Life-sized puppets for Peter Pan

[csilvia9]

Hi I am starting production on Peter Pan at my middle school. I am thinking of going with puppets for the flying sequence. Does anyone have some good ideas on constructing some realistic looking figures on a small budget? I was thinking of carving the bodies from foam and just dress them in an identical costume. Also staging is so the faces don't show. Would love to hear if others have done this.

 

[kicknargel]

You could also consider making them like a rag doll. You'd get some movement that way (maybe too much) and they'd be more durable than foam.
I like the outside the box thinking. Just a thought: since you're not fooling anyone anyway, maybe do smaller puppets that can really fly around, and keep the actors visible singing the song. I like to turn a technical challenge into and interesting artistic choice rather than a cheesy workaround.

 

[csilvia9]

You could also consider making them like a rag doll. You'd get some movement that way (maybe too much) and they'd be more durable than foam.
I like the outside the box thinking. Just a thought: since you're not fooling anyone anyway, maybe do smaller puppets that can really fly around, and keep the actors visible singing the song. I like to turn a technical challenge into and interesting artistic choice rather than a cheesy workaround.

I agree Nick, the only reason I was thinking life size was to keep the costuming simple, just make two of the same. I was thinking of a rag doll type thing as well but they would be much heavier and expensive to produce. We have not started blocking scenes yet I am just thinking ahead on this one. My thought was when they fly out of the nursery window to just have the actors step up on a riser and then jump through the window. as soon as they are out of sight have the puppet doubles appear as if they are flying off to Neverland.

 

[beastprin1]

I wouldn't say they had to be life-sized...I've seen flying effects for Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, and others that have used "marionettes" for this effect, or have "kabuki" style performers operating regular size puppets and the backdrop is still the starry night sky, but the set of London's rooftops is all only a few feet tall AND covered in a layer of Fog...As they leave "London", the set is dropped beneath the stage or pulled off and the scene change for Neverland occurs then, slowly making a new wagon of scenery come on (of strange plants/trees or Jungle like) depending on the production. You could also use regular sized dolls and add rods and dress them up accordingly. If you wanted to go life-size with the characters, you may as well do that kabuki style and just bring on 4+ technicians to hoist up the kid actors and fly them (I've seen this done to great and not-so- great effects.) If you have fly space and authorization and money to fly the characters, FLY them w/ FX or whomever....Another idea....In every city, there is generally a puppet company. Work in tandem with them. Offer them tickets or free program ad. You may have to dish out some serious money for them to make you puppets for it. Now, since you wanted to get creative and use puppets, you could also do black-lighting, have "doubles" of the actors in "black-light fabric" costumes w/ masks or blacklight makeup and have them "fly around"

 

[BrianWolfe]

Not sure if it fits your budget but these bendable foam mannequins are a good fast start and usually available on Ebay:
Baby Kid Children Flexible Stuffed Mannequin Body for Display 11 Size 1 11years | eBay

 

[masterelectrician2112]

If you do actually fly your actors instead of using puppets, NEVER attempt that yourself. Call in the pros (ZFX, Foy, etc.). I am not implying that you would ever try to fly real people without the proper rigging done by a qualified professional, but I think it bears repeating for those who will see this in the future. You'll see it on every thread about flying performers: hire a professional company and nobody gets hurt. /end Public Service Announcement + rant

 

[misterm]

we built our toybox with lights on the surface so the whole group could stand on the toybox and simulate flying while being lit from beneath with a star field projected or lit around the rest of the stage. looked great and traveled well with easy set-up (we competed with the show at one-act).