Prairie Dog Parables

I have begun plans for a new puppet show that I am hoping to use as a one man street show. For this I am creating five new puppets. Three are prairie dogs, one is a wood chuck, and the other is a field mouse. My plan is to adapt several of Jesus' parables and bring them to life in my puppet theatre. Check back to see the progress I make as I build these new characters.

For those wondering whether or not I'll be able to complete the boy puppet I announced a few weeks ago I want to assure you that I have plans for him as well. So its busy, busy, busy in the Bashful Puppet workshop.

Puppet Theatre Build

A few weeks ago I was given a rugged tool box that is roughly 36 inches long by 18 inches wide by 18 inches deep. I am going to convert this into a puppet show in a box stage and all. I am designing a stage that is somewhat patterned after the stage that Swazzle has been using this past summer. The stage will be about 5 feet wide and 7 feet tall. I plan to post pictures of the completed stage so that you can see what I come up with.

Little Dragon Shadow Puppet Video

I was watching Daryl Stiqman's PuppetLive blog, over a BlogTV, and he showed us a exerpt from the video, "The Little Dragon" performed by the Puppet Art Theater Co. This performance is a perfect example of the power of shadow puppetry and truly wonderful story telling.

I found it inspiring and am really thinking about how I would like to use shadow puppetry in the productions I'm working on. Because shadow puppets have different limitations when compared to hand puppets I think they would add to the power of a puppet show. I think they would also work well for dream sequences since they are two dimensional and monochromatic.

Regarding the boy puppet. I waiting for a chance to get to the foam store to pick up some reticulated foam so that I can get on with the building.

NEW POST - Boy Puppet

Well after a crazy busy summer and early autumn I am back and beginning a new puppet build. For this puppet I am leaving the world of insects and moving to people. A boy puppet to be specific. I haven't lost interest in my cast of insect characters I just think that as a builder and sometimes a performer I need to have a person puppet in my line up. The boy puppet is based on a character in a Max Lucado children's story, "A Hat for Ivan," that I think would make a great boy puppet.



I am using a modified pattern I purchased from Dr. Puppet as the foundation for the head and some building techniques I learned from his puppet building videos.

I should also say that while I am making the time to build puppets I still have many other projects that re demanding my attention so I may not be able to update as often as I would like. Have to keep my priorities in line. That being said I am looking forward to this build. I plan for it to be the best construction to date.

I'm Back and Hard At Work

Honestly I am hard at work,though admitedly most of the work has nothing to do with puppets. My house needs some work and thats taking up quite a bit of time. And then there's my work...that goes without saying. Fortunately for the puppets one part of my work is to prepare a program for 100 kindergarteners at a regional campmeeting.

The theme that I have chosen requires that I write several dialogs between one or two of my puppets and a leader. This means that I will be posting some puppet scripts in hte next few months so stay in touch.

Sorry no puppet builds at present. I would love to build but they take a lot of time and distract me from other things that I ought to be doing (like writing scripts and working on my house).

It's been a while since I last posted. I've been busy working on holiday related projects. Just to update regarding my puppet type activities I'm currently working on some scripts for a Joshua Junebug and Friends VBS program. Well, to be honest I'm having a hard time getting into the writing thing. Ever since high school I've found that I most motivated to write when the deadline is close at hand. ... Yes, I know, I need to be more disiplined. That's my pledge, I will stop procrastinating and get to work.

I'll post more when I have something more completed.

Juan Pancho and His Friends

This is a update report on the Peruvian puppet I made a few months ago. He has been named Juan Pancho and is now happily settled in his new home and is enjoying helping as an assistant in a children's spanish class. The children and their parents love Juan Pancho as well and one of the little girls goes to him and gives him a kiss first thing when she gets to class.

I've included pictures of Juan Pancho with his new owner and his classmates