Homemade Puppet Theater Craft

Have your junior Geppetto turn a boot box into a puppet theater!

Submitted by
Andrey Ragozin

It may not be Lincoln Center, but your kids will be proud to create their very own puppet theater. And you'll be thrilled not to drop big bucks on an expensive toy set that will just end up in the garage next to that fancy play kitchen, that cool car and the dozens of other "must-have" toys your kids begged for. Imagine if you'd spent that money on a vacation.

A large boot box:
Don't have one? Go out and buy a new pair of boots! We all have to sacrifice for our kids.
Fabric or an old dishcloth:
If you don't have any red velvet (or blue cotton or whatever), chances are you have a non-terry dishcloth.
Chopsticks:
Another excuse to order dinner in!
Scissors
Duct tape
Scotch tape
Markers
Hole punch
Glue:
In short, raid your local craft store.
A piece of thin cardboard:
You can use the bottom of another shoe box or the back of a cereal box.
Needle and thread:
Only if you want to get your Susie Homemaker swerve on and sew your curtain rather than tape it.
Embellishments:
Pom-poms, trim, sequins
Magazine:
To be cut up, so hide your unread People.
Popcorn:
Optional.
Performers:
Puppets, dolls or stuffed animals.

Have the kids take the large boot box and tape construction or wrapping paper all over it, inside and out.
Help them duct tape the chopsticks together.
Using your scissors or hole punch, poke a hole on the top of each side of the shoe box. This will be where you put your chopsticks to hang your curtain. (This task should probably be handled by Mom.
Take your old dishcloth and have the kids fold the top over ½ an inch or so (wide enough for the chopsticks to fit through). Hold it up inside your shoe box to approximate the length. Trim accordingly.
Tape, sew or glue the flap of fabric over, leaving a casing for the chopsticks. Then cut the fabric or towel in half to create two different curtains. Have the kids glue or tape little pom-poms or trim onto the edges of the curtain to add some dramatic flair.
Next, have the kids thread the chopstick through each curtain. The kids can then insert the curtain-draped dowel into the holes on the shoe box. Voilà! You have a stage curtain.
Now for the marquee: Have the kids tape a piece of non-patterned paper to the thin piece of cardboard. Mounting it on the cardboard will make it sturdy enough to stand atop your theater. Cut the paper-covered cardboard into a fancy marquee shape. For inspiration check out this marquee.
Ask your kid to choose a name for the theater. You can simply call it "Boot Box Theater" or personalize it with a name like "Jimmy's Super Fly Puppet Theater." You can also add the stars' (i.e., puppets, your kids) names and/or the name of the production to the marquee. Have the kids flip though a stack of magazines to find cool letters to create the marquee title. Titles of articles and ads will generally have bigger, more colorful letters. Work together to cut out the letters.
Glue the letters onto the marquee background to spell out the title.
Affix your marquee to the theater using duct tape. It'll be fragile, but we wouldn't expect you to construct scaffolding or anything. Gotta draw the line somewhere.
Opening night! Pop some popcorn, kick back and watch your kids perform a world premiere puppet show.