If your ready to jump into the world of Black Light Theatre this is the place. Let's talk neon everything!
I'm Patti. I am crazy about Blacklight Theatre! I have been performing under the blacklights for 17 years. Everything from full stage productions to my one woman blacklight review. I also build blacklight puppets and props. If you have any questions regarding this unusual type theatre, please feel free to ask away.

We are just starting out with our church youth to do blacklight theatre.  Any suggestions or hints as where to start and what we would need?  We have some puppets and stage that were donated by a church member.  We have some music that we can use to begin with.  I'm not familiar with floursecent paint or invisible paint and need some pointers.
Thanks!

Hi,
Welcome to the world of Black light Theatre!
Well, first question. Are the puppets that were given to you actual blacklight puppets? And have you guys invested in some blacklight units yet? Lets start there. 

As to the puppets, I haven't received them yet.  I should be able to try them tonight.
Black light - only one 24" at this time.
I know nothing about blacklight, so I must just jump in.  We took the youth to a Christian Performing Arts Festival last week and they seem to be hooked.
I'm using the 24'" light to check materials and other supplies.
I have purchased some black cotton shirts, white cotton gloves so that the youth may have something to practice with.  After reading other posts as to practice times, vertigo, and smells, we will have trouble with our small practice room.

I would suggest, since you are just getting started, to buy a couple pieces of fluorescent pieces of poster board. Make some simple props. Take a piece of black posterboard and cut out letters, from the fluourescent, spelling out words, Like JESUS, and PRAISE,,,and things that will go with some of the songs you have there at church. Maybe some simple things of beauty like, fluorescent butterflies, flowers, maybe a cross symbol...
Play around with your colors. What works? What looks good together? It doesn't take much in the beginning to pull off a wonderful little blacklight performance for your church. Keep writing. I will help as I am able. 

The puppets that we received are not blacklight puppets, so we will just have to work with them as regular puppets (is there such a thing?).  The blacklight performances will have to be something else.

I have thought of using neon paint on top of regular pictures and making signs with the flourescent paints.  Using flourescent tape strips on a black suit for stickmen(people).  I have purchased some white nylon gloves and white cotton gloves for the youth to use in sign language for the songs.  Along with the sign language and flourescent signs, I don't know what to use at this time.  This is my starting point, now to get the lights right.

Can you tell me how to set up the lights and what type to use?  Is there a good reference book to start with?  I have seen a book "Let There Be Blacklight" at amason.com.  Do you know of a good starter book?

The book you mentioned at Amazon has been suggested by folks in the past.  Not sure how in depth it is but I believe that any book is worth having.   Light position has been discussed before but not sure at the moment where the thread is. Your ideas for options other then black light puppets are great!  It sounds like the kids would really enjoy them and you could start experimenting with very little upfront cost. I have seen white gloves used before and I think it can be very effective.

I have found that Createx sell a good flourescent paint. It's an airbrush paint but I use the with a brush too.

http://www.createxcolors.com/airbrush2.htm

Just a tip from a Gypsy.

Hi Maxine,
I would start with just the gloves, fluor. strips, I'm assuming you talking about suveyers tape? It is cheap and can be used for a few performances, then easily and inexpensively replaced. I would stay away from trying to paint things with neon paints. If you are referring to,,,like, poster paint from walmart or big tempra paints from the hobby store,,,it will take many coats to get a really good cover. I would still stick with using neon poster for stuff like that, or if you can find some neon fabric by chance. But again, I'm not sure what your needing for your performance.
There is really not a need to go out and buy expensive blacklights. You can get some nice lights at walmart, home depot, for around 10-20.00....Make a case for them out of cardboard, something to close them in,,,just to look neater. Crumple up some heavy duty foil and attach it to the entire INSIDE of your encasement,,, this will help creat a homemade reflector. GOOD thing to have with your blacklight. I will try to draw up what I'm talking about and figure out how to post a pic. Don't spend a lot of money until you know things are going to work. Blacklight sensative materials cost so much. This is a really expensive hobby.....Maybe I can take a pic of my light and show you the shape of the case and the reflector inside. I've helped some of my Blacklight Theatre classes build their own for their own use and they have worked really well.

I have found that Createx sell a good flourescent paint. It's an airbrush paint but I use the with a brush too.

http://www.createxcolors.com/airbrush2.htm

Just a tip from a Gypsy.

Those are some great colors...thanks for the link.....

Can I jump in too?  My husband and I have been doing blacklight production for about 4 years in various churches in our county.  Remember that if you are doing blacklight the stage must be completely black.  We have found for economical reasons we use the flat black bed sheet from wal-mart to cover our stage.  Also remember to have your blacklight inside the stage and regular flour. light outside the stage toward the audience.  As for the puppets I have found that the hosery  for children usually found at halloween cand be stuffed with polyfill and formed into different shapes.  Also you might think of finding some white socks and making sock puppets just be sure that the fabric glows.  Not all white does.  I hope I have been some help and good luck.  Don't give up on the blacklight show it will be worth it and the kids will love it.

Patti's recommendation of fluorescent poster board is a good one. My son was working on a science fair project earlier in the school year that featured black light fluorescence as a primary component. We bought several bottles of fluorescent paint only to discover that it wouldn't cover paper or cardboard effectively at all. We ended up picking up some fluorescent poster board for just 25¢ or 35¢ a sheet, and figured out how to cut it into the shapes we needed, sticking it onto the backing with double-sided tape. It turned out great - he won a ribbon and got an A on the project.

