Live Puppetry and Improvisation:

What is live puppetry? This class will give you the basics of what it is and how to do it. Take home some tips and ideas on how to improvise using live puppetry.

The "Beginnings of Puppetry": 

Just starting out and need a little help?  Come get your feet wet and learn a little about a lot of things; the differences between hand puppets, big mouth puppets, marionettes, black light puppets etc., we'll touch on manipulation of each. Bring your questions about getting started and we'll get as many answered as possible during the session. You'll even go home with a list of resources.

Character Development and Voices:

Make an inanimate object come to life. We'll work on developing a character and voice for your puppet. Bring a puppet with you so you can start the process during class. We will also discuss the benefits of giving a personality to your puppet as opposed to keeping them "personality neutral".

Introduction to Big Mouth Puppet Manipulation:

 Make that puppet come to life! Come learn how to lip sync, use a rod and exercises to strengthen your arm. Give the illusion that fabric and foam is actually alive.

Hand Puppetry and Manipulation:

 Puppets don’t need a mouth to talk! This class will give you the basics of hand puppetry. Come see various types of hand puppets and learn how to make them come alive. Hand puppetry is a wonderful art and is especially good for those who have a tough time with lip sync or cannot tolerate the heavy weight of other types puppets.

Resources and Help:

Where do I get foam? Where do I go for music? Who do I call for scripts? Books, patterns, websites, companies, organizations … this is the class to come to if you are in need of any of that. You will walk away with a list of help to get you and your team started. This list is NEVER complete, there is always a new resource to add on, so bring your favorite resource or idea and share it with the class.

Really Simple Black Light Props:

Want to give black light a try but think it’s too complicated. There are really simple props that you can make that look very impressive to the audience. Come examine and see what can be made from foam, foam core, miscellaneous items and a little imagination.

Extremely Easy Balloon Sculpting:

Going on a mission trip or helping out with VBS? Maybe you just want to make something from a balloon. These balloon sculptures are extremely simple. It doesn’t have to be complicated to be “cool”, kids like them anyway.

Simple Origami:

Sometimes balloons are not a good idea but what would you use instead? How about paper  ... come and learn how fold paper and make it look like something. Learn a little lesson to go along with one of your origami creations.