Parasol Puppets
presents
Discover Shadow Puppetry!
A performance/workshop  

many hands

These photos were taken at Marshall Public Library, Missouri.  The children are exploring movement with their new puppets.  The parents had fun shining flashlights onto the shadow screen to create different colors and effects.  		 shadow screen

Other workshop tips included how to make your own shadow puppet stage from a cardboard box.  		 from the front

This is what the shadow puppets look like from the front of the screen.  The audience doesn't see the actual puppets.  They just see the shadow.  This is what makes this style of puppetry so magical and mysterious.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Marshall Democrat Newspaper:  
  
     "The Marshall Public Library Summer Reading Program got off to a start Saturday, June 2, with a little homemade show biz.  Peter Allen of
Parasol Puppets gave a presentation that was "a little show followed by a big workshop."  The show was a shadow-puppet portrayal of "The Owl and the Pussycat," a poem by Edward Lear.
        Following the brief show, Allen showed youngsters how to create their own shadow puppets with inexpensive, easy-to-obtain materials: a little cardboard, some paper, a drinking straw, tape, scissors and a simple light source like a flashlight.  Before long, kids and adults alike were laughing with delight as their creations took shape and were tested on the make-shift puppet stages.  "It works!" shouted Dustin Campbell as his construction-paper water snake slithered across the screen. Finally, when all the kids had finished their puppets, the lights were dimmed, and a big shower-curtain screen hosted the congregated shapes."

receiving instructions
These photos were taken at Rolling Hills
Consolidated Library, Savannah, Missouri.  
Here the participants are receiving instructions
on how to make puppets.  		 testing the puppets


Trying out the finished puppets and flashlights!		 making the puppets

Cutting the shadow puppets out of heavy black
 paper (with safety scissors) takes a lot of concentration.  

Workshop length: 90 minutes (or more!)
Maximum Audience Size : 60 working participants (extra observers and helpers are welcome)
Children must be old enough to use scissors or have an adult with them.

Available Shows/Amazing Mysto / Circus / George and the Dragon/ Nursery Rhymes/ Pied Piper/ Singing Turtle
The Teeny Tiny Woman