppeteering. Some of the best sketches come to being, not on paper, but in the process of acting out a theme.

Are you a puppeteer? No one knows until they play the role of a puppet whether they have the alter ego ability to become another person in the puppet. I have found that it is the timid person that has the gift of a puppeteer. For they are the ones who hold their emotions and expressions inside. These personalities are crying for a safe place to come out and be expressed.

Hints For Puppeteers

1. Humor - humor is the spice of life. The ability to be silly, clever, and funny is often a needed ingredient for effective puppeteering. Not all puppet personalities are funny. But each in his own right is a humorous reflection of someone we know and admire (or loathe.) Humor can be expressed in many ways through the puppet medium: Facial expression, personality trait, attitude, stupidity, pseudo-intelligence, crudeness, loudness, shyness, clever comments, puns, smart alec comments, idiomatic expressions, accent, voice, misunderstandings.

2. Improvising - Improvising is playing the role and running with it naturally. It is the ability to so incarnate yourself into the puppet that you do not always have to follow a script but can act and react quickly, and spondaneously to changing circumstances, even blown lines.

3. Personality - your puppet is an extension of you but should not have your personality. No one in the audience should be able to guess that you are in the puppet. The puppet is real! He has a personality all his own that only comes to life when he is in or on your hand. You must be able to fit inside the puppet's skin. You are the puppet! The puppet is not a script. You should be able to put on your puppet and even in private have a conversation with it, just as if it were not you, but a real and d istinct person.

WARNING: Since the puppet is real treat it as real. No one under any circumstance should be allowed to put on your puppet or to ever see it lifeless, especially the children with whom you work.

4. Voices - just as the personality is unique so should the voice be "one-of-a-kind" Your puppets voice is part of his/her personality. It is what makes him who he is. The voice should not be in any way similar to your own. Nothing kills effect like having children shout out, "I know who that is that's "So-and-so." The more puppets you are called on to use the more skill and cleverness you will need to exibit in making new voices. It is especially difficult to use two puppets similtaneously and using different voices for each without getting confused or overlapping. Stu dy voices. List en to cartoons, the muppets, impressionists. Imitate! Imitate! Imitate! Choose a voice you can easily imitate or adapt without straining your vocal chords and make it nature to you. Use it often. Switch it on and off during the day. Read long passages using that voice. Practice accents, volume, pitch, and style. Record the voice, then listen to it on tape. Can you tell it is you? Is it good? How can it improve it?

If you use multiple puppets write down a discription of the voice you use for each, just to remind yourself of what your voice goal is to be. For instance key words that help remind you of the voice: Bullwinkle : Boris Baninoff: Miss Piggy: Mush Mouth: Gomer Pyle: Homer Simpson.

4. The Puppet - each puppet should be uniquely yours. Even if it is a purchased puppet try to give it some personal touches to make it unique. For instance if you you buy a Miss Piggy puppet you might want to change the hair color, the voice, the face color, clothes, etc. so people don't think you are trying to imitate Miss Piggy and doing a poor job. Every person has a wardrobe, so should each puppet have a personal wardrobe. Go to the thrift shops, missions, and goodwill shops in your town to pick up low cost baby and or toddler clothes that would enhance your puppet's looks and wardrobe selection. Try a variety hats, scarves, and hair pieces. As you do more and more skits you will acquire accutraments, like plastic baseball bats, tiny baseball glove, hard hat, football helmet, sunglasses, glasses, mustache, earrings, gun, large pencil, etc.

Keep your puppet in a safe guarded place. I have found that a trunk or suitcase that is just his own is ideal. Bring him out only in private, and put him back as soon as you are finished. NEVER ALLOW ANYONE BACK STAGE TO SEE THE PUPPET. NEVER, NEVER LET ANYONE PUT ON THE PUPPET.

5. Manipulation - how you manipulate the puppet puts life into or out of it. Remember the puppet is real, its actions, mannerisms, gestures, movement should be natural too. There is no substitute to practice, practice, practice.

Practice - first of all without a stage. Put the puppet on your hand in private or with other puppets and puppeteers and have conversations and antics. Make him look and act real. Practice in front of a mirror. Video tape your performance and critique your own strengths and weaknesses.

Mouthing - mouthing words is as important as anything else you do. A poor action of a mouth that moves out of sinc with the words, or not at all ruins a puppet performance. minutes at a time. Keep the mouth in sinc with the words at all cost! Your goal is to get your hand in rhythm with syllables and not just words. you must practice in front of a mirror to get it right. Read long passages from books or articles and watch your movements. Let others judge how realistic the mouth movement is.

