Wanted: Hospital Safe Puppet Materials

[ekeil]

Hello All-
So I am embarking on a service learning project with one of my college theatre design classes. We would like to build a portable puppet theatre complete with puppets for use by the patients, families, and staff of the Children's Hospital of Illinois this semester. I initially thought that some basic hand and rod puppets in a punch and judy or muppet style would be great for the kids but I am now encountering an interesting issue. If we use fabric in the puppets they cannot be kept in the activity room at the hospital due to fabric's propensity for trapping germs and spreading infections, especially with something like a hand puppet. I am trying to research other potential materials/construction methods and would love any suggestions you all may have. I am still working on the exact details with the child life specialist at the hospital, but I am assuming that the material needs to be non-porous and easily sterilized by spraying with a disinfectant, which also then means it has to hold up to being sprayed with a disinfectant. This leads me to think that something like a cast vinyl or some sort of thermoplastic might be the way to go. Thanks for reading and I'll take all the help I can get with great humility!

Cheers,

ek

 

[TheCreatureWork]

Hey,
I've worked with cancer patients for about 21 years and my wife works at a hospital...I know a thing or two about materials...nothing is germ proof. You can build puppets out of vinyl and other "non-pourous" material however, it'll still get bacteria on them and not to many materials we use as puppet builders can stand up to hospital cleaning supplies.

You can try having the patients put gloves on before putting their hands into a puppet but supervising that so everyone does it every time is impossible.

Kids in isolation shouldn't be using anything plush etc. but usually the policy in hospitals for other patients who's white blood cell counts are high can use board games, game consoles...puppets; but they have to sanitize their hands before and after using them.

Basically, building germ resistant puppets or easily washable puppets is pretty difficult. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[TheCreatureWork]

Digital puppetry can be an easy solution- however, costly.

 

[ekeil]

Thanks for the consult. My mother has been a nurse for my entire life and I was pre-med for a while so I am somewhat familiar with the hospital environment as well. I'm aware making something germ-proof is impossible in this circumstance, but a non-porous material will generally disinfect pretty well with a spray sanitizer or a dip. The only restriction the hospital has given so far on toys in the activity room is no cloth/plush materials as they are harder to clean so I think if we go plastic/pvc it might be alright assuming they then follow the same sanitation procedures for patients and the toys they follow with the other activities in the room. We're going to try some things with plastic bottles, milk jugs, tyvek, and PVC and see what we can come up with. Any other ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

You should look at puppet making books in the local library for ideas. "The Muppets Make Puppets" and John Kennedy's puppet making books are good. Lois Walker also wrote a number of really good books on making puppets from everyday objects; I'm pretty sure they're all out of print now, but many libraries have copies of them.