The show consists of 4' tall articulated rod puppets which "come to life" out of four 8' tall "stained glass windows". There are four windows and nine puppets. (yes, we know the math doesn't work -- one puppet lives back stage). Above we see the panel holding Robin Hood and Maid Marion. The puppets hang from hooks on the front of the panels.

To get started on the project, the material had to be decided upon. We chose a corrugated plastic which comes in several colors like those shown here. This is the same material used for lightweight signs and USPS mail buckets.

We first built a scale model of a panel to give us a feeling for the size of everything.

Drawings were made of all the characters, and then they were redrawn with the movable pieces separated from the body. They were then scanned into Marty's computer and printed out on clear transparencies.

We could then size the drawings (using an overhead projector) and trace the pieces onto the colored plastic or clear plastic. (Every puppet part has a clear background piece for strength).

Here we are looking at the back of one of the four background panels. They have a copper pipe base with six foot copper risers onto which the PVC pipe frames drop.
The panels are in two pieces to aid in storage and transportation. (Don't want to have to rent a truck, thank you -- it all fits in a minivan) The holes top and bottom are to let the wind blow through -- since it is performed outside. Sand bags are also placed on the copper base to help with stability.

Here's the front of the top half one of the background panels. The black and colored pieces have been glued to their clear background panel as seen above. (This panel section alone has about 125 individual pieces all glued together. Let's do the math -- 4 panels x 2 pieces x 125 = 1000). The spaces between the colors are filled with gray caulking to simulate the leading of a stained glass window.

The pieces, many hundreds of them, are cut out to the exact size needed.

Here's the messy (and smelly) part. The pieces have to be glued together using contact cement -- and no, the "safe" kind doesn't work. So, open the doors, get out the fans, and put on the masks.

Here some assembled parts start to accumulate. The blue pieces are parts of Maid Marion.

Here's Sir Guy of Gisbourne with the beginnings of the painted outline on it.

The painting moves into full gear.

Here he is with the painting completed.

On the next page we'll finish the construction...