Puppetry Training

Voice Coordination

• Being able to synchronize your voice and puppet movements takes a lot of practice. Puppetry training teaches you how to move your puppet's mouth and limbs in time with the voice you've given your puppet. Further, puppetry training teaches you techniques for masking the movement of your own mouth while your puppet is "speaking."

Positioning

• When giving a puppetry performance, one of the most crucial techniques to master is the ability to make an audience believe that your puppet is "alive." One way to accomplish this during puppetry training is to master the art of positioning your puppet. For example: Training shows you how to position your puppet so that it's facing another puppet or actor when it's addressing said character.

Realism

• Puppetry training can teach you how to make your puppet come alive for an audience. One way to do that is to make your puppet look and act like a real human being. For example, puppetry training can teach you how to move your puppet's mouth so that its lower jaw is dropping instead of lifting the top of its head -- which is the easier move for your hand to make.

Schools

• Finding a good puppetry training program isn't difficult, but it's important to find the best situation for your own needs. There are full-on puppetry training schools, as well as colleges that offer puppetry training courses. In addition, there are workshops and master classes for beginners as well as seasoned professionals. For a complete listing of programs available in your area, visit www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/schools/index.html.