Basic Shadow Puppet Operations
or
A Shot In the Dark

Shadow puppet theater more closely resembles the bonroku puppetry of Japan that it does the traditional puppetry of the west.  In general, western puppet troupes perform with each puppeteer taking on the character of one or more puppets, and acting out a script as though there were a troupe of players. 

In both bonroku and shadow puppetry the puppeteers have no direct investment in the character of the puppets, providing only the movement of the puppets on the stage.  Both forms substitute a narrator for the chorus of differing voices, and the plot is provided in the style of a storyteller, rather than a troupe of players.

Mechanically, a shadow puppet theater is made of a silken screen a light source, and, of course, the puppets.  The audience sits on one side of the silk screen, and the puppeteers on the other.  The puppets are placed flat on the screen, and the silhouettes are all that is seen by the audience. 

The puppets are flat, so that they can sit flat against the screen and  present sharp silhouettes for the audience.  Most puppets have only one moving part.   Few are elaborately articulated.  Even fewer have and facial articulation at all.

Shadow puppet plays use from one to four puppeteers, with the rare, extreme effort taking as many as five and six.  The play begins with all the puppeteers in a row behind the screen, each holding a puppet.  The "ready" position is with a control rod in each hand, but the puppet below the level of the screen.  When the narrator is ready, he will signal the Foley artist, who will start the play by striking a prayer-bell.  In our case, we use an old cymbal we've hung in gong fashion.  At the sound of the gong, everyone places their puppet against the screen, and the narrator begins to read.

The puppeteers pass the puppets back and forth, acting out the script as read by the narrator.  The narration is scripted to provide both dialogue and blocking, so as long as you follow what the narrator is saying, you will do all right.  Shadow puppets should be held against the screen.  Even the slightest gap between the puppet and the screen causes a loss of focus, rendering the puppet blurry, or even unrecognizable.  Like rod puppets, shadow puppets have no facial articulation, so the only way to tell which one is speaking is by movement.  If your character is speaking, waggle your puppet and control rod.  If he is not, hold still.

Shadow puppets swim by being half concealed by the bottom of the stage.   In our case, the bottom of the screen is demarked with a large swath of black canvas.  When your character is in the water, say, after being thrown into the sea during Elephant Meat, hold the puppet so that the top half is on the silk screen, and the bottom half is on the canvas.  From the audience's perspective, your puppet is half hour of the water.  Bob him up and down a little to simulate the water.

Don't become attached to a particular puppet.  Rather than try to move back and forth past each other while crouching down, shadow puppeteers pass the puppets back and forth.  So if your puppet needs to move farther to the right than you can reach, just hand him to the next puppeteer over.

And that's about the size of it. Pass the puppets back and forth.  Keep them against the screen, but don't press too hard.  Welcome to the team.