I've had an inquiry from a customer about the size of my puppets. Would my puppets, which are pretty much A4 sized, be well seen in a venue with 500 seats and a 9m wide stage? I was thinking it might be ok - or perhaps a little larger - as I know Hobey Ford's performance works well in a similar sized stage.

What's a good size for shadow puppets in a space of that size?

PS. I want to also apologise for not being around much lately. I've had a lot on my plate since I got back from the US.

Your puppets should be fine in this size venue.  Shadow puppets would most likely be about the same. The Lion King shadows are between 1-3 feet/0.3048 - 0.9144 meters in height.  I build marionettes for stages of that size and that are just around the 3 feet/ 0.9144 meters.

Na,

It is good to have both small and big size puppets
for a show where 500 people will be viewing. So, if
possible you can make assorted sizes so that the
people sitting in the last row could also enjoy the show.

I think a combination of 2-4 ft ht may be designed.
Chek the link...these pics were taken during my last
year's puppet theater production for a school ..the show
was screened in a hall with more than 500 seating capacity.

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/pavaibhanu/TISBWorkshopBangalore?authkey=CRhN7JesE4I#

Cheers
Bhanu

Uh, well by my calculations I should be increasing the size of my puppets. A4 is about 30cm, the Lion King ones are three times as big, and Bhanu suggests at least twice as big.

I believe my shadow puppets should work at the current size, but because a lot of them have finer details, I think perhaps they do need to be enlarged.

The second question is then of course, the rods. The puppets themselves can be enlarged, but then I also need to worry about the length of the rods?

Yes more then likely your rods will need to lengthen some. The Lion King shadow puppets are not controled from below but from "behind" so the rods flipped out horizontaly on them.  The rods really where not that much longer then normal in this case.  The light source for the puppets where hand held by other puppeteers so as long as they could get the source between the operator and the puppet the rod length was fine.  I would say that most where not longer then 2-3 feet.

Thanks guys, this really helped. I made the puppets about 70cm, but kept the rods the same length (they are pretty long anyway). I'll post some pics later tonight or tomorrow of how they turned out!

Here's some pics of my puppets. They came out pretty well I think. The last pic shows how I attached my rods to them... some clear 'bra' plastic/elastic, looped through the puppets - the rod slots into the loop. I had the idea for using this back in July (during my trip to the US actually) and got to test it out for this. I'm glad I did it, because these puppets are blacklight, and instead of putting holes or visible rod attachments, the paint shows right through the plastic loop. (These puppets took ages - the orange fish are actually four layers of paint, two of yellow, one red highlights/shadowing, and then a watered-down red over the top  )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66356835@N00/sets/72157622775076640/

Just wanted to add a link to a write up of the puppets at my site:
http://www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au/blog.php/2009/11/16/custom-shadow-puppets-for-school-show

Na,

The puppets are awesome....I am sure the effect will
be too good when projected behind the screen...I can see
the result of your hard work..esp the orange fish...the turtle
looks very nice. If possible try to get a video clipping of the play/show
from your customer for your record.

 
Bhanu
 

Thank you! I will ask my customer about the video, if I had the time I would have gotten a short clip myself, because it's hard to photograph under blacklight.