[bright music] - Hi, my name is Renata Townsend.

I'm a teaching artist at the New Victory Theater.

I specialize in devised theater and puppetry.

Today I'm gonna be teaching you how to make some tabletop puppets using household objects.

This is a metal spoon that I found.

I named him Spoonster.

This is a snack cup that I stole from my son named Snack Attack.

To build these puppets, you need a couple of things.

You need a marker or a writing utensil, something you can draw the eyes with.

You need a piece of paper, you need some tape.

This is the only tape that I could find.

It doesn't have to be blue and white polka dot duct tape.

Scotch tape would probably even be better.

You need a pair of scissors.

And then if you have some sort of construction paper or colored paper or even a magazine, you can add accessories to them.

You also need a object.

And really, the more random the object, the better.

So I have a tissue box that I'm going to be building this puppet out of.

So the first step is you're gonna to take your marker and you're gonna draw your eyes on the puppet.

Now the eyes are the window to the puppet's soul.

So thinking about what kind of personality you either want your puppet to have or the personality, you can draw a pair of eyes and then say, "Hmm, I wonder what kind of personality these eyes have?"

I already prepped some eyes.

So after you draw your eyes and cut them out, you're then going to put a little bit of tape on the back of your eyes and attach them somewhere on your puppet.

I'm gonna put my eyes there.

Now take a look at your puppet and think about what kind of personality.

I just laughed because it looks like this puppet has a very funny hairdo and that was unexpected.

So once you have your puppet, you're gonna clear the table.

My cat is running around.

I don't know if you can see him back there.

And you're going to start with an entrance.

You can do a slow entrance, or you could do a fast entrance.

Ooh!

Something like that.

Once you get onto the tabletop, you are going to take a breath.

Puppets to make them come to life, you need breath and focus, so that's what we're gonna be working on.

You're gonna breathe [exhales] and then you're gonna have your puppet, not you, but your puppet look around.

You might wanna make some sound with that as well.

Then you're gonna have your puppet move.

Figure out how you want your puppet to move.

And then you're gonna have your puppet exit.

Again, you could do a fast exit or a slow exit.

I'm gonna go faster.

And that's it.

So I want you to create all the objects in your house.

I want you to make them all into puppets and then you can make an amazing puppet show.

Have fun and thanks so much for watching.

Cat!

There's a cat!

Ah!

No, you can't grab me.

[Spoonster yelling]