PuppeTales article (Feb. 2008) Part 1

Here's Part ONE of my PuppeTales article for Mr. Anderson's Company! Download the entire newsletter here!

Creating a Storytime Mascot!

In many libraries, and classrooms, it is traditional to sit the children down on the floor and read them a story. This is a wonderful time to introduce whimsy and play to children and one of the ways to do that is to create and use a storytime mascot!

There are many ways to use a puppet as your mascot! You can pick a single puppet to read stories to the children for storytime, or you can rotate a “team” of mascots to read stories that “fit” them (I.e. a bug for bug books, a dog for stories about dogs, etc.). Generally, I use only animals for storytelling. It reminds me of Aesop’s Fables, in that the individual hearing the story can see bits of themselves portrayed by the animals and identifies with them.

How can you use these puppets to read stories? Simple! Pick a puppet with a moving mouth and a full body! You can sit the puppet in your lap and use one hand to hold/operate the puppet and the other to hold the book. Now, here’s fun tip on using full bodied puppets: pick on that had good “arms” on it and those puppet arms can help you balance the book on your lap and act as page holders! For this “season” of storytime, many people are trying to use bugs to keep with the theme “Catch the Reading Bug”. Ithink this is a wonderful idea and have spotted a great little character that fits the mascot needs! Gund has a great full body character line called “Kooky Kreatures” that features an ant (I’ll admit to having one myself...full disclosure!)! Is the bug thing too much for you? Well, my FIRST storytime love was a sitting dog created by Folkmanis. He was sitting up to “beg” and had the sweetest face! His hands were perfect for holding a book! I don’t know if they still make this little guy but, if not, I’m sure there are alternatives! (Turns out, they DO! Check him out here

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!