Glove Puppetry - How to Make Glove Puppets and Ideas for Plays - Three Volumes in One

Various Authors

Description

“Glove Puppetry” is a classic guide to glove puppets, including chapters on its history, how to make puppets, how to put on a performance, and much more. This fantastic guide is full of great ideas for both pleasure and educational purposes, making it ideal for parents and teachers alike. Contents include: “The Puppet Show Introduction”, “A Short History of the Glove Puppet”, “Puppets in Education”, “How to make a Glove-Puppet”, “The Theatre”, “Teaching Methods”, “Practical Application”, “Original Plays”, “Plays and Patterns for Glove Puppets”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on puppets and marionettes.

Sujets

• Loisirs
• Artisanat
• Activities
• Games
• Magic
• Love
• Love (disambiguation)

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 04 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781473390522
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

G LOVE P UPPETRY
H OW TO M AKE G LOVE P UPPETS AND I DEAS FOR P LAYS
- T HREE V OLUMES IN O NE -
BY
V ARIOUS
Copyright 2011 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
CONTENTS
Glove Puppetry for Young Children
D. P. Harding
Plays and Patterns for Glove Puppets
W. Alexandra Marsh
Glove Puppetry
Donald Seager
GLOVE PUPPETRY
for Young Children
By D. P. HARDING
frontispiece
THE PUPPET SHOW
INTRODUCTION
IT is always difficult for anyone who has become an expert to imagine the attitude and standard of a beginner. Consequently the expert, when writing a book, is liable to make one of two mistakes: either she includes so much detail that the beginner loses the main points and eventually all interest; or she writes such vague generalities that it is impossible to gain any useful information from them. Miss Harding has successfully avoided these two pitfalls. She has supplied in this valuable book a survey of the use of puppets in the education of young children which has sufficient detail to take the beginner a long way.
The author is able to write with confidence that she has tried these methods with young children and helps the beginner by pointing out the dangers which can arise from impracticable enthusiasm. Her illustrations and diagrams are, in this respect, most helpful and are the finishing touch to a book which we recommend to teachers of young children.
E DUCATIONAL P UPPETRY A SSOCIATION
The E.P.A. is an association of teachers interested in developing puppetry in school. If you wish to receive further particulars of their work please write to the author of this book who is also a member of the Association .
CONTENTS
I. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GLOVE PUPPET
II. PUPPETS IN EDUCATION
III. HOW TO MAKE A GLOVE-PUPPET
IV. THE THEATRE
V. TEACHING METHODS
VI. PRACTICAL APPLICATION
VII. ORIGINAL PLAYS-
RED RIDING HOOD
DING, DONG, BELL
MAGIC APPLES
RICHARD COEUR-DE-LION AND BLONDEL
ILLUSTRATIONS

