Training / Pictures

1. One of the most important things Is to match the personality of the puppeteer to the puppet script.

2. The puppeteer will get frustrated and eventually quit if there is a vast difference.

3. Unless you have determined that the puppeteer would rather be someone else. For example if the personality of the puppeteer is quiet and subdued and they play a outgoing and energetic part that won’t work. Unless they would rather be that way. You really must know the personality of the puppeteer for it to work long term.

4. This is the advantage of writing skits yourself. Because you can tailor and match the character personality with the personality of the puppeteer. In other words the puppet is them. They take up ownership of the puppet’s personality because it is in line with their own.

Now class control is vital when you’re dealing with teenagers. It’s important to keep them on task. I sit them in seats facing me and watch their puppets. A lot of times they forget to move their mouth or forget to move the puppet. The puppet looks dead if it’s not moving. It’s vitally important to do both. Move the puppet’s mouth and keep the puppet moving when they’re on or off-stage practicing. I sit them in front of me for a period of time reading through the script. I will change it up by letting them go back to the puppet stage. I do this because it keeps things moving and they don’t get bored sitting in one place. I don’t let them play around. We practice 1hr a week or 2hr depending on demand, and trust me time goes very fast here.

To do this as you have probably noticed on the website I have a year of topics. I know what’s coming up and I can think about how to approach it if it’s a touchy topic. There are some cases where you want to address something, but no matter how you write it, it just doesn’t sound right. I had one of those recently and because it sounded inappropriate. I had to change the topic. You can’t just sit down in a chair most of the time without a topic and start writing. It’s much easier to know what you’re going to be talking about, and then for me, it just flows. Again you must tailor your writing towards the personality of the puppeteer. The closer you can get to their true personality the more successful you will be and the puppeteer being vested in their character. I can’t stress how important this is. If you want your puppeteers to stay, you must match their personality. This is why generically bought puppet scripts just do not work, and basically, they just don’t say anything. They might be good for entertainment, but that’s not what we do here. If it doesn’t have a moral, or spiritual standpoint then in my view it’s useless. Now one trick that can really help is if you video their performance and play it back to them on a big screen TV. They can critique their own performance. This goes a long way in them seeing what their puppets are doing. Liking it or not and making changes. This is far better than just telling them. If they see it for themselves it burns in their brain that they need to do it differently. They must feel what they say. like a singer that sings from the heart. Puppeteers are no different.

You can have pre-recorded sound effects, prerecorded video, pictures, and different kinds of interaction with prerecorded media displayed on a large screen TV. This gets a little tricky because of timing for example if you carrying on a conversation with the puppet that is on vacation or a puppet in another country then you can talk to the puppet with a prerecorded script leaving space in the video for response. This definitely adds realism, and the kids can’t figure it out. It does require a lot of work. Music or prerecorded vocals can be an interesting addition to your puppet’s skit.

I feel like I need to say a word about microphones. When the puppeteers or behind a curtain or some kind of structure it’s not likely that they are going to be heard clearly. Especially when you’ve got different people doing it. Some people/kids are loud, and some are not. I found a cheap option that seems to work well but requires an external amplifier because the output of the mikes are at a preamp level. I have used these mics for almost a year now. Even though they appear to be cheap by being very light weight and battery life is maybe an hour and ½ they have worked very well and are rechargeable. I do have some recommendations, however. One is to clean the plug part of the headset with an alcohol-based wipe. I use Zeiss lens wipes for this purpose, but you could use alcohol on a cloth just as well. Then I put a very small amount of Dielectric Grease on the plug to maintain a good connection. Unfortunately the connections are not gold so they can easily tarnish and cause connection problems. The dielectric grease will go a long way in preventing that from happening on clean surfaces. The system that I will give a link to is a good cheap alternative to the very expensive ones, and works very well. The sound quality is very good and quickly connects to the receivers. We are currently running three of these for a total of six mics. It’s slightly complicated to reset the frequencies. But you must reset the frequencies because when you get the mics they’re all set to the same frequencies. So they don’t work. You have to reset each set of mics to a different frequency then it works seamlessly. It’s not complicated but you have to do it. Like I suggested we have six mics all on different frequencies and we’ve never had a problem after I figured that out. I have never had a problem with them connecting or losing connection as long as the receivers are close to the puppeteers. I’m not sure how it would work long distance. Even though the transmitter units seem to be very cheaply made the electronics seem to be sound. At last check they were $99 apiece so for around $300 you could have six RF mics that works well for this purpose. Because most girls do not have belts I also bought those long around the neck door key holders that go around the neck to hold the transmitters.  With all that said there is no substitute for a wired mike. A wired mike presents its own set of problems, especially when children are involved. But it offers the best stable sound.

HOTEC UHF Dual Wireless Microphone System with Lapel Lavalier and Headset Microphones Over PA, Mixer, Speaker, Karaoke Machine for Church, Training, Classroom, Interview (H-K25) Wireless Mikes