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BEGINNER'S PUPPET BOOK ALICE M. HOBEN
The BEGINNER'S PUPPET BOOK The reviewers say: SIMPLE LANGUAGE "A text which tells in simple language how to make string and hand puppets, how to dress and manipulate them, how to build the stage and its furniture, how to get the best lighting effects." —Massachusetts Teacher FULL-PAGE PHOTOGRAPHS, LINE DRAWINGS, CHARTS, AND DIAGRAMS "The book is clear, practical and inspiring . . . . Full-page photographs show children making and manipulating marionettes and fist puppets. The line drawings, charts and diagrams are admirably clear, the materials suggested are inexpensive and easily obtainable."—New York Times WILL STIMULATE THE CREATIVE TALENT OF BOYS AND GIRLS "This book will stimulate the creative talent of boys and girls in making standard puppets and in originating their own characters, writing their own plays and designing their own scenery . . . the book is fun. . . .Teachers will be delighted with it." —Pennsylvania School Journal Among the five non-royalty plays included in the book, there is one based on literature, The Enchanted Horse; one on science, John Baird's Triumph; and one on American History, Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. In addition there are two plays for hand puppets, The Three Wishes and Punch and Judy.
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BEGINNERS PUPPET OOIC ALICEM HOBEN Scaradale Public Schools
NOBLE ^</NOBLE, PUBLISHERS,/^ NEW YORK
Copyright, 1938, By NOBLE A N D NOBLE, Publishers,
Printed in U. S. A.
Inc.
FOREWORD Every activity of the school should justify itself by its contribution to the growth of children. The construction and manipulation of puppets contributes to this growth in many and diverse ways. In the beginning the actual construction of the puppet requires planning, calls for the careful selection of material, for measurement, and for careful manual manipulation. The joy of invention and construction stimulates the necessity of study and learning for success in that construction. There is a search for material for the puppet wardrobe and a study of costumes suitable to the situation in which the puppet is to appear. The values of cooperative group effort develop early in this work. Each puppet must bear a relationship to others which are being constructed and must find its place in the entire cast. Consequently, the group work together in planning the construction, the clothing, and the arrangement of the puppets. Each individual child must learn to consider the needs and desires of the others in the group. He learns to make his own contribution and to appreciate and evaluate it in conjunction with contributions of others. Choices and decisions must be made by the group. In the making of these are involved group discussion and the assignment of different phases of the work to committees. As the child works with his puppet, he finds that he is not only making a puppet but a character. He gives play to his imagination and endows the character with a person-
ality. The work becomes to him the creation of a person and there is involved the development of the concept of the personality which he seeks to embody. The choice of plays for dramatization is not subject to the usual physical limitations. While a boy or girl may not ride an enchanted horse, or become a genie and disappear in smoke, with a puppet all things are possible provided the fertile imagination of the child is allowed free rein. Because of the effort and construction involved, the play gains in significance and in value. There is an interlocking with many phases of school work wherein literature, social studies, and the physical sciences contribute and are drawn upon. There is excellent training in oral speech, in accent, rhythm, interpretation, and memorization. As one watches a puppet performance which children are manipulating, he is attracted inevitably to the eager, intent faces of the children as they perform skilfully the delicate operations of manipulation. He remembers his dreams of flying on an enchanted rug, and of wandering through the magic lands of phantasy. As the child guides his puppet through the bewitching life of fairy land, or through the romantic adventure of the medieval knight and endeavors to supply his voice and speak his thoughts, he comes as nearly as one ever does to living the stories which he dramatizes. Into the commonplace of daily life shines a golden sunlight of imaginative beauty which, even as it fades again, leaves a twilight of happiness that is the cherished and rightful joy of childhood. V E R N O N G. SMITH, Superintendent of Schools, Scandale, New York.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to acknowledge help received from Mrs. Eleanor Stevenson of the Art Department of Edgewood School, Scarsdale, New York; from the photographers, Mr. John Cass who photographed the pupils in Edgewood School and Mr. J. Kendrick Noble who furnished the other photographs; from Mrs. Aleen F. Baird of Public School No. 169, New York City, who kindly allowed the hand puppets made by the pupils in her class to be photographed; from her pupils, past and present, who have made their own puppets; from the parents of Edgewood School who have assisted in the dressing of the puppets; and from Miss Mary R. Piedalue, Principal, for her ever ready encouragement and appreciation. A. M. H.
CONTENTS CHAPTER
PAGE
I. How II.
THE PUPPETS CAME TO BE MADE
1
STRING PUPPETS OR MARIONETTES
4
The Body—Making the Head III.
DRESSING THE PUPPETS
19
IV.
STRINGING AND WORKING THE PUPPETS
24
V.
BUILDING THE STAGE
31
VI.
LIGHTING THE STAGE
38
PAINTING THE SCENERY
42
VII.
VIII. SETTING THE STAGE IX.
45
FIST, OR H A N D , PUPPETS
48
Making the Head—How to Make the Feet How to Dress the Hand Puppets How to Work the Puppets
PLAYS FOR STRING PUPPETS OR MARIONETTES T H E
ENCHANTED
POCAHONTAS
HORSE
AND CAPTAIN
63 J O H N
SMITH
.
.
.
.
79
J O H N BAIRD'S TRIUMPH
91
PLAYS FOR FIST, OR HAND, PUPPETS T H E T H R E E WISHES T H E COMICAL TRAGEDY OF P U N C H AND JUDY . BIBLIOGRAPHIES
103 .
.
113 139