Head movements - One of the most common amateur errors is to allow the puppets head to become immobile when not speaking or taking part in some action. Often amatuer puppeteers will allow the head to slowly point upward as if in a transe, or to droop downward staring at the floor. The head is the life of the puppet. Keep it moving! Back and forth, up and down. Keep the puppet looking around as if he could actually see. Look at the straight man in front. Practice giving expression the the puppet. Can you simulate a smile? A frown? Crying? Closing eyes? Laughing silently? Again watch the Muppet show. Video tape it and practice, practice, practice!

Puppet hands - You may be able to use a puppet with real glove hands, do so, it adds to the life and realism of the puppet. If you are using a dangling arms puppet, work at using wire manipulators to get some movement to at least one of the arms. But by all means learn the rest of the puppet first before trying to use arms.

Your arms - Your hand and arm muscles will get tired! You will need to train and stengthen them. Remember there may be times when your arm will be raised and animated with words and gestures for 10 to 15 minutes at a time in a hot restricted area. Try squeezing a baseball sized rubber ball for 15 minutes at a time, when you are watching TV or just sitting around.

Your position - Probably the most difficult things to get accustomed to is the awkward positions you may have to presume to get behind a stage. Some puppeteers stand, some sit, some squat, some kneel, and others even lay down. You must adapt to the most comfortable position for you. Remember you may be in that position for a long time. It needs to feel comfortable. An important consideration is the height and size of the puppet window. It needs to fit you comfortably and that will be determined by your position. In many cases you will also need to be able to read a script in that position while both hands are occupied. Figure that one out!

Most of the time you will not be able to see the puppet while you manipulate it, nor see the audience, or the straight man in front of the stage. You will need to know your stage, audience, straight man. I like to have some way of seeing the crowd and my puppet to be able to act and react to them.

6. Microphones - today you will most likely have to have some kind of amplification system. That means a microphone to deal with while your hands are occupied, your face is glued to a script, while you try to watch the audience, and you puppet. The microphone needs to be positions so that it moves with you. Otherwise your sound will fade as your puppet makes movements, thus affecting the realism of the illusion of the puppet really speaking. The microphone also needs to be out of harms way so the it will not rub, bump or rattle around while you are manipulating. Ideally you should use a head phone microphone that comes around in front of your mouth. Those are expensive. In most cases until you have lots of money, you will have to adapt. The next best alternative is to use a hand held mic that won't pick up surrounding noise and attach it by way of a collar around your neck. A lapel microphone may be advisable but they typically d on't pick up if you head is turned away from it, so be careful.

7. Human element - The best puppet action involves a human front man, or straight man with the puppet. This seems to hold the attention of the audience better than a puppet to puppet drama or dialog. It also adds to the realism of the puppet not just being a stage item. It is a person too. A puppet to puppet sketch may be easier since it can be pre-taped and executed without interruption, but it tends to lose the audience. They become spectators rather than participants in the dialog. If your puppet is to maintain realism, and is the key to the heart of the listener it must have a realistic appeal. It must "interact" with humans. It must not just act, but it needs to feel, and respond to its surroundings.

8. Emotions - puppets are archtypes of real people, they are the mirrors through which we see ourselves. They must have real emotions to relate to real people. They must have feelings, reactions, temptations, sins, attitudes, habits, and idiosycracies, just like we do. They get are like we are. They get upset, confused, embarrassed, hurt feelings, and hurt just like we do. That is the human element that brings real life and real empathy to the audience.

9. Moralizing - The tendancy of some straight men/women is to be overly didactic, over moralize every puppet action. They are afraid that any attitude, comment, or action of the puppet that may not be ideal behavior is to be corrected, or the children will learn bad habits. Not so. Children already know right from wrong and can see it in the puppet more readily than in themselves. There is no reason to moralize every characterization that is not exempliary. Take Seasame Street's Oscar the Grouch, no on e has to say the obvious. "Oscar, you're a grouch!" That is obvious. The kids can see themselves in him as can all adults. In this case "pity" and understanding is better than moral platitudes. No one wants to be like Oscar but we know we are some days. So understanding, forgiveness, and loving him in spite of his failures is more powerful than a stern scolding.

10. The exit - getting the puppet off stage gracefully can be tricky. How you end the sketch can be as important as how you begin. Remember we have to keep the reality of the situation. On TV the camera can just fade to black, or pass to another scene. Not so in live productions. We have to refocus the audience gracefully from the puppet back to real life and the rest of the program. The exit needs to be natural and reasonable. Why does the puppet duck out of sight, pass by as if walking behind the c urtain, or get a window slammed in his face? I have often used the idea that he lives downstairs and must go back to his room for something, but with the promise that he will return. This answers the imponderable of where is the puppet when the show is over? In a hot trunk? In a suitcase? Does he die between shows? No, the puppet has a life beyond the stage too. So make it real, make it believable

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