Evening star., 1936-04-12
|Parlor Puppets Are Easy to Make;
Beaver Board Is Used for Theater
Dramas Have Been STAGED
With MariOnene Casts
For Centuries.
By VI. Cole McCadden.
Director, Parlor Puppet Guild.

w YOU'D you like to have your
M own puppet show? Pup
w pets are fun to make and
after you've made them
and are ready to give show in your
own theater that's the most fun Of
all
No one knows Just who made the
first puppets in the world. Some folk
think that they were born with fairy
the first puppets were made by the
ancient Egyptians and some think
that they first appeared In China.
At any rate, little jointed figures
have been used instead Of human ac-
tors in most of the countries Of the
world for hundreds of years. They
have taken part in religious plays and
they have been comic actors. They
have told sad stories and exciting
ones.
There are several kinds of puppets
in use today. In the Orient there are
shadow puppets made from thin dom
key parchment and beautifully colored.
They are operated from below by
thin bamboo rods and wires and are
shown behind lighted screen so that
the shadow is family colored.
IN EUROPE and America. the mar
ionette has been skillfully devel-
oped Most marionettes are operated
by strings attached to the different
PARTS of their bodies so that they can
walk, bow, sit down and get up very
much as you can do.
Then there is the hand puppet,
which is a smaller figure than most
marionetteS, and is moved by your
own hand inside its clothing. A hand
puppet does not always have legs and
feet but parlor puppet, such as you
will make, is real figure. 1t can do
almost as many things as marion
cite can do, and theater for parlor
puppets can be made at home and
you can have show any time you
wish
A single panel of beaver board, four
feet wide and high enough to fill a
door between two rooms, is all that
you need for the front of your theater.
Cut the stage opening in the board
80 inches from the floor. Make the
opening SO inches wide and 81 inches
high. If the upper corners of the
openings are rounded or cut diagonally
the shape of the stage scene will be
more attractive.
BY making the stage opening 80
inches from the floor. your audience.
seated in ordinary chairs. can easily
see the performance.
You can paint the front of the
theater to suit your own ideas.
The sketch will show you how you can
put on the name of your company If
you wish. The front might be painted
cream color, with the name of the
company in bright green. The tri-
angles at the top of the screen could
be black and the space below the
stage opening black, too. The stripes
around the stage opening could be
painted in three shades of orange.
You can tighten the shade of your
paint by adding little white to the
darkest shade used. Show card colors
are best for painting this type of
theater.
Reinforce the back of the screen
with narrow strips of wood and place
hooks at the top and bottom. Now
your screen is ready to fit into the
doorway. Hook it onto screw-eyes
fastened into the door jam at top and
bottom and you are ready to plan the
stage itself.
Set a card table, or a narrower one
If you have it, behind the stage open
ing. Then build up a platform level
with the bottom of the opening. This
can be done by laying floor OF
beaver board on piles of blocks or
books.
AN EXCELLENT stage can be made
from wooden box as long and
as high as the stage opening. Set the
box on the platform with the open
side at the front. Then remove the
back side of the box, and you will |
have stage all ready for your scenery. |
A curtain can be arranged inside