Since our last performance of the Emerald Tree, we decided we needed a bigger screen, as we had a few tangles with the puppets previously. Also after seeing a production of jungle book by indigo moon theatre we completely redesigned the setting and added so many different lighting effects. With so many more props behind the small screen restricting the visual effects a bigger better screen and theatre was very much desired.

My father, luckily quite a crafty man of many skills, built a simple frame with hinged side panels. A large piece of polycarbonate, we found in my husband’s workshop, became the screen. A new shower screen was then tightly stretched over the polycarbonate and stapled into place. The clarity of the screen is remarkable and takes images well from our eBay buy, a portable overhead projector.

Nicky designed our logo “Emerald Tree” and drew this out on a piece of ply wood. With jigsaw in hand one hot summers day she cut carefully around the design. It was quite an amazing moment as for the first time our budding theatre was finally materialising out of our long awaited dreams. Our Dad took over as it got a bit tricky as even though the moment had been quite symbolic, we still wanted it to look professionally done. So a glass of Pims was more appropriate for our hands and instead watched as the rest took shape.

Painting has started but we are still yet to finish. We are going to decorate the frame and logo with a mix of greens and mixed media effects of decoupage and gold and glitter paint I found in Wilkinsons.
The two hinged side panels could eventually be screens as well but for now we have found some green vintage velvet curtains and a vintage beautiful green bedspread to create a curtains across the screen given it a more classic older vintage feel and look.

I’m so excited about our new theatre and screen. I can’t wait until our next performance. Hopefully we will easily resize our current sets and puppets to fit but the space will mean more visual and lighting effects can be achieved and explored. We hope to have “The Emerald Tree” revamped and a performance organised for before Christmas.

We are in the process of writing a new shadow puppet play for the Big Busk in Shrewsbury this coming April. This story will be written with less restrictions that the old theatre had. Making it bigger and better and definitely an adventure not to be missed. I can’t wait to explore different lighting effects and techniques to help this new story be even more magical than the last.