THE PUPPET SHOW

TYPES OF PUPPET HEADS
FIG. 1 .
MAKING THE EYES OF A STOCKINET HEAD
FIG. 2 .
FOUNDATION OF PAPIER M CH HEAD
FIG. 3 .
STAND FOR HEAD
FIG. 4 .
PATTERNS OF GLOVE, SLEEVES, HANDS, ETC.
FIG. 5 .
PORTABLE TABLE THEATRE
FIG. 6 .
FRAMEWORK OF FULL-SIZE THEATRE
FIG. 7 .
BORING THE HOLES IN THE POSTS, ETC.
FIG. 8 .
THE PROSCENIUM
FIG. 9 .
THE DRAW-CURTAINS
FIG. 10 .
THE PLAYING SHELF
FIG. 11 .
LAY-OUT OF THEATRE CURTAINS
FIG. 12 .
THE THEATRE FRONT
FIG. 13 .
THE PROPERTY SHELF
FIG. 14 .
THE BACK-CLOTH
FIG. 15 .
THE PROPERTY BOX
FIG. 16 .
THE FOOTLIGHTS
FIG. 17 .
A WELL
CHAPTER I
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GLOVE PUPPET
AT Oxford, in the Bodleian Library, is a manuscript entitled Li Romans du Bon Roi . It was written in 1338, and on it is painted a miniature by Jehan de Grise, illustrating a glove puppet-show in action. This is about the earliest pictorial evidence of any glove or sleeve puppet-show in this part of the world.
Some readers will ask, What are glove puppets? Who invented them? How did they come to this country?
From time immemorial children have played with dolls. These were carved or modelled from every conceivable material, such as stone, wood, bone, and even roots. The forms were very crude, but in the course of time, man began to produce dolls which resembled human beings. His great problem then, was to make these dolls more life-like by giving them movement. After centuries of evolution and experiment, man discovered two ways of giving dolls movement. One was by human aid, and the other by mechanical means. In each case, the method used was hidden from the spectator s eye. Without doubt the hand method preceded all other means.
No one knows how the puppet theatre started. In all probability it was the natural outcome of a little child playing with a doll. In playing, a child, in his own mind, pretends he is the doll, making the doll act, while he speaks for it. The child is then an actor as well as a spectator, and has created a show of his own.
It is very difficult to trace the different stages in the evolution of the glove-puppet theatre.
To-day glove-puppet theatres are found in most countries. The French call them the Guignol; the Americans, the bodyless puppets; the Germans, the Kasperle Theatre; and the English, the Punch and Judy Show.
It was in the seventeenth century that the glove-puppet theatre predominated.
Punch or Punchinello is supposed to have come to England through an Italian named Porsini. He performed his Punch and Judy show in London. Probably this Italian came over to this country about the time of the Restoration, but there are no records known to prove this.
During the eighteenth century a war waged between the puppet theatre and the legitimate stage. The puppet stage was hated by society, which looked upon the showmen as vulgar vagabonds. Punch represented the people. He was full of humour, yet shameless and brutal. His exaggerated deformities and his dress were just as we see them to-day. Punch s popularity was great, so great, that he even appeared in Biblical drama. It was in 1703 that he appeared in The Creation of the World, and six years later in The Flood.
Towards the end of the century, Judy appeared as Punch s wife, to be the foil to all his extravagances.
There was great rivalry among the showmen of that day. They vied with one another to try to produce a more attractive show. Hence the introduction of dog Toby, who was beloved by everyone.
To-day, at almost every seaside town, if we visit the beach, we find Punch busily entertaining not only the little ones, but also grown-ups.
CHAPTER II
PUPPETS IN EDUCATION
THE case for the introduction of puppets into the school work rests on the great scope they afford for speech-training, and the opportunity they give for self-expression. Puppets satisfy the innate love of the child for make-believe. A world of realistic imagery in miniature arouses an ecstatic delight, which, utilised by an understanding and skilful teacher can be a gateway for important educational developments.
The smaller the child the greater that ecstatic joy. That being so, it is as well, when demonstrating before very little children, to keep up the spirit of make-believe and not let them see the puppets apart from the puppet theatre. Later, of course, when they are going to use them themselves, delight in manipulation and joy in becoming a character, take the place of this wonderment. There is a definite call for the teacher to entertain, nay, to enthrall his audience by his own puppet performance and dialogue, but this is only the first step; and enjoyable though it may be, it is not until the children themselves participate in the manipulation and the dialogue, that the highest educational aims are achieved.
Between these two stages, puppet manipulation has to be taught and practised-no mean task. A small cardboard theatre-front is a great help to children when practising; or a table covered with a cloth will serve equally well. It takes a great deal of practice in manipulation before a puppet comes to be alive in the hand of the little operator. Added to that, there is the necessary training in co-ordinating movement with speech. But in such practice lies the secret of the educational value of the use of puppets. The child, happily unconscious of the educationalist s aims, willingly submits to the training because he longs to be proficient enough to perform in the theatre proper.
Every exercise with puppets leads up to the climax, where the audience is carried away into another world, into the land of make-believe. The Puppet World is the only world for the time being. There is no cognisance of what, or who, is behind the scenes-the audience is temporarily transported to the Land of Faery.
As will be seen later, puppets can be used in any lesson where it is desirable for children to express themselves in speech-in the Speech-training lesson proper, in the dramatising of Nursery Rhymes and stories of all kinds including History, and in the Hygiene and Safety-First lessons. Especially is this so in the case of shy children and those backward in self-expression. Further, to speak through puppets is a considerable aid to children who stutter.
Of course, there are limitations to their use, but the fact remains that the introduction of puppets adds a new zest to the usual routine of all such lessons.

1. Stuffed animal-baize.

2. Carved in wood.

3. Modelled with papier m ch .

4. Stuffed stockinet.
TYPES OF PUPPET HEADS
CHAPTER III
HOW TO MAKE A GLOVE-PUPPET
THERE are several methods of making the heads for glove puppets.
They are:-
( a ) Using stockinet, cotton-wool, and wood-wool.
( b ) Modelling with papier m ch .
( c ) Carving in wood.
Puppet heads made from stockinet are best for little children to use, as they are light and durable, and little fingers do not tire so easily. But the children cannot make them themselves owing to the sewing involved. The teacher, however, will be well advised to make a set of heads of this type for permanent class use.
The children can be taught to make the papier m ch type.
Carved puppet heads are beyond the powers of little children. They need more skill in execution, and though they may have their place in the Puppet Show run by an adult, it is not within the province of this book to describe their construction.
( a ) Heads of Stockinet .
Before a stockinet head can be attempted, a paper pattern must be drafted. It is wise to keep the pattern about 2 inches in length. First draw the profile as in Fig. 1 . Cut the pattern out and pin it on two thicknesses of flesh-coloured stockinet. Have the rib running from top to bottom. Then cut out an