Body Language Tips for Puppeteers: How to Master the Art of Puppet Theater

Video Transcript

"Hello, once again! This is Paul Louis from Puppets n’ Stuff puppets. You can find us on the worldwide web at www.puppetsnstuff.com. Now let’s talk about body language for the puppet. Now just like you and I have certain body language, even though when we’re not speaking, people can tell our mood sometimes just by the way our body is positioned, so same thing goes with the puppet. For instance, if a puppet is happy, you can kind of make him really perky; if a puppet is sad, you can make him kind of slouch a bit. If a puppet is surprised, you can do what you call a double take, which is basically looking and then a double look, so looking away, looking back, looking away and then a double look. Body language is very, very important for these characters, because if you notice, many times the puppet’s face has a neutral expression. It does not have a happy expression, it does not have a sad expression, it does not have an angry expression: it has a neutral expression. So depending on the body language that you choose to do for the puppet, your point will get across, and the mood of the puppet will get across to the audience. So again, happy can be mouth open, sad can be…, and angry can be…. So there are a lot of neat things you can do with the puppet’s body language, and we will be back and we will talk about walking and running in a bit."