The Power of small Habits Whether you are just starting your puppet venture or if you are a seasoned veteran looking to hone your skills, it all starts with habits. Habits are the stepping stones used to reach your goals. Too often we set lofty goals for ourselves and then we try to take big leaps to reach those goals and when we miss the mark we give up. It’s not the big leaps that get us where we want to be most of the time, it’s the little steps forward and upward that get

A Tradition of Art Bunraku, a famous historic Japanese puppetry, has to be one of the most developed form of puppetry in the world. It’s style is close to Punch and Judy as there are no strings, but there is noticeable difference as he puppeteers are actually visible on stage and use the full stage to manipulate the puppets. The puppets are large - usually about one-half life size - and the main characters are generally operated by up to three puppeteers, as the characters w

Puppets on The Mission Field We have discussed puppets in the classroom and puppets in medical care facilities, but I would be highly remiss if I didn’t mention the missions field. Now don’t push political correctness on me, I am not selling a particular religion in this post. Whatever you religion, part of it is to win converts, teach about your religion and educate on the fundamentals of your religion, whether to adults or children. Puppets are a great way to do that. Now,

The Legend James Maury Henson, or just Jim as he was known by, was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on September 24, 1936. I joke that my daughter better be glad she was a girl or I would have named her Jim in memory, as she was born on September 25th. Jim was the youngest of two children, his father was Paul Henson, his mother was Betty Marcella. His early childhood was lived in Leland, Mississippi, before moving with his family to Maryland in the late ‘40s, near Washington

Let Your Creativity Flow I am a big proponent for teams to come up with their own concepts, scripts, and programs for two reasons. The first is the financial factor involved. It is so easy to spend a fortune to get permission to use other people’s material. The second is because is gets the creative juices of the group to flowing and helps pull the team together when they are racking their brains to come up with ideas and creating the script around their characters as opposed

Get Your Name Out There Marketing is often confused with sales. Though there is a clear connection between the two, marketing is the actual act of drawing attention to one’s self or one’s product. Marketing is and will be a continually ongoing process for your puppet team. How you present yourself is marketing, how you look at events is marketing, how you project yourself on the phone to potential venue directors is marketing. Every team member should be required to always pr

Let It Glow, Let It Glow, Let It Glow Black light shows have almost become a standard with puppet performance, so much so that there is now a market just for black light performance. Black light can be used in a number of different ways and add effects that are difficult, if not impossible, to recreate any other way. Every professional puppet team should have some level of black light performance in their arsenal of productions. In writing this post, it has been brought to my

You will find that the way your lighting and sound are set up can sometimes make or break a performance. Here are some tips that will get you going in the right direction from the start. I only wish that I had someone savvy in these areas when I first started out. Hopefully you have access to some professionals of whom you can pick their brains. About the Sound Chances are that you will rarely, if ever, find yourself in a situation where just using your voice and a portable C

The Kit “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.” In a perfect world, nothing ever goes wrong, the mics never go dead mid performance, the props never break, the cds never get scratched, etc. but in the real world, as the saying goes, “what can go wrong will go wrong” so prepare for it. Back Up Everything Everyone knows that CDs get scratched, misplaced, and cracked. I have seen a computer literally shatter a disk in the disk drive. So the first thing that you want to have in

These are the things that will make you exude professionalism to the people in charge of the venue you will be performing at as well as the audience. Promptness “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.” - William Shakespeare Being prompt goes hand-in-hand with accountability. Being reliable is important to the team, to the leadership of the team, and to those that the team will be serving. As a leader It is extremely important if you are on the leadership of your