Developing a puppet character is a fun process, and one that can depend a lot on the puppeteer’s own personality. In a puppet team, each person should create a character that, ideally, only he or she performs. This is especially important for teams that do regular performances, since the audience will quickly notice if the puppet doesn’t sound or act the way he did last week. Having a family of characters with known qualities and characteristics also helps tremendously when writing scripts.
Puppet Appearance and Character
If an audience had heard of, but never seen, a monster puppet called Oscar the Grouch, how would they expect him to look, sound, and act? Shaggy, dirty, rough, and rude, or clean, bright, melodic, and polite?
The puppet’s name and physical characteristics can provide major clues to its potential personality. The eyes are especially important. Big, round eyes look happy, surprised, or friendly, while puppets with eyelids can look sleepy. Slanted eyes are usually associated with being mean or angry.
How the puppet dresses is also a part of its appearance and personality. Unlike most of the puppet’s physical characteristics, the puppet’s costumes can easily change to fit the desired personality.
Performing Puppet Voices
Voices are one of the most important aspects of building a puppet’s character. Puppeteers may use their own voices if they are appropriate for the puppet. However, characterized, unusual, or cartoon-like voices can add extra interest and pizzazz to the character.
Puppeteers don’t have to have a lot of vocal talent or even a big vocal range to produce some interesting sounds. Some easy altered voices include:
- Nasal, by forcing the words through the nose
- Breathy, by letting air out with every word
- Falsetto, by speaking far above the normal range
- Hoarse, but don’t strain the throat too much or for long periods of time
Puppeteers may also learn new voices by watching cartoons and mimicking voices they like.
Gender Issues
Puppets can be, but don’t have to be, the same gender as the puppeteer. Although male performers may find it easier to perform male voices and vice versa, picking the opposite gender can lead to interesting voices. For example, puppet diva Miss Piggy has always been performed by a man, Frank Oz, even while singing “Ain’t it Great to Be a Woman” with Raquel Welch.
Word Choice and Character
The puppet’s personality affects the way it talks, and that means more than just a voice. Frequent use of “like,” “um,” and “ya know,” all connote a certain personality, as do “dude,” “man,” and “isn’t that scintillating?” The Sesame Street character Elmo always refers to himself in the third person, while Cookie Monster uses “me” for “I,” and Prairie Dawn never uses contractions. Character building starts in the script, and is fulfilled in the performance.
Character building generally happens gradually and without total conscious thought, but puppeteers can get a good start by thinking about what makes other characters work, and how they can use those techniques to develop their own puppet characters. With a little time and practice, the team’s puppets will become characters the audience will enjoy remembering and the puppeteers will enjoy performing.
Christy Jones - Christy’s how-to articles have been published in Sew Simple, Soft Dolls & Animals and The Cloth Doll magazines. She has been a ...
