Skimming through Bill Baird's book, The Art of the Puppet, leads me to agree with Shawn. If I were going to go to an Opera Festival, I wouldn't be looking for someone to perform the greatest hits from "Cats". Not that there is anything wrong with the music from "Cats", but opera it is not.

So if I were going to an event sponsored by the Society for Creative Anachronisms, I would be looking for pre-17th century puppetry. If I understood Mr. Baird, that might not even include Punch and Judy. According to Baird, "The first reference to him [Punch] in England is dated May 9, 1662 . . ." He goes on to explain that early Punch was actually Italian marionette Punchinello. (an anglicized version of the various spellings of Pulcinella)

Pre-17th century England primarily saw hand puppets, according to Baird. However marionettes were certainly popular in Italy, and by the 18th century, references to "Italian marionettes" can be found. Therefore, it seems to me you would have flexibility between hand puppets and marionettes.

I don't see kids being in the audience as being a hindrance to using hand puppets. First, kids often have their own hand puppets of their own. Second, in play, small children often have their dolls and stuffed animals "speaking" in and playing roles.

Remembering to some of my early puppet memories, I never saw Kukla as any less "real" than Ollie, and Kukla was a simple hand puppet.

Finally, and anachronistically, the Potter Puppet Pals have over 68 million views of just one of their simple but fun hand puppet shows:
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thanks. I think I will go for mainly handpuppets with larger puppets for the critters (as I will be including mythical animals and regular animals in the play as well).

Here's some ideas i had for the stage setup as well as puppets.

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k145/horsetuna/puppet1.jpg

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k145/horsetuna/puppet2.jpg

Hey I agree with Shawn and Chris that you need to keep to the era of the puppetry for the SCA expectations.  I think that it really comes down to the performance whether you use P&J or "Muppet" style puppets.  I have seen many P&J performances and some of them lost me within the first minute and some have kept my attention and interst for the whole show....the difference...the skilled performer.  

If you choose to use hand in mouth puppets and want them fairly small you can use Project Puppet simple series patterns...they are a nice size not to big and fits the hands snuggly....here is the link www.projectpuppet.com.

The stage needs to be your decision we don't know all the ins and outs of your show so you need to find what will work for the production. We maybe able to give opnions about what materials are best to sue when it comes to making or buying stages but the style and layout needs to be your decision.

BTW what Province do you live in?

Daryl H

I will be making a PNJ puppet to see what its' like, and then go from there. I may do mostly PNJ with a few other puppets (such as for the creatures) because I dont think medieval PNJ had critters outside of a dog from what I can see of those shows.

I'm in Calgary, Alberta

Hello,
Im going to say go for Punch & Judy puppets!

Cheers,
Dan

In response to people saying Punch & Judy being boring, as Daryl said its the performer.
Most of the best P&J performers are here in the UK. If you ever get a chance to see someone like Geoff Felix (he also performed on muppet films) www.geofffelix.com & I know John Styles performed at an American culture festival they are great.

Cheers,
Dan

oh, i believe it. And I will be going mostly PnJ.

can I ask opinions on what type of 'show' to do? i listed my main ones and favorite in the original post.

Since you seem to be leaning towards P&J puppets, I would stick with tradition.

Thanks for the opinions. I decided to go halfway, and do mostly my own thing

I decided on my first performance - an original 'musical' based off a ballad I wrote three years ago for the SCa, called The Ballad Of the Burning Baron Beothuk.  A few people read it and love it. I think it would work great as a puppet show.

It calls for nine different 'actors', however no more than three will be on the stage ever at once.  Since the script is already written, I just need to build the puppets!  well, and the puppet stage.  I have ideas for that.

... and conveniently, and wonderfully I just got a few coupons for cloth stores! wheee.