2007 Printable Manual - Texas State Library and Archives ...

Puppet Plays
Sail Away With Books!
The Fisherman and His Wife:
A Puppet Play
(Adapted by Barrie Teague Alguire from a traditional folktale.)
Characters
A fisherman
The fisherman’s wife
An enchanted fish
Staging Suggestions
Regardless of the kind of puppet stage you own, you can create a background by mounting
pictures of the shack, the big house, and the mansion on separate sheets of poster board. Glue
sturdy wooden sticks on the back of each so they can be held up in the background at appropriate
points in the play. You could also use an easel with a ledge to support each picture.
Hand puppets with arms will give the characters a chance to express themselves through
movement. The story can also be presented with stick puppets or performed by live actors and a
fish puppet.
Use blue cloth or paper on the side of the puppet stage where the fish appears to indicate the sea,
and green or brown cloth or paper on the other side of the stage to indicate the shore.
Play music at the beginning and end. Also select a brief piece of music to play when the
fisherman is going back and forth between his house and the fishing pier to create the impression
that he is traveling a fair distance.
Prop
Fishing rod
Script
FISHERMAN: (speaking to audience)
Hello, my name is Hans. I am a fisherman, yah. I live in a small tumbledown shack with my
loving wife, Helga, right at the edge of the sea. The house needs to be repaired, but the roof
keeps the rain off our heads. We don’t have much, but we are content. I have to tell you, it was
not always this way. For a while we lived in a splendid palace. But we found that beautiful
surroundings and riches don’t always bring happiness. I will tell you what happened. It all started
one day when I was fishing and I caught a most wonderful fish.
(Fisherman casts his line and waits. He feels a tug on the line.)
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