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Fellowship of Christian Magicians
(United Kingdom) |
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Fellowship of Christian Magicians
(United Kingdom) |
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by Peter Gardner |
| For several years now we have been using a system for making a puppet theatre. While the initial cost of the parts is high they are very robust and should last a lifetime. We use metal tripods and T bars for mounting disco lights or similar theatrical lights on. They are easy to transport and assemble and they are very strong and stable. |
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Shown in the
picture are the parts for the light stands or tripods.
T bars and T bar joining section Fixing bolts and wing nuts You also need sheets to cover the theatre when erected. |
| The parts can be assembled in a wide range of configurations to make large or small puppet theatres. If you have a really large production bucket of money you could purchase several sets and have a multi tiered stage. When everything is taken apart the puppet theatre takes up very little storage space. |
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The system which
we use is manufactured by a company called "ULTIMAX".
The tripod legs are able to go to several different settings. A
spring loaded bolt locates into preset holes in the upright and there is
also a locking screw for extra security.
The setting which makes the legs spread the widest obviously gives the greatest stability but there are times when a narrower spread and thus extra height is necessary. |
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The height of the stands is adjusted by a
safety collar A which has a spring loaded bolt which locks into preset
holes in the upright column and the lock screw B.
There have been times when we have had slightly taller people working our puppets with the theatre and so to keep the safety feature of collar A, we have added a plastic collar between A and B. This is a plastic connector for joining plumbing waste pipes and is readily available from D.I.Y. stores. This allows us to make the stand just that bit higher. The lower picture on the right shows a white plastic connector fitted between the adjusting collar and the spring loaded safety collar. It's probably overdoing it a bit but we are very safety aware especially when we have other people operating the puppets. Remember it's always better to be safe than sorry. The top casting of each light stand tripod has a locking bolt to secure it to the stand. If this is unscrewed the top casting may be lifted off the stand. |
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There is also a bolt through the centre of the top casting. This is used for securing a single light unit or a T bar to the stand. If it was required to have two T bars bolted to the top casting then a longer fixing bolt would be needed as it would have to pass through two T bars. We have use this method when we have had four light stands in a square formation and wanted to link them all together with T bars across the tops. The T bars which we use in our shows and presentations are square box section. It would not be wise to put very heavy items on these as they could bend. If heavy weights are to be used then the T bar should be replaced with heavy duty triangular trusses. The top castings could also be removed and replaced with a loudspeaker top hat assembly. This would then allow the light tripods to be used with loudspeaker cabinets. |
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After the T bar has been attached to the light tripod, a sheet may be draped over the T bar. This is the covering of the puppet theatre and what hides the puppeteers from the audience. Two thicknesses of sheet may be required according to the lighting conditions. The sheets can be secured to the T bar using large spring clips. These are also readily available in car repair shops and D.I.Y. outlets. For our puppet shows we secure our scripts to the T bar using rare earth magnets. The picture above shows the view from behind using one tripod and one T bar. This is only suitable for one puppeteer. |
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The picture on the left shows the view from the front with one hand / rod puppet. This is ideal for small venues or when only one puppeteer is required to do the presentation. We often use this simple set-up when we have one puppet talking to the minister or the person leading the service or presentation. For larger presentations when we have several puppeteers two T bars are linked together using a T bar connector. This slides into one end of each T bar and is secured with a bolt and wing nut. |
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For the wider puppet theatre, two tripod
light stands are used with the joined T bars. This gives a
football goal mouth configuration.
We also use this configuration if we wish to have a background for our magic shows. Once again the theatre is covered with sheets as with the single light stand theatre. If more light stands and T bars are used for multi tiered puppet theatres then we have found that a small set of steps is a useful addition. This enables us to get the sheets on and off the theatre when the T bars are set at a higher level. When using the puppet theatre as a backing for our magic shows we have found that a very cost effective solution for curtains is to use nylon shower curtains. We bought ours from Matalan at a very reasonable price. |
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They came complete with oval plastic hanging rings which can be slid onto the T bar prior to assembly. They also have a small drawstring bag for each curtain for transportation. For some of our presentations we have used these curtains with lighting effects projectors shining on them from the rear. Due to the translucent nature of the curtains this has given a very professional look to the show. If the lights are animated it also gives the audience something to watch before the show begins. |
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Revised: July 29, 2007.
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