The Simplicity of Open Face Puppetry
The Simplicity of Open Face Puppetry
©2020 Lona Bartlett
Lona will be presenting her workshop The Simplicity of Open Face Puppetry at Sharing the Fire 2020.
Register today at https://www.nestorytelling.org/conference-details/
I have been a puppeteer and storyteller for more than three decades. The world of puppetry began for me in high school when my friend Marg and I each purchased small hand puppets. I built a portable stage out of a cardboard refrigerator box and metallic wrapping paper and we started doing puppet shows together in coffee houses, local fairs, classrooms, and other simple venues. The more we performed, the more our puppet skills grew, as did our collection of puppet characters. I began sewing and building many of my own. Time went on and we both grew up, but I continued with my puppets, performing as a solo puppeteer. I worked with a number of large puppet teams in churches and schools. I taught workshops at national conferences, and created a number of puppets and scripts that are now on four continents. When my children were born we became a family puppet team performing together. One by one my children grew up, moved out, and developed their own careers in the arts.
I still own puppet stages, curtains, props, blacklights for blacklight puppetry, and lots and lots of other items for big puppet shows and I still am involved with them from time to time. However, knowing that I would be a solo artist again, I wanted and needed a new way to combine puppetry and storytelling. I had a list of criteria: my new way needed to be simple – no performance setup on stage as well as no take-down. It needed to be easy to carry from one location to another (tent to tent, classroom to classroom, building to building … you get the idea). And I needed to be able to switch from puppet storytelling to traditional storytelling easily and quickly. I also wanted it to be interactive, whether I was performing for adults or children. Enter what I call “Open Face Puppetry.”
What is it? Open face puppetry as I define it means that at all times you can see my face; I am out there with the puppet, not behind a curtained stage. It also meets all of the criteria that I mentioned. It is as simple as having a small silent hand puppet come out of a hat, or as complicated as selecting several participants from the audience, giving them each a puppet, and coaching them with cues to insert dialogue to tell a story.
One of my favorite puppets is a small hand puppet I picked up at a garage sale for a quarter. His name is Little Tiger and his stage is a top hat I made out of foam. He is completely silent but I, of course, can understand everything he is saying so I translate for the audience. Little Tiger tells a personal story about cookies and he also performs a magic trick called The Disappearing Scarf. It is all interactive; cues are given to the audience so they can all participate in the telling of the story. For instance, I say something like, “Little Tiger has his cookie, what do you suppose he would like to drink with his cookie?” The answer “milk” always comes. Little Tiger brings the “aww, so cute” factor to the stage and because he is adorable, the audience listens. Yes, adults and children love Little Tiger.
I really like being able to call up participants from the audience to help in the telling of a story. This past summer I build a new Open Face Puppetry story with stick puppets. The story is one you may know: the Aesop tale of the Sun and the Wind. Stick puppets are on (all together now!) sticks. I built a sun and a wind puppet with faces; I also used a hoodie for a prop for the 3rd character in the story. I select 3 people from the audience; one for the sun, one for wind, and one jacket person. Each character inserts improvised dialogue. I give them cues such as, “It was a very hot day and the sun said … [character inserts dialogue].” Sometimes participants need a little help and they may need to be told what to say. But in the end, the story is told and everyone has a good time.
I have had some memorable occurrences with Open Face Puppetry. One that really stands out involved a second grader by the name of Edgar. I was doing an arts in education lesson in a public school. I had called Edgar up to use an alphabet big mouth puppet I had made (big mouth puppets have a -- what? Yep, a big mouth); I use these puppets to teach reading. When I put that puppet on Edgar’s hand he began chatting away. His teacher sat in the back of the classroom with tears rolling down her face. After the lesson I asked her if she was okay and she replied, “That little guy, Edgar, doesn’t talk! I mean I have never heard his voice before. You put that puppet on his hand and he just opened up and chatted away.” I smiled and told her, “That is because Edgar wasn’t talking, the puppet was.” That teacher brought in a hand puppet for Edgar so he would communicate with her for the remainder of the school year.
Puppets are a wonderful tool to use in story and to engage an audience. They don’t have to be complicated to be effective.
About Lona: Lona Bartlett is a professional storyteller, puppeteer and educator who has delighted audiences throughout the U.S. and internationally for over 30 years. Degrees in education, a small town upbringing in the Catskill Mountains, along with her mother being from the Carolinas, and her father a generational farmer provide lots of inspiration . LonaBartlett.com
