Burmese Theatre: Making a Shadow Puppet Theatre and Puppets
YEAR 3 (/4/5)

A) How to make the shadow puppet theatre

Materials required

A fairly strong large cardboard box
A dowel rod as long as the box
Masking tape
A piece of grease proof paper, muslin or strong white paper (as big as the largest side of the box)
Black sugar paper
Sellotape
Craft knife
Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut off the top and one side of the box, as shown by the shading here.

2. From centre section cut a hole for the screen. Leave at least a 10cm border on each edge. This will require use of craft knife under supervision.

3. Cut a screen from a single sheet of tracing paper, muslin, or strong white translucent paper, which will overlap the hole by 5cm on each edge. Fasten the screen over the inside of the hole using masking tape. Make sure the screen is taught and does not sag.

4. Attach the dowel rod to the inside top of the front section to strengthen the theatre. Use masking tape or sellotape.

5. Decorate the theatre as desired (e.g. with black sugar paper and gold paint.) Look at some of the Burmese objects at www.molli.org.uk/burma for decoration ideas. You could also use more card to add a shaped decorative top.

B) How to make the shadow puppet

Materials required

Drawing paper
Tracing paper
'poster board' card (not necessary to be a particular colour)
Dowel
Paper fasteners ('rivet type')
Adhesive Velcro

Instructions

1. Design the puppet first on paper. Remember it will be viewed from the side. It must be the right size to fit the theatre.
2. Transfer the design onto tracing paper.
3. Transfer the design from the tracing paper to the card
4. Carefully cut out the puppet with scissors.
5. For control from behind: use a piece of dowel (about 45cm in length). This can be attached to the puppet with Velcro. This will allow the rods to be transferred easily between puppets.

How to make an articulated puppet

1. Design the puppet first on paper. Remember it will be viewed from the side.
It must be the right size to fit the theatre. Make sure the parts which are to be jointed overlap.
2. Transfer the design onto tracing paper.
3. Transfer the design from the tracing paper to the card
4. Carefully cut out the parts of the puppet with scissors.
5. To make the joints make a small hole in each piece of card and join with a paper fastener.
6. For control from behind: use two pieces of dowel (30 - 45cm in length), one attached to upper body, the other to the hand or elbow. This can be attached to the puppet with Velcro. This will allow the rods to be transferred easily between puppets.

You will need to practice who should control which puppets and which side of the theatre they will work them from to avoid confusion when performing.

C) Lighting the theatre

A torch with a beam strong enough to produce a good shadow is the simplest form of lighting. All other lights ('house lights') should be turned off during performance and the room darkened as much as possible. 'House lights' can be turned on to allow scenes to be changed discretely.

D) Scenery

Scenery can be made in the same way as the puppets. It can be attached to the border of the screen with tape, paper clip or bulldog clip. It could be suspended from above with paper clips. If using an OHP to light the shadow theatre you could draw the scene on OHP slides and projected onto the screen.