Hi there all,

Just started really getting into puppetry.  It has all started from doing small shows for my 2 year old nightly before bed.  She just loves it.  It started with some stuffed animals and then moved to some small puppets given to her and now I have several stage animal puppets from Folkmanis, the Lion, Fox and Rabbit.  What great puppets these are and I am getting better with the acting.  I am doing them with no sound and my wife who sits with my daughter does the interpretation.  It is great fun.  I am looking forward to getting more of the stage puppets to add to the cast of characters.  These characters have left a lasting impression on me and I am sure my daughter as well.

I live in Southern California and was wondering about groups down here that put on shows or give classes etc.

I am also looking for scripts with animal themes and are not to complex for my 2 year old. I do the thorn in the lions paw and the others are too scared to pull it out and a fun skit of a mischievous animal waking the Lion from his nap several times until he gets caught.  Lots of squeals from my girl.

Thanks,

Paul

You are in a great place for puppetry.  I used to live in southern California as well but moved back home to Hawaii.  Pasadena had a puppet group.  There is a puppet theater in Santa Monica.  There is also a puppet theater in San Diego.  I can give you more specific information when I look up the links.  I'm never good with names/companies.  I am trying to work on that.

Your best audience will be your child.  I started doing puppetry at the age of 16 when I was hospitalized from a car crash.  My mother bought me a puppet to help with my movement in my arms and hands and I have been doing puppetry ever since.  It wasn't until I had my son that I became even more passionate with the direction of education in the art form with children.  He is my best critic at the ripe old age of three.  He will definitely tell me if my show is good or not.  When I build a new puppet, I run it by him first.  Funny, that every puppet that he likes will sell and the ones that he is not fond of do not.  Now, I rely more on his taste for what I will offer in my shop.

I think it is brilliant that you are doing a story time with your daughter.  Not only to build your experience but to build upon this wonderful relationship you have with your daughter.  If there is any way that I can help you, please let me know.  Searching for scripts is one of the hardest things for me.  I have been developing my own scripts simply out of need.  Another option you have is adapting from a children's book.  I have three stories that I am creating a puppet show from.  I like to match the illustrations from the book to my backdrops on my stage.  The three that I am developing for library shows are:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Eric Carle)
Strega Nona (by Tomie dePaola)
Baa Choo (by Sarah Weeks)

I have written my own "children's book" and am in the process of getting it published.  Once I do, I will be also making an audio version available with puppets.  I'm not trying to plug it here.  Just wanted to share what else you can do.  You can do recordings of you reading any book with different character voices and add in background sounds, etc.  There are so many great computer programs out there now that can assist with this.  Then you don't have to worry about memorization of scripts at this point.  It will help you with character building with movement which is most important.

The first show that I ever did is one that I continue to use today.  It is a simple puppet with a rod on the arm and I lip synch him to a song that I sped up.  It was a long time ago when i had a record player and a tape recorder.  I sped up the record and taped it on an audio tape.  This made Dean Martin have a much higher voice and was believable for my puppet.  It gave him great character.  It is still a favorite.

What you are doing now is the perfect path to puppetry and I only see you getting better and moving forward fast.  Please share with us in any performance that you have on video.  Would be great for you to also film these moments with your daughter to share with her in the future.

Good luck!
Nikole 

Ok....here are the links for you.  I hope these help you in your quest:

San Diego
Marie Hitchcock
http://www.balboaparkpuppets.com/

Los Angeles (I thought Santa Monica?)
Bob Baker Marionettes:
http://www.bobbakermarionettes.com/

Puppet Museum
Pasadena (I'm so bummed that I didn't know about this when I lived in California)
http://www.copa-puppets.org/

Aloha,
Nikole

Sorry, one more thing....

Have a look at Puppeteers of America if you are not already familiar with them.  If you decide to be a member, there are great benefits.  One being that you can rent puppet DVDs.  They have an intensive collection of how to videos on puppetry.  I live for their back issues of their quarterly magazine.  My library has their entire collection.  Yours might as well or perhaps the museum in Pasadena will have them or direct you to where you might be able to find them.  It is definitely worth the search.

Here is the link to POA:
http://www.puppeteers.org/

Aloha,
Nikole

Welcome!!  I have been performing as a puppeteer WITH my children and I agree with everything that has been said so far. Performing for and with your children is the BEST place to start!!  Look forward to hearing more about what you do!  I am curious as to how you tell the stories with the puppets?  I  am always interested in how people combine storytelling and puppetry in search of how to use it myself!  I am trying to figure out how to  do that is a way that best suits my personality and style!  Please share!

  Glad you found us and hope that we can be of any help.

Daryl H

Thank you so much all.  I will follow the links and stay in touch.  I have been adapting stories from some of my daughters favorite books and funny you mention the hungry caterpillar as that is one her favorites and Bill and caterpiller puppet is in almost every show.  I do a hungry routine where Bill eats an apple, pear and other Fruit as well as gnawing on some plastic ice cream and others.  It all then ends with green lettuce leaf.  I have made up some other shorts and will try to write them down.  I do them silent and my wife figures out what I am doing and conveys to my daughter.  It is great fun and if my wife gets it I know I am making the puppet do the correct things.  Amazing fun.

Another simple story I do is the sleeping Lion.  Lion comes on stage and yawns and falls asleep.  The rabbit or the fox dashes on and sneaks up on Lion.  Once close enough lion gets tapped on the head.  If lion wakes up, fox or rabbit darts of stage and lion is looking for who woke him up.  This happens a few more times andthen lion hides to see who is causing the mischief and then catches the fox or rabbit when they come back to do it again.  She asks for this one, and is so east to do. 

I look forward to sharing stories with others on this post.

Take care and keep bringing those puppets to life!

Paul

I LOVE that idea of your wife translating what you are doing with the puppets.  What a great team.  It is like doing improv.  That is a great exercise for anyone to try.  I think I will do that with my hubby.  I'm so happy that you daughter is a big fan of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  That has always been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl.  In fact, my hubby gave me the book as a gift when we were first dating.  That is when I knew I would marry him because he "got me."  I send you a link to the video that I will make of the performance at the library for you so you can see my version and stage.  If it helps, please use it as you like.  I'll be filming in August.

Aloha,
Nikole

Nikole,  Can you please let ALL of us see the performance at the library?  I am still waiting to see you in action with your tray stage after all!!!  Pretty Please???!!! 

Sincerely,

Spoon