Creating Transparency Puppet Shows
By Marjorie Rehbach
The shadow and transparency puppets are types of rod puppets. As you can see in the video and pictures here, for our transparency show, we have created two-dimensional figures pressed against a semi-translucent screen and lit so that the audience on the opposite side of the screen can see the colors and shapes of the transparent puppets shining through but not the puppeteers.
I first heard of this type of puppetry from Suzanne Down, while I was in her 3 year puppetry training. She taught us about making jointed acrylic figures, colored by glued-on tissue paper. Each part had to be sturdy and were joined in such a way that the puppets could move freely but the joint was small and nearly invisible. I was enchanted from the beginning and wanted to know more! I have seen a handful of examples of this magical theater but a lot of what we have done has been learned by trial and error!
Ancient historical roots:
WAJANG KULIT means, in Javanese, a shadow puppet of parchment. The leather was cured and treated to be very thin,yet stiff and strong, and semi-transparent. Some parts were painted and appeared colored when the light shone through them. In one exquisite example of one of these traditional puppets, he was covered by complex perforated designs which make up his costume. His creator could have used up to as many as thirty chisels, each with a different shaped cutting edge. It is said that the eye is the last part of the figure to be cut and that the puppet’s life begins when this is done. When I read that, I was reminded that puppetry used to be an art reserved for the priests. We can bring our highest devotion to it today in honor of that.
Our Stage and Lighting:
The screen should let as much light through as possible, but at the same time, be opaque enough to hide the puppeteers.There are many ways to craft your screen, using a tightly stretched, semi-transparent material, like parchment paper, tightly woven cloth, a plastic shower curtain, or if more sophisticated lighting is being used, the best material is a plastic which is used in cinema for back lighting as it keeps the light diffused and hot spots are avoided. This material gets stretched across a wooden or cardboard frame, depending on how simple or elaborate your setup is. For this show, we used a sheet of clear acrylic across our wooden frame stage opening, which we taped and pressed our screen of architect paper and tissue paper against. After storing it for 3 years, some of the glue was not holding anymore, giving us some tricky bubbles to contend with.
Our Figures:
There are also many ways to create your figures, but in the end, it is most desirable if your puppet can be pressed flat against your screen, be easy to move, durable, and sturdy. It is helpful to sketch out your figures, decide which parts will move, add an extra, round shape on top of the limb, etc. so that when it moves, you don’t get empty gaps. We cut our body pieces out of clear acetate sheets, glued tissue paper scraps on them for clothing or fur, then glued a second layer on top and finally laminated all pieces before we fastened them together.
The pieces can be joined in various ways but it is helpful to keep the join very small and as invisible as possible, while still allowing for maximum freedom of movement. Lay the body pieces in the way you will join them. Pierce small holes through the plastic and tissue paper of the two pieces and then they are ready to join. You can see in the pictures, we used two types of joining: 1) Thread a short piece of thin wire halfway through the holes and twist it in a small spiral around the end of a bamboo skewer. Repeat on the other side and adjust for moveability. 2) (Learned from Suzanne Down: Insert a small piece of round weed whacking cord through the holes and melt each side with a hot knife or spoon.
When all pieces are joined, you are ready to attach the handling sticks. Again, there are many ways and styles of sticks, but they should be attached in a way that works easily for the puppeteer to handle them as well as store them. We usually use bamboo skewers for this. They can be attached to a convenient point for moving the puppet/limbs/head. We used two different attachments for this show: 1) We taped tiny magnets to the end of the stick and to the puppet. The magnets are strong and held the connection well if the tape was strong.
2) Wrap your strapping, or equally strong tape, around the pointy end of your stick and then create a vertical hinge from the tape to attach it to the puppet in a convenient place. Make sure it moves the way you need it to and adjust as necessary.
Our Story:
In planning our story for the Winter Faire in 2017, our goal was to create a joyful tale, full of opportunities for laughter and awe, which is inclusive and highlights the relationship of humans and nature at this darker time of the year. We created the story line and challenged ourselves to do this show without narration, accompanied by music. It has been a delightful journey to give this gift to the audience. It seems to pull in their attention as they work to understand what is happening. Some children figure this all out in silence and others share their thoughts out loud. In the end, all are celebrating together!
Some Helpful Reference Material:
Rod, Shadow, and Glove, Puppets from the Little Angel Theatre by John Wright
Worlds of Shadow, by David and Donna Wisniewski
Some Waldorf puppeteers have developed this form of puppetry into something quite beautiful. For the article, “Schattenspiel”, by Christel Oehlmann, see the Puppen - Und Figurenspiel, Arbeitsheft 2, published by the Sektion für Redende und Musizeirende Künste/Abtg. Puppenspiel, at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland.