This might not be what you had in mind, but there's a style of "flat" puppet that's like a sign on a stick, cut out in the shape of different characters. If you want to be tricky you can put a different character on each side of the puppet "sign." You could even have the same character on both sides of the puppet, but on one side it's smiling and on the other side it's frowning, or surprised, or scared, or whatever the story calls for. Then just flip the puppet around to make it go from laughing to crying, or change from one character to another, depending on the story.

Some puppets like this even have moving parts which can be controlled with rods, or using a cord like those old-fashioned jumping jack style puppets. If all of the parts of the faces, limbs, and clothing are made of pieces of different colored fluorescent poster board assembled together it will look great under black light - though you will be limited to the colors of fluorescent poster board available to you.

I think that Patti mentioned making characters like butterflies or flowers as likely candidates for poster board puppets or props - colorful tropical birds or fish might be fun as well. Remember too that you can just use the poster board as a covering, and not as the structural base. Maybe use some heavier pasteboard or corrugated cardboard and attach that to the stick first, and then cover it with your pieces of fluorescent poster board using glue or double-sided tape, (there is also fluorescent paper available which can be used instead of the poster board).

Depending on the age, strength, and skill of your puppeteers you can make the flat puppets larger or smaller, even building two or three-person puppets - if you want very large characters, or ones with complicated moving parts. You could also make very small puppets, using popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, or wooden paint stirring sticks as handles, and hand them out to kids in the audience after the show.

I don't have any photos or links handy to show you the kind of flat puppets on-a-stick that I mean, but if you're having trouble visualizing them - think of paper dolls on a stick, but on a larger scale. The only drawback is that if you try to use non-fluorescent materials to color them, then under black light the non-fluorescent materials will just look like dark splotches. Fluorescent poster board can also be rolled into cylinders or used to cover the sides of cardboard boxes or simple styrofoam shapes, if you want to make something more three dimensional.

I hope this helps, at least until you can find or make "real" black light puppets.

 

Ron G.

PS
Here's a link to a page on MarthaStewart.com which shows how to make a colorful, flat paper dragon stick puppet, which is hinged so it can wiggle and dance. That might translate well into a fluorescent caterpillar puppet to go with a butterfly puppet...

http://marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem/dragon_puppet


PPS
After we'd already completed the science fair project using fluorescent poster board we discovered that our local Hobby Lobby carried the Createx fluorescent paint sets on the air brush aisle. You could check there, if you have one nearby. I've also seen those paints for sale on eBay.

Here's another link with pictures of stick puppets with hinged moving parts. They call them "rod" puppets here, but they aren't quite the same as traditional rod puppets. They could probably be adapted to use fluorescent poster board or paper without too much trouble...

http://www.eduplace.com/science/dw/5/unit/f/pm5.f1.html

 

Ron G.

I'm Patti. I am crazy about Blacklight Theatre!

This statement caught my eye because, interestingly enough, this completely applies to me as well! Over nine years of teaching and I always had at least one class doing something in blacklight for every parent's night production (at least 3-4 a year.) In fact, the school went ahead and installed blacklights in the auditorium!

I started out with the more traditional white gloves and sometimes added white socks when feet were needed. Then I had the bright (heehee) idea to use flourescent poster board mounted on black backgrounds. I now have quite the assortment of words in different fonts, colors, and sizes. I also have a tendancy to use blacklight for portions of songs, my students are always prepared to have the lights go out :P

One time I made gumdrop-shaped critters that I pinned to black t-shirts. I then took long strips of neon swimsuit material and attached one end to the gloves and the other to the posterboard so it looked like they had long floppy arms. I found some neon plastic slinky toys for legs and made feet out of the posterboard. My principal thought I was slightly crazy to put 4 year olds on a blacklight stage but it was a huge hit. (Unfortunately I don't have pictures.)

Then I discovered blacklight puppets! I simply adore them and have developed a habit of carrying around a blacklight keychain so that I can test material and clothing when I am out shopping. I had a song I wanted to do that had a lot of musical interludes. I discovered that some of the Limber Louie marionettes showed up well. The combination of singing puppets and dancing marionettes was incredibly fun.

In addition to to using sign language, I have also had words spelled out with gloved hands. It takes 10 pairs of hands to spell out 'salvation' in capital letters. (I and N take three hands each.)

Going back to the posterboard...I cut out 8" stick figures in two poses, placed them on black posterboard, and then mounted them back to back on a paper towel tube. Flipping them back and forth gave the illusion that they were dancing. It was much simpler than trying to make jointed figures.

My last year at the school ended with a bang. I only had 5 students (fourth graders) but the song they wanted to do had a lot of different things in it. We started with the lights out and a white sheet on stage - they were in black. The rose up in front of the sheet to create an interesting tableau (I actually managed to get a picture this time!) The one in the middle is holding a posterboard sword.

Then the lights came on, and they did part of their song, followed by a quick run behind the white sheet. Lights went out and up came the puppets. When the puppets were done the sheet dropped and there they were with neon hats, gloves, and socks for a quick swing dance for the final verse. They had started out with the neon socks under the black ones, but even I was impressed that they were able to pull the black socks off and put the gloves on WHILE singing with their puppets (there wasn't much in the way of pauses!)

What a great story. I would have loved to have seen the performance. I hope you share more with us on how to make blacklight puppets.

Thank you for sharing............. I loved the fact that you carry a blacklight pen light on a key chain. Now thats dedication.

Billy D.