My friend who is an Ozzie will be retiring from teaching in June and I want to do a hand puppet skit to the song Waltzing Matilda as a tribute to her Australian heritage. At the end of the song, the main character who has just drowned appears as a ghostly figure, still singing the song.  Not a ghost but a ghostly figure, kind of transparent.  Any ideas for creating such a puppet? I was thinking of using a blue scrim as he drowns and then shining a light in from behind to make it a shadow puppet ...The fish and seaweed would be shadows.
Not sure what to do to make it interesting. Connie

Your idea sounds good to me.  I think it could work.  You could also make a "duplicate" puppet out of cotton batting/balls so that it looked like wispy smoke.  Not sure that really makes sense but it is visual in my head that I think would work.   Silk or chiffon fabric can give a ghostly effect also.

To take it one step further from Shawn is to make the duplicate puppet mainly out of white material little gray shading to make sure things don't blend together and black pupils. 

Scrim is easier and effective as well.

Good luck on the project.....

Daryl H

If you made a duplicate puppet out of white fabric which is blacklight reactive you could produce quite an effect.
The blacklight would make the puppet "glow in the dark" and you can make it look like he's floating around.
Also using a fog machine would add to the effect. =]