"Once upon a time, in a land gone mad with the noise from cell phones and Walkmans, lived a middle-aged librarian who refused to grow up."—
Yvonne Amar Frey
Most guides to puppetry assume multiple puppeteers, large stage, elaborate props, custom-designed puppets and more. With library staffing and budgets stretched thin, and other curricular commitments for teachers, few have the time or resources to develop full-blown puppet performances.
Expert author Frey provides a much-needed puppet alternative to enrich story-times, book talks, and other library events for children of all ages. Over the course of 20 years, she has perfected nontraditional shortcuts that make solo amateur puppetry painless, cost-effective—and fun!
In Part One, Frey shares the techniques to:
Create a stage that one person can carry and fit in a car
Make puppets out of easily available materials (stuffed animals, doll heads, papier mâché)
Learn stage secrets for warming up
Plan for a streamlined tale—performed by just a couple of characters, supplemented with a narrator
Part Two features scripts for 38 simplified tales, including humorous "fractured" fairy tales, folktales from around the globe (Japan, Tibet, Russia, Arabia) and adaptations of Aesop's Fables. Also plan for entertaining patter between these short plays—songs, parodies, jokes, riddles, and a puppet that can serve as the introducer.
Children's librarians, teachers, pre-school programs, even parents and home-schoolers can entertain their audiences using this simple proven system.