Online Research

The first thing I did was hop onto Google and search images for Shrek dragon puppet. There are a ton of photos ranging from beautifully designed Broadway-ready puppets to a series of cardboard boxes with sheets draped between them. Yikes! I browsed through photo after photo but the breakthrough came when I came across photo of a dragon half-constructed, using PVC and irrigation pipes as the structure. As I looked closely at the design, and how it was put together, I then thought "I could do that!" I downloaded and printed a series of pictures. Some stills from the movie, some of various dragon puppets, and a couple showing the PVC structure.

The next step was to create some blueprints from which I could work out the construction details and come up with a parts list from which I could get a cost estimate.

The drawing below became my scale drawing for determining the size of the dragon. I was able to use an architectural scale and get measurements of length, locations of the joints, size of the head, and diameter of each of the ribs. Once I had the diameter of each rib I could use simple math (pi x diameter) to get the length of each tube section.

Flapping Wings

The design of the flapping wings gave me the most trouble. Some puppets had one pole coming down from each wing and required a puppeteer for each wing. I wanted to have flapping wings but be able to have the individual holding up that portion of the puppet be able to operate the wings themselves. The design went through several iterations (as detailed in the following pictures).

 

Another part of the design challenge was that the whole puppet had to fit through a 6'-5" x 6'-6" doorway several times during the production. The theater had no real backstage except through those doors, so I thought I'd have to deal with those doors four times each show. I figured out a way to make the wings detachable so the whole dragon could scoot through the doors.

I presented my design to the head of the drama department and the woman in charge of props, and got the go ahead for the project.

I settled on an eight foot wingspan, which seemed to match the model and provide enough drama for the puppet, while making it reasonable to get around on-stage. I used 1/2" PVC for the wing ribs and 1" PVC for the wing main spine. I found the 1" PVC slid nicely into the 1-1/4" PVC. The 1-1/4" PVC provided more structure and strength at the pivot point. I found a simple pin to hold the wings on. In retrospect I wouldn't have glued all this together right away but rather made the wings and slipped it all together. In truth the PVC connections are nearly tight enough by themselves to not need the glue in many cases.