Silver Back Muzik

Most of us remember the beautiful and elaborate puppet theater used in The Sound of Music, where a dozen or more marionettes appeared on tri level stages. However, for most of us, such a magnificent piece will have to remain on our wish list. And that's okay! We're providing tips herein on various ways to make puppet theaters out of cardboard boxes and household items. They're easy to create, will fit any budget, and will further your journey to providing great puppet shows for your Sunday school classes. Below are three styles of puppet stages that can be done on a shoe string-well, maybe a piece of clothes line!

The Curtain Stage Puppet Theater

This stage is simple a piece of clothes line with a bed sheet draped over it. Puppeteers use the edge of the clothes line as the stage, and puppets appear immediately above it. Puppeteers sit or stand behind the sheet and play the puppets over their heads. You can do this by running a clothes line from one wall of your class room to another. The stage is the area covered by the sheet.

While this is certainly the easiest stage to make, it is challenging to use for a couple of reasons:

First entrances and exits of puppets are awkward. Kids are distracted from the story when puppets merely drop out of site for an exit or pop up suddenly. It isn't realistic for them. We recommend that if you use this type of stage, have puppets act like they're going downstairs to exit and coming upstairs to enter.

Second, there is no shelf to put props, which means your puppets will have to hold any props. Having their little arms wrapped around something limits their movement and hence their responses. One solution to this is to line their hands with Velcro and also put Velcro on the prop. Have the puppet act using one hand with the prop secured in the other.

The Folding Stage Puppet Theater

This can be made from a large cardboard box. The front is the largest piece of cardboard, which should be five to six feet tall and at least four feet wide. The sides are equally tall but perhaps only two feet wide. They can be attached to the front piece with strips of gaffer's tape, so that they fold in after the production and fold out halfway for the production, to give the stage area the ability to stand.

A hole should be cut in the front pieces, which will be your stage. The hold should be at least four feet wide (remember, you may need three people backstage, and all should fit behind). You can use the gaffer's tape to hold a curtain in place or hang a curtain rod on stick-hooks such as those for a college dorm room. Puppets will appear in front of the curtain.

Most puppet theaters need a "shelf" or "flat" stage to hold props. This can be made by cutting a strip of cardboard that is three inches wide and six inches longer than the hole for your stage. In each end, cut one slit and fit the flat piece across the bottom of the hole with the slits holding it in place. You can secure it with triangular shelf supports from your local hardware store. They will stick to the cardboard if you use hot glue, gaffer's tape, or even nuts and bolts. The securing pieces will prevent the stage from tilting and dropping props onto the floor.

Puppeteers sit or stand behind the stage, depending on how tall they are and how tall the cardboard piece is.

A folding stage can be made from a box that contained a garden bench or other piece of furniture. Sometimes you can secure a box this size by calling a furniture store or a large-volume supplier such as Sam's Club. While harder to find, some Sunday school teachers opt for this stage because it folds up and can be stored easily.

The Table Stage Puppet Theater

This is a puppet theater made of a cardboard box that sits on top of a table. The box still needs to be sizeable-perhaps four feet tall and at least four feet wide, but Sunday school teachers often opt for this theater for several reasons:

First, this size box is easier to find; a large air conditioning unit might come in such a box or a large vacuum cleaner.

Second, the table means that there is a place to put a script and extra puppets and props. Puppeteers sit behind it, putting a table cloth over the table first so that their legs don't distract children.

Finally, it is smaller and therefore easier to decorate. While it can't be folded and stored as easily, you can leave it in the room and allow children to create their own Christian puppet shows during free time.

The table stage follows the instructions for the tri-fold puppet theater above in how you make the shelf and attach the curtain.