The Play's
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So...you have puppets,
they look alive and you have tons of ideas for using them. What's the next step?
Here are a few facts, opinions and reminders about puppet plays and puppet playwriting
that might help.
In
General
1. Good Puppetry is Good
Entertainment.
2. Good Entertainment is a situation that has a beginning, middle and end.
3. Good Entertainment is fast-moving, to the point, and is as long as it needs
to be.
More
Specific
Good entertainment incorporates
the 4 "W": Who, What, Where and WRONG.
WHO is the main
character?
WHAT is the play about?
WHERE is it happening?
WRONG. What's wrong? Something is making life difficult for
the main character. And only through intelligence, cleverness and a few setbacks
does our hero resolve the WRONG...just in time for the happy ending.
Even if your puppet is only coming
out to give a lesson in conjugation you should incorporate the 4"W"
The Who, What and Where parts are easy. The WRONG is the fun part...for you
and your audience.
Look through some children's or adult's
fiction stories and identify each of the 4 "W". They will be there
every time.
When you write your own puppet plays
establish the four "W"right away in the beginning. Devote the middle
section of the play to the activities the puppets take to resolve the WRONG.
The end comes when everything gets back to normal (happily ever after).
Events
& Characters
The series of EVENTS your CHARACTERS
become involved in makes up your play. List them out. Your next job as puppet
bard is to carry the CHARACTERS through the EVENTS in the most goofily believable
way possible. Remember these are puppets you are writing for....they demand
to be outrageous.
All actors need characterization,
especially those made of fabric, fluff and stuff. In other words, CHARACTERS
need to be distinctive in some way: smart, dumb, superhuman, barely human, or
bloomin' human.
Each EVENT encountered by the CHARACTERS
should be dealt with within their own distinctive framework. So Sneezy always
sneezes the answers, Bellowin' Billy always yells out replies (even when he
is being sweet or tender.) Shy Sal....(well you get the picture).
The most important thing to remember
is to have
FUN laughs,
FUN giggles,
FUN groans,
FUN!
Puppets ought not be
preachy or boring (like adults) or long winded. They are meant to faint and
snort and fall over again and again. After all, Burt and Ernie didn't get where
they are today by being Jerry the Janitor. (Ya, Jerry the Janitor, I can see
it now. He is working late, on a darkened, rainy, starless eve (sound effect…
water... thunder), in the Betterworld Elementary School basement when the dreaded
Slime Spitting Swiper Spider climbs out of the furnace........)
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