The lifelike dinosaur puppets we produced are a product that is both manually operated and highly realistic effect. One actor can hold the Little Dinosaur and operate it to “cry”, “shake its head”, “blink” and so on. Such interactive little dinosaurs are extremely easy to integrate into theatre shows or children’s dramas, and the shows can effectively draw in the audience, achieving a good interactive effect related to the dinosaur theme.

Integrating dinosaur puppets into stage performances, that builds creative and interactive shows. Here are some specific ideas and methods that are applicable to various styles of theatres.

QUICK FACTS:

#1. Character Design: Giving the puppet “Life”
#2. Stage technology: Enhancing visual impact
#3. Plot combination: Natural transition to theme
#4. Audience interaction: Stir their emotions to align with the plot development
#5. Low-cost creativity can also be integrated into the plot development

1. Character Design: Giving the puppet “Life”

The dinosaur puppets are designed as key characters. For instance, there is a newly born baby triceratops that is searching for its mother and embarks on an adventurous journey to find her. During the journey, the little Triceratops would encounter various challenges and dangers, but with its kindness and intelligence, it managed to overcome each of these challenges. Some stereotypical plotlines and acting styles are as follows.

• Humor Made： The clumsy little dinosaur creates comedic moments (such as swallowing props， having its tail stuck).
• Emotional bond: Through the interaction with human characters via puppets, conveying warmth (such as the friendship between a child and a dinosaur).
• Antagonist Transformation: The big dinosaur prop is controlled by the antagonist, enhancing the dramatic conflict.
• Personification Performance: Enhance the expressiveness through voice dubbing (such as deep growls or childlike voices), movable joints design (head, mouth, tail), or LED eyes.

Case reference – video display:

The Ankylosaurus brothers is driving a car and heading towards the workplace, acting like hardworking peasants. They all wanted to hurry to their workplaces to drink the coffee they bought from Vietnam to stay awake. We fully personified the characters of two baby Ankylosaurs, which is very suitable for contemporary young people to enjoy in a humorous way.

2. Stage technology: Enhancing visual impact

A highly attractive dinosaur theatre must have relatively excellent stage visual effects. Make reasonable use of various spotlights, smoke machines, sound systems, music, etc. This exquisite stage effect can add points to your dinosaur puppet protagonist and make the audience more satisfied with the show.

How enhance the visual impact?

• Must have mechanical operation: The small props on the stage, such as “flowers” and “rocks”, if equipped with mechanical dynamics, can enhance the quality of theatre.
• Projection interaction: The combination of puppets and projections, for instance, when a dinosaur puppet touches the “pyroclastic flow” on the stage, the ground projection emits red light; Using AR technology to recreate the prehistoric Jurassic environment, etc.
• Set up decorations that fit the environment: Dinosaur-themed decorations (such as skeletons, skulls, volcanoes, prehistoric plants, etc.) can be used to embellish the stage.

3. Plot combination: Natural transition to theme

Since it is a theme theatre, what can truly move the audience is undoubtedly the captivating plot development. The actors who hold the puppets need to be familiar with the plot and naturally express their true emotions during the performance. A genuine performance can truly make the audience feel what you are expressing.

What are the key points for explaining the plot?

There should be content featuring adventures of time travel: It could be that modern characters travel to the Jurassic era through a certain object and discover baby dinosaur (dinosaur puppet), then embark on an adventure together; Or perhaps the little dinosaurs were given human-like characteristics, embarking on an adventurous journey in the magical dinosaur world, thereby developing qualities such as courage.

It should have a positive symbolic meaning: The dinosaur-themed storyline is undoubtedly aimed at the majority of young children. In the plot, the role of little dinosaur is needed to be played to convey the spirits of “courage”, “intelligence” and “not fearing difficulties and dangers”. It should also convey the educational significance of “being courageous in exploration”. Such symbolic meaning is very precious for children in the growth stage.

Comedies that appropriately incorporate contrasts: For instance, fierce little Velociraptor or Tyrannosaurus Rex were bullied by small birds; Or it could be that the little Tyrannosaurus Rex played hide-and-seek with a group of herbivorous baby dinosaurs. This will enable the audience to have a greater affection for the character design of little dinosaur protagonist. Think about Simba from The Lion King and his friends “Timon” and “Pumbaa“.

4. Audience interaction: Stir their emotions to align with the plot development

When performing with the armed dinosaur puppets, it would be best to design scenarios that allow for interaction with the audience. The survey data shows that if the performers can interact with the audience through language and actions, the positive feedback they receive from the audience will be much higher than a performance limited to the stage only. This way, it can also better motivate the audience to follow the plot development.

A better way of interaction:

• Puzzle Game: The actors on the stage worked together with the little dinosaurs, reciting some riddles and asking the audience below to think about the answers or solutions to the riddles. Finally, ask the audience to shout out the answer loudly.
• Take the stage to perform together: The actors on the stage need one or more audience members to come on stage to cooperate with the performance, and they should actively go down to the audience area to invite the enthusiastic members to cooperate as well.

The above are two types of relatively good interaction methods that have been summarized based on years of experience. If you have any other better ways to interact with the dinosaur theme, please don’t hesitate to share them here.

5. Low-cost creativity can also be integrated into the plot development

If you want to save money for your drama or show, you can utilize the currently popular Shadow Performance to advance the plot, such as the introductory and concluding explanations at the beginning and end of each chapter. Actors can also present some thrilling and spectacular scenes in the form of Black Light Theater, which would be suitable for the current young trend.

The implementation details are as follows:

• Shadow Theatre: Create a simple prehistoric world by the Shadow Performance and Flashlight. Through the changes in the shadows and the silhouettes of the props, progress the storyline.
• Multi-player control: Several actors respectively controlled various small props made of foam and plastic to depict various battles between the little dinosaurs and their enemies, or the thrilling adventures and escapes they undertook.

Conclusion

By using dinosaur puppets or props as the performance core, it can not only attract children, but also provide nostalgic or humorous experiences for adult viewers. The key lies in exploring the organic integration points between the props & the plot & the technology. As long as you carefully integrate the above 5 points we have summarized, you will be able to seamlessly combine the plot and puppets.