Paper Bag Puppets

Making · Projects · Page 1 of 6

Name Date
DIRECTIONS: Get a flat-bottomed paper grocery bag and turn it upside down.
Scissors only, with a grown-up in the room. If a step seems to want a knife, snip or fold instead.
What you need: a paper bag · a cardboard box · card · scissors · a glue stick · markers · tape · string. One bag per puppet; one box for the theatre.
The bag already has a mouth. The folded flat bottom is a hinge: fingers up inside the flap, and it becomes a jaw.
the flap the bag the fold = a hinge Upside down. The flat bottom is a flap, and the fold is a hinge.
this was hidden chin, and the rest eyes go ON the flap Fingers in the flap. The shaded strip was hidden a second ago.
  1. Go and find three more things in the house that have a fold, a hinge or a flap already built into them for some completely different reason. Which would make the best mouth?

Where the Face Goes

Making · Projects · Page 2 of 6

DIRECTIONS: Read the three bands before you draw anything. A whole face on the flap splits when it opens.
Do not draw the whole face on the flap: when the jaw drops it rips down the middle. Split the face across the fold, so opening the mouth shows something hidden.
ON THE FLAP eyes, eyebrows, top of the nose HIDDEN UNTIL IT OPENS inside of the mouth, tongue, teeth BELOW chin, neck, body, arms, a shirt the fold
Draw in this order and it cannot go wrong.

1. Put your hand in and open the mouth. Hold it open.
2. With your other hand, draw a line right along the fold in pencil.
3. Take your hand out, lay it flat, and now you can see exactly which paper is which.
4. Eyes above the line. Inside of the mouth just below it. Everything else lower down.

The strip just below the fold is the best bit of the whole puppet, because it is the only part the audience has not seen yet. Put something worth waiting for there.
  1. What is inside your puppet’s mouth that nobody expects? Not teeth — everybody does teeth. Something that makes a person laugh the first time it opens.

Parts That Fold Over the Hinge

Making · Projects · Page 3 of 6

DIRECTIONS: Cut these out, fold on the dashed line, THEN glue.
A beak sits on both sides of the hinge, so it is two pieces joined at the crease: one above the fold, one below.
a beakTwo halves, one crease. Fold on the dashes BEFORE you glue, or the beak shuts for good.
a snoutThe nostrils are on the LOWER half, so they only show when it talks.
a tongueGlue the tab UNDER the flap, at the back. Nowhere else.
teethPoints down, glued along the underside of the fold. Four is plenty; a full row looks like a comb.

A Theatre From One Box

Making · Projects · Page 4 of 6

DIRECTIONS: Cut one rectangle out of a box. Get it in the right place.
Cut the window HIGH. A deep wall of box below it hides your arms. Cut it in the middle and your arms are on stage all show.
WRONG — window in the middle the whole arm is on stage The hole reaches down past your wrist, so it shows.
RIGHT — window in the top third solid cardyour arm is behind this Everything below the hole is a wall you work behind.
Do thisBecause
Window in the top third of the panelEverything below it is the wall that hides you. This is the one that matters.
Leave a border all the way roundCut right out to the edges and the box loses its corners and folds up on the first night.
Tape a strip of card along the bottom of the window, sticking upA lip. Puppets can rest on it, and it hides the last inch of your hand.
Two bits of string across the top, and a curtain of paper hung over themOpening a curtain is the moment the show starts. Without one, it just sort of begins.
Puppet head about a third of the window heightBigger and it fills the stage with nowhere to go. Smaller and nobody in the room can see its face.

Tickets

Making · Projects · Page 5 of 6

DIRECTIONS: Fill them in, cut them out, and give them away BEFORE the show is ready.
A ticket is a promise, and promises get kept. Tear the stubs off at the door and count them at the end.
No. 1 ADMIT ONE 1 SHOW FOR WHEN
No. 2 ADMIT ONE 2 SHOW FOR WHEN
No. 3 ADMIT ONE 3 SHOW FOR WHEN
No. 4 ADMIT ONE 4 SHOW FOR WHEN
No. 5 ADMIT ONE 5 SHOW FOR WHEN
No. 6 ADMIT ONE 6 SHOW FOR WHEN

The Show

Making · Projects · Page 6 of 6

DIRECTIONS: Plan three scenes, then do it. Fill in the last two boxes afterwards.
SceneWho is onWhat happensWho says the last line
1
2
3
Two rules. Come in from the side, never up from the bottom. Whoever is talking moves; everybody else holds still.
  1. How many stubs did you collect?
  2. Something got a real laugh, and it was almost certainly not the bit you planned to be funny. What was it?
  3. What would you change about the theatre itself — not the story, the box? Say what went wrong and how you would cut it differently.