Puppet Activities:
Blind Storyteller: Have one person sit in front of the group facing them. Have two or three people stand behind him with their puppets. The sitting person cannot see the people behind him. Have him tell a story about these three puppets. The “actors” then have to act it out as he narrates. This can have some super funny results!
Puppet Show: Have the group break into smaller groups and come up with their own puppet show ideas.
Emotional Puppets: Have the people in the group get up one at a time and have their puppets act out an emotion. The rest of the group must guess what emotion they are acting out.
Me as a Puppet: Give each person in the group various puppet making supplies and have them make a puppet that reflects themselves. I suggest sticking to one kind of puppet such as a paper plate stick puppet. The puppets do not have to look exactly like the person. Instead they could have some of the person’s attributes such as being shy, loud, having freckles or glasses. The rest of the puppet could be imagined, or what the person would like to look like if he had the choice. After making the puppets you might sit in a circle and introduce the puppets. An interesting script might be to say one thing or two things about your puppet that is the same as you and one thing that is different.
Forum theatre: Two puppets go up to the front and start a scene. They have to act out the scene as best they can. At one point the facilitator yells “freeze”! And all the puppets must freeze. One of the audience puppets then goes up and takes the place of one of the acting puppets. They must then say something to start a completely new scenario.
Music Video: Have the group divide into small groups. Have them pick out their own music and make up a music video to show the group!
Puppet Talk Show: This talk show is all about puppets! Have three people come up and sit at the front. Also have a talk show “host” (a facilitator is probably best) who leads the show. Have the puppets introduce themselves (they could be regular puppets or they could be famous people. eg. Elvis, Miley Cyrus, Snow White, The Little Mermaid) The “audience” members get to put up their hands and ask the puppets questions. You can use markers or sticks as microphones for the puppets to speak into. The host can encourage interaction between puppet guests as well as audience members.
What If?: Two/three people are chosen. Each chooses a puppet and stands at the front of the group. The audience or facilitator suggests a “what if?'” question, eg. What if you missed the bus to work? The group would then have to act out that scenario, coming up with a solution. Once they were finished you could have other volunteers come up and act out alternate endings.
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