Northern California Tour Now Booking!!

Bugsy Brown: Private Fly is available for booking in Northern California only! To book this show, please contact the Northern California branch at 510-684-2637 or email anita@swazzle.com!

Audience Participation!

Below you'll find the article I wrote for Stephanie Stokes of Mr. Anderson's Company. She's put together a newsletter called, Puppet Tales and asked if I'd write something for it. I thought I'd share it here in case it proved helpful! It's about using Finger puppets (such as the one above) during storytelling, to include audience participation.

Greetings all!

Prior to starting with Swazzle, I had my own one-woman puppet show based on "Red-Riding Hood". Performing a one-person show can be very challenging and one of the ways I headed off "challenging" audiences was by incorporating audience participation. In my "Red-Riding Hood" show, the audience "became" the trees in the woods that Red was lost in. Whenever she would look around and say "Where am I?" the audience would put their hands in the air and reply "In the Woods!" to which Red inevitably said "Oh! Right!" and would continue on her merry way.

Later, when Swazzle formed, our first Summer Library Show was "Prairie Dog Pete and the Magic Buffalo" in that show we asked the audience to repeat the magic words Pete had to use to call forth the animals in the show. Giving the audience something to do was a wonderful idea! Instead of being passive viewers, they became active participants--a part of the show, if you will! The children would listen very carefully, eagerly waiting for the moment when their assistance was required. It can be magic! Now, most of you guys are not going to be putting on an entire show! You're going to be telling stories and (hopefully) using puppets to make things more lively and fun. How can you use puppets to create active audiences for Story Time? Easy! You can use Finger Puppets! They are small and you can store many of them in a small space! How do you use them? Well, does you story include birds flying by? Or Fish Swimming? Butterflies fluttering? There are little finger puppets for all of these things. You can have each audience member use the same one or combine several for different actions!

There is one very important thing to remember whenever you introduce audience participation into your storytelling! And that one thing is? Communication. You must clearly communicate to your audience exactly what you want from them, otherwise, chaos ensues. Take the time to set up audience rules. Over my many years of performing, I've come up with a pre-show spiel (and I must admit to cribbing from the other Swazzle performers!). The rules are as follows:

*Stay in your seats (behind the line, on the carpet, in a circle...etc.)
*Stay nice and quiet so that everyone can hear (I usually have them practice this!)

Once you've got them quiet and attentive, it's time to introduce the action! Ask them if they know how a bird flies, what noise a bee makes, ask for a show of hands. Once you get the desired response, show them the puppet. Show them exactly what you want them to with the puppet and ask them if they think they can do this simple action. Of course they'll say "Yes!". Then, explain what you want them to do during the story, if applicable, give them a "Cue" to follow (whenever you hear "Blah" flutter the butterfly like so) and then remind them that when the story is over they must bring the little puppets back to the basket (or box) for the next story. Pass out your puppets and enjoy! You've just turned a group of listeners into performers!

Folkmanis Puppet Spot!

Lee Armstrong of Images in Motion told me about a little 30 second spot they did for Folkmanis! You can see it HERE! I ADORE Folkmanis puppets! I spent many, many hours playing with, and demonstrating Folkmanis puppets at my first job in SF at Puppets on the Pier.

Check the spot out, it's super cute! Thanks again Lee! (Shout out to one of my Guild pals, Wendy Morton, who's now at Folkmanis)!

NOTE: The 15 second spot played on video billboards in Time Square!

SFBAPG - Holiday/New Year party!

This year the SFBAPG is doing something a little different at their Holiday/New Year party! This year they are asking Guild Members and attendees to bring a puppet to give to Peace Through Puppets. You can find out more info on what the Guild is looking for here.

These events are open to folks who are not currently members but, are interested in the Guild and the stuff they do! So, if you are in the Bay Area, drop by and check 'em out!

December shows!

So, I just wrapped up a Holiday Tour with our new puppeteer, Jonathan Kidder. And I must say, we had a blast! This was the first time we've done "Polly Polar Bear and the Prince of the Sea" exclusively in the Bay Area. We do have one last show, on January 12th in Merced but, after that, I'm wrapped 'til summer.

As for summer, we're still hammering out the dates and show for the Bay Area. Hopefully, we'll have more info on that very soon!

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few anecdotes from the tour:

* During our shows, it always seems that the kids in the crowd fail to realize that we, the puppeteers backstage, can hear them talk as we perform. Usually, we'll get a few "Wow(s)" or "Did you see that(s)". During one of our performances, Jonathan and I nearly cracked up as we both overheard a young audience member exclaim, during the opening minutes of the show, "Is it over?" and then, after he was assured by his parent that we had just started, we heard him sigh "I didn't know it would last this long". Hilarious!

* Many times, after shows, we encounter youngsters who are afraid of the puppets in the program. They hang back or hide their faces. Usually, after a show, If I don't have to rush to another performance, I'll offer to show the little one the puppet up close and explain how it works--to take some of the fear away. This is on top of our 'behind the scenes' demo.

During this tour, I met a sweet little girl who I chatted with prior to starting the performance. She was sitting very far to the side and I asked her if she was able to see the stage at all. Her Mom told me that this was her first puppet show, and that she was very nervous. I was instantly enchanted! So, I knelt down and introduced myself. I explained that the puppets in the show she was about to see were just like the little toy she was holding in her hands (she had a little white bear with her). And that the only difference between them was that I made my bear move with my hands. I asked her if she thought I was scary (luckily, she said "no"!), since it was just me back there with my hands moving the 'toys' around. I also assured her that the puppets stayed in the stage and couldn't come out at all! She seemed relieved. Right before I started the intro, I told her that, if she stuck it out, I'd be happy to show her any puppet in the show up close and answer any questions she might have about how we do what we do.

We finish the show and she runs up to me and says "I wasn't scared!" I congratulate her on her bravery and she looked up at me with her winsome smile and said "can I still see one of the puppets?". How could I refuse? She got to hold a mouse and I got a great story!