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Permalink Reply by Judy on January 21, 2013 at 12:51am

The best general rule is that the light source be as small as possible. I once took a 1000W fresnel and removed the lens, but any concentrated light source is ok. If the source is too big the shadows aren't sharp.

Judy

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Permalink Reply by April B. on January 22, 2013 at 7:51am

Thanks, Judy!

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Permalink Reply by Joan Schirle on January 21, 2013 at 6:43pm

I am in Bali right now, where two nights ago we saw a shadow play or wayang kulit on our annual study trip to Bali. Wonderful work by the shadow master, his two assistants and the small orchestra of 4 behind him. In Bali they mostly use the traditional hanging coconut oil lamp, with its flickering flame giving an animated quality to the puppets. The screen is white with a black border, stretched around a frame and puppets are anchored in a freshly cut banana tree trunk.

Fire codes in the US make it very hard to use flame, unless it's an outdoor show, so many artists use varying kinds of electric lights. We have used them both in fixed positions and handheld to change the dimension of the figures on the screen. Blocks of styrofoarm can anchor the puppets. I recommend Shadowlight productions of San Francisco--their leader, Larry Reed, is an accomplished shadow master, has experimented for years with many kinds of lighting, with puppets as well as live actors in shadow, and with many nationalities' forms of shadow puppetry. And he has made a number of films of shadow plays http://shadowlight.com/

And if you want to study shadow puppetry in Bali, Dell'Arte International does an annual month-long study trip every January http://dellarte.com/bali

Best,

Joan Schirle

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Permalink Reply by April B. on January 22, 2013 at 7:51am

Wow, that sounds like a wonderful opportunity!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Mellitz on January 22, 2013 at 7:41am

I have been facinated with the the use of shadows and how to do it on a small budget. I just saw a production of Cinderella at the Arden theater in Philadelphia where much of the story is using shadows. They used some sort of fabric and a combination of stationary stage lights for the full size sillouttes and then flashlights when they wanted to create movement or growth. I am about to put on a production of Pippin and we are probably going to use a white spandex and a similar combination for the opening sequence. I will let everyone know how that goes.

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Permalink Reply by April B. on January 22, 2013 at 7:49am

That sounds very exciting! I'd love to hear all about the final results!

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Permalink Reply by Dan Mellitz on February 25, 2013 at 9:10am

So the shadows worked really well. We did end up using the spandex, and two strip lights in the back to make sure we could light the full body.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Coakley on February 25, 2013 at 10:25am

Great photo, Dan! Glad to hear it went well!

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Permalink Reply by David Fox on February 15, 2013 at 10:17am

Of course I'm partially biased...check out this video of our artists.

Cirque du Soleil's KA - Shadow Puppets

We use a high powered automotive headlight lamp in a custom fixture with battery which projects directly onto our stage (which is tilted vertically to create a backdrop).

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