I found this while I was searching around. I didn't make the tutorial but I know people who have used it and I'm planning on using it.

http://www.dougledbetter.org/howto/puppet_stage/

Nice FIND!

Dennis

Just my opinion, but 2" pvc is overkill. Especially if you want to move it around.

It is an great find and will be very useful for some......

.....just some farther thoughts......

.......Pvc is very heavy to carry around and takes up a lot of room especially as a one person show with a car.....just so people know before they spend all this money and find out it is hard to bring around or pack.

Daryl H

Actually, there a couple of versions of how to make PVC stages out there. I've made a list of free patterns/tutorials on building sets for puppetry:

http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/tutorials.php/free-puppet-theatre-patterns

Personally, I prefer the lightweight hollow square aluminium tubes (translate to US: aluminum). Very easy to put together, with plastic joints, and can be put in the back of any car with no trouble. ... Of course, I've never used PVC before, so what do I know?

Just my opinion, but 2" pvc is overkill. Especially if you want to move it around.

I agree which is why I personally am going with 1 1/2" tubing

@ Darrel  I don't disagree with you, but its nice when you don't have $600 to spend on an aluminum stage (see one way street catalog)

@ geobryan In no way am I debating that    I am just giving people a heads up....some get excited by the idea and it ends up not being practical for them....just don't want people to spend money and not get something they can use.

Daryl H

We have a couple of PVC stages.  One is 1/2" and one is a 1".  You don't need the 1 1/2" really.  The 1" has held up for years already.  And I didn't know of any tutorials at the time.  We designed it ourselves!  I've added to it over time and it has grown.  PVC pipe and the fittings are very economical and can be replaced and reconfigured, to your heart's content.   It isn't as on-sight adjustable as the One Way Street Stages, but dollar per dollar, they just can't be beat. I have cut the pipes to make adjustments before, and if you need to put them back you can use couplers. 

Just make sure you label your pieces before you disassemble.  You think you won't forget where they go, but you do! LOL

We lucked out and someone gave us a huge bolt of black fabric for the curtains, but you can use black sheets from Wal-Mart, they have to be doubled though.  In light you can see through them. 

I forgot to say that we initially spent under $50 for our stage that will hold a dozen performers.

Our first stage was that huge PVC with the wooden footings, the footings did not work that well, wobbled, and the children used the pipes as a jungle gym and it broke, we were lucky it did not hurt them. Made a new rule never leave stage set up if you cannot lock it up.  Heavy and hard to take on the road.  One Way Street has book on building stages $12  www.onewaystreet.com/product/123/staging, easy to follow directions.  Tricky joint top front corners, sides are slightly higher than the front.

One thing we learned from many years with the pvc stages is that you do not need to glue or even tape the vertical joints, gravity holds them in place, but you DO need to glue or tape the horizontal joints. We keep the end joints on the long pieces so it saves time and we number the pipes for each joint.  You don't have to have footers for even the one inch pipes, the 3-D shape of stage holds them in place if you have a pipe across the back that makes it a square. For outdoor portable stage we made half full cement buckets with handles that had slightly larger piece of PVC embedded in cement for footers, added benefit that one person can set the stage up since the buckets hold up the legs.  Our puppeteers kept growing and correct height positioning is always an issue.  We saw another stage with the slightly larger PVC pipe footer where they drilled holes thru the PVC at intervals and put a nail thru holes to make legs adjustable for height. Sorry no pictures just gave my last PVC stage away to another new team.