Family Performance Night Guide

Showtime!

Skip the movie night and make your own entertainment. A shadow puppet show is something every member of the family can participate in regardless of age, and it can be staged with mostly household items. Here is how to run a simple family performance night.

What You Need

• A bright flashlight or desk lamp with a focused beam
• A white sheet or blank wall as your screen
• A dark room (curtains drawn)
• A simple story idea (2 minutes long is plenty to start)

Roles for Everyone

• The Puppeteers: Anyone performing shadows. Multiple people can puppeteer at once — one on each side of the screen, or one handling a foreground character while another handles the background.
• The Narrator: Reads a picture book aloud while the puppets act it out. This separates the verbal and physical performance so neither person gets overwhelmed.
• Sound Effects: One person is responsible for making all sounds — storms (shaking a piece of tin foil), footsteps (tapping a table), animal calls, and musical score (phone speaker playing quiet background music).
• The Stage Manager: Controls the flashlight — can dim the scene by tilting the beam, create "sunrise" by slowly brightening it, or signal intermissions.
• The Audience: Armed with popcorn — and encouraged to gasp, cheer, and boo on cue.

Stage Setup

Tape a white sheet to a doorway or hang it between two chairs. The puppeteers crouch or kneel behind it. The light source goes behind the performers. The audience sits in front. The gap between sheet and light should be at least 4 feet — the farther back the light, the more room puppeteers have to move.

Simple Script Ideas

• Re-enact a picture book: Pick a favorite short book with one clear character journey, or tell a very short original story instead.
• A Day in the Life: Act out funny things that happened to the family that week — the dog getting into the trash, the bike falling over, the rainstorm. The more specific to your family, the funnier it is.
• The Animal Olympics: Each performer makes their best animal shadow and they "compete" in a made-up event. The audience votes on the winner.

If you want a little more structure, pair this page with Structuring a Shadow Puppet Story and Sound Effects and Music.