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How to use a light curtain with puppets
In my article describing light curtain, I began to discuss some of the details of how you could use one for your own show. Because light curtain may initially confuse the reader, I offer the following not just as a tutorial, but as a way to further understand what light curtain is and how it works.
As explained in the light curtain article, a curtain of light is created by directing two beams of light at each other. Objects that are placed in front of, or within, the light can be seen by the audience. Objects that are placed behind the beam of light can’t be seen. This means that you can have puppeteers wandering around onstage without creating a large set to hide them: but in order to make an effective light curtain, you will need to follow some basic steps. It should be noted that puppeteers behind the curtain of light can see each other, as well as everything in front of them. It’s quite an eerie experience! Video example at the end of the post.
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What is white light theatre?
Technically speaking, white light theatre isn’t a type of puppetry, but rather a ‘convention of theatre’. A convention is really just a fancy way to describe different styles of performance, like circus, or dance. White light theatre is also not really a term that most puppeteers use, since ‘white light’ itself is just … well, plain theatre. What do I mean by that?
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What is a puppet maker? What is a puppeteer?
Looking for puppet makers in Australia? Try this instead.
The two main terms used when referring to people who do puppetry. Actually, the terms can often mean one and the same thing: most performers build their own puppets (or vice versa I guess), but also ‘puppeteer’ is a catch-all term which can include puppet makers who aren’t performers. Yeah, I know, it’s confusing isn’t it? But what do the different roles mean?
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Book Review: Make Money With Puppets
Every forum post that was ever asked by a new puppeteer about making money in the craft is often told in reply: you can’t. Puppet makers regularly report that they do not cover their costs, are reliant on other forms of income (many are in web design actually), and implement several puppetry-related money makers in order to earn anything from their work. So it’s refreshing to see that actually, these comments are not entirely correct. Paul Louis, of Youtube/Ehow/etc. puppet-building fame, has just released an ebook on making money with puppets. Not only is it something that every puppeteer would want to read, but it’s also from someone everyone would want to hear from given his success in the business.
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You Can Make Puppet Costumes: A Free Ebook
There is a free ebook on the web entitled You can make puppet costumes. I have used this book for everything from muppet-type puppet costumes, to designing and making clothes for rod puppets. But you can use it to make clothes for every type of puppet, including marionettes, sock puppets, glove puppets… the whole magila.
This is amazing! I know that the Hanoi Water Puppet Show will be at Harnes, in France (250km to the North of Paris) from June 4th to June 9th, 2011.
... Sylvain on What is water puppetry?