JACK & THE BEANSTALK Puppets

As I've said before, RAY MOORE is a genius as both a designer and puppet builder. I will never aspire to his talent, although we have worked together and he is a gracious and generous man.

The top two photos show the puppets he created for the TROTTER BROTHER'S production of HANSEL & GRETEL. These were beautifully sculpted and finished with very technical controls which allowed intricate head and hand movements. The FATHER, MOTHER andf WITCH puppets were 36" tall with hand and rod manipulation. The puppeteer had a touch-sensitive controller which allowed the head to be nodded and swiveled from side to side, while the hands were controlled by black rods, so attached as to allow for very human-like movement and gestures. HANSEL and GRETEL and the other characters where slightly smaller hand puppets ( three fingers controlling Head and Hands) and an array of forest creatures and Angels, some hand puppets and some on simple single rod controls. All really fine workmanship and all....

....really EXPENSIVE!

At least a quarter of the cost of this show lay in the puppets. My first task to bring in a more affordable production for JACK & THE BEANSTALK was to find a way to produce puppets which were full-stage worthy but not so expensive.

The bottom photo shows the solution. Instead of sculpted styrofoam and heavy felt covering, the JACK puppets were all made to the same design: Simple foam rubber Head and Body construction with cheaper flesh colored velveteen coverings. The hands were wire armature with velveteen, stuffed with polyester and a simple black cotton sleeve. Once the bodies were constructed as seen in the lower photo at the left, we finished and costumed them to create JACK and his MOTHER as seen in the right hand photo.

These puppets were not as heavy and were only capable of fairly broad movements ( No Head movement accept side to side turns, and simple hand gestures) but they performed acceptably and...
... Cost VERY LITTLE to create.