How to Put on a Shadow Puppet Show

Shadow puppets are an ancient art form, consisting of silhouettes projected from wood or cardboard figures onto a white sheet or screen. Some people are also able to create shadow puppets with only their hands, bending them into shapes whose silhouettes resemble rabbits or other animals. You can put on a shadow puppet show very easily, and building the stage and puppets makes a great arts and crafts activity for kids.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Large, square cardboard box (at least 2 feet tall)
• Scissors or X-Acto knife
• White tracing paper
• Masking tape
• Dowel rods of varying lengths
• Stickers
• Magic markers
• Pencil
• Construction paper
• Paper fasteners
• Glue or Velcro
• Flashlight

1. Cut the top and bottom flaps off of a square cardboard box, then cut off one of the four sides. The remaining three sides will form the theater for your shadow puppet show.
2. Cut a hole in the central panel of the box. This will be your "stage." You should leave an even border of about 3 or 4 inches on all sides of the hole.
3. Use scissors to cut a piece of white tracing paper wide enough to fit over the hole in the box. It should overlap the hole by at least an inch or so on all sides. Tracing paper is translucent enough to allow the shadow puppets to show up well. (It's harder to get the right effect with thicker paper.)
4. Stretch the tracing paper over the "stage" hole and tape it to the sides with masking tape. The paper should be very taut, with no droops or sags in it. You now have a screen onto which you can project the shadow puppets.
5. Tape a thin dowel rod to the inside top of your stage. It will keep the cardboard from wobbling and make your stage sturdier.
6. Decorate the front of the stage with stickers or magic markers. This step isn't necessary, but it's a lot of fun and can get the kids involved if adults have been doing the cutting.
7. Decide what kind of puppet show you're going to put on. That will determine what kind of puppets you will make and what kind of scenery you need. Stick with modest shows for your first few tries: fairy tales like "The Three Little Pigs" or "The Billy Goats Gruff" are good starters.
8. Trace out the shape of each puppet and piece of scenery on a piece of tracing paper. You will need to divide each puppet into several pieces, one for each part of the puppet's body you want to articulate (such as the head, legs or arms). Keep in mind that these will be silhouettes and will most likely be viewed from the side. In addition, each piece of a given puppet should overlap slightly in order to fit together.
9. Transfer the pattern of each puppet and piece of scenery from the tracing paper to a piece of construction paper.
10. Cut each pattern out of the construction paper carefully.
11. Make a small hole in each part of the puppet--usually at the joints where the head and/or the arms will move-- and connect the separate parts together with paper fasteners. You should now have a simple puppet composed of several parts joined together to make a complete figure.
12. Attach a piece of dowel (about 1 foot in length) to each piece of the puppet using glue or Velcro. The dowels will allow you to move and manipulate the puppets.
13. Attach any scenery to the stage, using masking tape to fix it in place.
14. Turn down the lights in the room and shine a flashlight from behind the theater onto the stage. When viewed from the front, your puppets' silhouettes will now appear as dark figures on the surface of the stage.
15. Divvy up the puppets among your puppeteers and practice the puppet show you intend to put on, noting how your puppets appear and whether they will need to be adjusted or reconstructed. Keep your body behind the light and your puppets in front of the light for the proper effect.
16. Perform your puppet show before the relatives, friends, household pets or theater critics of your choice.

Tips & Warnings

• When cutting out the puppets, make sure they are small enough to fit into the theater you have built--and proportional to each other, as well.
• If you are planning this as a kids' activity, you may want adults to do the work with the scissors and the knife. At the very least, such steps should be undertaken only with adult supervision.

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