Second: Decide upon the number of scenes that you think necessary for your play.
Third: Decide upon the number of characters required for these scenes.
These three things you must do if your play is to be only the simplest kind of a Burattini play, if it is to be a shadow play, or a marionette play.
If you are not experienced in making marionette plays, you may think that you need a great many characters to act your story. But the more you learn about marionette plays, the more you will be surprised to find how few characters, and incidents, and scenes you will need. Choose only those which are most important. This means that you should know your story very well indeed before you begin to make your play. When you thoroughly know your story and all the characters in it, all that they say and do, you will enjoy your play-making quite as much as your play-giving.
Scenes from the marionette play, "Adventures of Alice," given by ninth year pupils of Fairmount Junior High School at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Marionettes made by Tuesday Marionette Club.
Let us choose one or two humorous books and see how we can turn them into a marionette play. We might choose Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. You remember how the story of Alice in Wonderland begins? Alice falls asleep under the tree and the white rabbit passes by. So one might select:
Incident I. Alice and the White Rabbit Incident II. Alice and the Caterpillar Incident III. Alice and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee Incident IV. Alice and Humpty Dumpty Incident V. Alice and the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, the Cook and the Pig Baby Incident VI. Alice and the Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse
Of course, a dozen plays could be made from these two books, but these six incidents will be quite enough for your purpose. A good play, as you know, must not be too long, it must begin in the right way, the story must hold together, and it must be very interesting all the time, and it must have the right ending. The above six incidents were selected with these requirements in mind.
Now, how many acts shall we have? Since this is a dream story, the play might begin by showing Alice falling asleep under the trees, and the White Rabbit running past, and then Alice jumping up and following him. This part of the play we might call a Prologue since it begins the story. Then follow with: