Here is a grouping of photos of some of the puppets that students made in a recent puppetry workshop.
puppetry
Paper Kestrel
More paper engineering. This time a paper kestrel puppet in progress. Here is his head. There is a lot of cutting and folding and gluing to develop the shape.
The wings; almost ready to be attached to the body.
The Russian Jonah now with eyes and hands.
Another view of the kestrel’s wings.
Paper Puppet Workshop
In preparation for a short workshop I will be doing on paper puppet construction in July, I have been partially building a few paper folk.
The paper man, possibly a Russian Jonah.
Shadow Puppet Workshop
I had the opportunity to do a afternoon shadow puppetry workshop with Sara Murphy in Kansas City for some high school kids. Below are images of some of the interesting puppets they designed for an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin.
Puppet Show In April
The School of the Transfer of Energy Puppet Theater will be performing the play The Two Deaths of John Beartrist Laceroot this April at the Fiber Studio, 418 Commerce Street in Wichita, Kansas. There will be three performances: Friday, April 10th at 7pm and Saturday, April 25th at 3pm and again at 7pm. Mike Schultz will be showing his current work at Fiber Studio as well. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Contact me at playbanjo@gmail.com or the Fiber studio 316 303-1996 fiberstudio1@sbcglobal.net.
Two Puppet Stages
Here is the main stage for the School of the Transfer of Energy Puppet Theater with some interesting shadows in the morning sun.
A slightly more complete picture of the same stage. Here you can see the main curtains, and the side screens. The shadow screen can be seen behind the trees of the scene in the stage. The scene, which is under construction, is John Beartrist Laceroot entering a grove of cedar trees.
Below is a peak at the mechanics of one of the rod puppets under the main stage floor.
This is the stage for the marionette narrator of the play which takes place on the stage in the preceding photos. The wooden container, which is actually used to transport part of the main stage, serves double duty as the platform for the narrator’s stage. There will be a curtain concealing the legs of the operator.
Here is a detail at the foot of the stage. The whale is the symbol for Jonah, who the narrator, Jonas, is named for.
Puppet Stage Front
This stage front is for a large marrionette, who narrates for The Two Deaths of John Beartrist Laceroot.
The narrator is named Jonas, thus the carved whale.
Wood-Pecker Puppet
Below is a small puppet of a red-bellied woodpecker. This fellow has a minor role at the end of part one of the play The Two Deaths of John Beartrist Laceroot, performed by The School of the Transfer of Energy Puppet Theater. It is carved from red cedar and is operated by a system of strings, weights and elastic.
Here is a view of the mechanics on the reverse side. He opens his mouth and flaps his wing.
John Beartrist Laceroot
The red cedar rod puppet of John Beartrist Laceroot, aka Walking Man, taking a rest in his rocking chair.
Moving Background Cylinder
Rotating cylinder that has a light inside to project a moving background onto a shadow screen.
The School of the Transfer of Energy 