Did I mention that our performance is on July 6th?  Not much time!!!!

Puppetsinc.com(formerly puppetproductions.com) and onewaystreet.com have alot of pre-recorded material that is secular yet teaches good values. I've used alot of their stuff over the years.You might try those places.

L J,

I have a question specifically for you.  When you do your shows how closely are the sketches intertwined?  We usually put our own shows together and generally start with a theme, then pick some songs and then write skits to go in between.  I was wondering how to transition from one to other without it having to be so tight?  Do you know what I mean?  Sometimes I just wonder if I try to hard to make it all fit and if it is necessary to tie it all together so. 

When we work on a mini-musical of sorts, we like it to all flow, but for something like this library show, I'm thinking it can be a little loser, more like a variety show where we just go from one thing to the next.

I hope you understand what I am asking.  Anyone else feel free to give me advice too.

As to the suggestion for the pre-recorded stuff from Onewaystreet etc.  I really don't have enough time for that.  I only have two weeks and personally, I'm not partial to using pre-recorded skits. 

Thanks for all the help so far!

L J,

I have a question specifically for you.  When you do your shows how closely are the sketches intertwined?  We usually put our own shows together and generally start with a theme, then pick some songs and then write skits to go in between.  I was wondering how to transition from one to other without it having to be so tight?  Do you know what I mean?  Sometimes I just wonder if I try to hard to make it all fit and if it is necessary to tie it all together so. 

I often tie things together with one of my vent puppets or a magic trick when we are performing with our puppet team. When I am performing by myself I often use magic tricks or props or object lessons to tie the segments together.  With the theme you have selected and the segments you are describing it should be pretty easy to do that - sounds like you have a WONDERFUL plan! You may find as you start practicing what will work and/or what is actually necessary. Sometimes it is not necessary like you described - we have even had a conversation take place behind the stage out of sight of the audience just to sort of give us time to re-set things.

'm not partial to using pre-recorded skits. 

I totally agree with you! Our puppet team mainly does live skits and we actually find it is not as enjoyable for us when we do pre-recorded stuff.

Have FUN with this!!

LOL. Our team prefers pre recorded, although we often record our own.  It's easier to lip sync than to read a script and lip sync (one puppeteer cannot do that at all).

We try to add "extras" between segments to keep things flowing.  Usually an MC type person does this while the team prepares for the next song/skit.  It can be something as simple as a song everyone sings, an illusion, object lesson, recognize birthdays, etc.  

We've also used a puppet as an MC, or used a bird puppet to tell corny jokes.

Thank you LJ!  The plan is coming together so nicely.

MSPuppet: although we often record our own

We are going to do this for a black light show in October.  There is no way to have mics and all that going while the lights are out! LOL

And speaking of pre-recorded skits, my son has some old story tapes that he found the Ugly Duckling already recorded, with voices and sound effects, so we will just use stick puppets and such to act it out and we don't have to do the narrating!  I had to transfer it off of cassette onto the computer but it is ready to go.  THAT was such a blessing!  But we will be using live voice on our hand puppet skits.  Once the lights are out for black light the Ugly Duckling and the music will be pre-recorded.

So I guess we are using a mixture of live/pre-recorded after all.

Our show is really coming together, we begin practice today.  We have 4 hours.  It will be long and grueling but necessary!  In fact, this show is coming together so nicely, I'm grateful to have had the bit of pressure to get it done because I think it will be something we can do again and again. 

And I'm excited because I get to use my Barbershop Quartet Puppets
They will be singing "Hello" to open the show.
Then I will talk to a puppet about being different.
Another puppet will join, they are friends but get into an argument and then make up.
They will introduce the story, the Ugly Duckling and the lights will go out, black light comes up.
Then the song "You've Got a Friend in Me"
A little fun music inserted here, while my son does a dance as a noodle/stick guy.
Song "Let It Roll"
Song "That's What Friends Are For" remake by Pure NRG ends the show.
The whole thing will be about 25-30 minutes.

So much work to do!

Our performance was Tuesday and despite a couple of prop mishaps, the kids did great!  We even had one girl learn a part the day before because the original girl had to go out of town unexpectedly.

The people at the library didn't really know what to expect so they were impressed.  Our show was about 25 minutes long and it was a variety of whitelight/blacklight, live skit, music, puppets and stick puppets or flatcards as some call them.

We had so much fun and they would like to have us come again.  We also got asked to come to the First Baptist Church in that town. Yay!

We STILL didn't get any pics or video but here is a snap taken during practice.  I didn't have all of the members there at the time but here are some of them.

We have a hugely successful library show here in Ireland. It is based, funnily enough, on books and reading! It's part of our Educational series which covers Bullying and also Healthy Eating.

Here's the blurb -

"As an activity for children, good old fashioned reading has a lot of competition these days! The fight backbegins with this 35 min show!

This story is called; The Town With No Stories. In this town the Mayor is also the same man that owns the local battery factory. To ensure that all the boys and girls would ‘waste’ no time reading story books and use lots and lots of his batteries in their PSP’s and DX’s and music players and toys, years ago he ordered that all the story books were removed from the local library and he banned all story books from the shops and even from the schools. Most of the children in the town had never even seen a story book!

One day, on a visit to the library, local boy Jack discovers Booky Wooky (he talks!), hiding amongst the empty shelves. On his first meeting with Booky, Jack is not that interested in what he has to say but when all the batteries run out due to a problem at the battery factory, Jack returns with his friend Lauren to find Booky and after tracking him down, Booky introduces them to some of the exciting characters that live on his pages.

The Big Bad Wolf claims that he is a reformed character and is on his best behaviour! Pete the Pirate is all shiver me timbers and full of promises of buried treasure and adventure on the high seas. Princess Tamara is actually in the middle of marrying Prince Snottyface when we meet her but she is fairly sure that her true love, Prince Handsomechops will come to her rescue. Meanwhile, Winston the Wizard makes an appearance and just as well because he is needed to see off the evil Mayor, when he returns to banish Booky!

Our story unashamedly champions the cause of the story book and at one stage, when Winston the Wizard enlists the children’s help to see off the Mayor, he has the children chanting, “Leave Booky alone, we want to take him home”

It's a great opportunity to show all your character puppets!

Great story Puppadorach! Is this a storyline you came up with or something used by the education and library systems in Ireland?