Most useful and precious tip for a puppeteers is the classic "SHOW DON'T TELL".
Literally every single teacher I have met has told me this.
At the beginning I was resisting to the idea of not having my character explain and speak and describe what he was doing: I was coming from the storytelling tradition and it seemed absurd to me.
But the first time I tried it was magical: there was so much more strength and power in just a simple action than the many words I used to speak before. The children and the parents were suddenly captured and stayed interested for the rest of the show; they even talked about that scene for long after the show ended.
And so since then I have understood that we go to SEE puppet show, we go to SEE a movie or a theater piece.
So the SHOW DON'T TELL is my first and main rule when I prepare new shows!
Below a photo of the mighty-isteric Magie playing her piano with 4 hands!
