Toy theater

Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater, dates back to the early 1800s in Europe, and had a surge of popularity during the late 1800s to early 1900s. Toy theaters were often mass produced and sold as kits at the concession stand of a opera house, play house, or vaudeville theater. Toy theaters were assembled at home and performed for family members and guests. Toy theater saw a drastic decline in popularity with the arrival of television. It has seen a resurgence in recent years among many puppeteers, authors and filmmakers.

Construction and format

Mass produced toy theaters are usually sold as printed sheets, either in black & white to be colored as desired, or as full-color images of the proscenium, scenery, sets, props and characters. The sheets are pasted onto thin cardboard, cut out, and then assembled for the purposes of the reenacting of a play. Figures are attached to small sticks, wires, or configurations of strings that allow them to move about the set. Some toy theaters and figures are enhanced with moving parts and special effects, and it is common for performances to include live or pre-recorded sound effects and music.

Toy theater in modern media

* Author/artist Edward Gorey designed a mass produced toy theater based on his set designs for the 1977 stage production of Dracula.
* A toy theater is featured at the beginning of Ingmar Bergman's award-winning 1982 film "Fanny and Alexander.
* Carroll Ballard and Maurice Sendak's 1986 film version of "The Nutcracker" featured toy theater.
* Julie Taymor used toy theater puppets in a scene for the 2002 film Frida.
* Sean Meredith's comedic Dante's Inferno (2007) is a toy theater film.
* Set Designer [(Heidi Landesman)] based her designs for the 1991 musical [(The Secret Garden)] on toy theatres. See [(Theatre Crafts)] magazine Oct. 1991 p. 42

Famous people who have dabbled in toy theater

* Alfred Lunt, American actor
* Andrew Lloyd Weber, British composer
* Brian Selznick, American children's book author
* Edmund Bacon, American city planner
* Edward Gorey, American author
* Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author
* Ian Falconer, American children's book author/illustrator and theater designer
* Ian McKellen, British actor
* Ingmar Bergman, Swedish film, stage and opera director
* Jack Butler Yeats, Irish artist
* Jane Austen, English novelist
* Jim Copp and Ed Brown, American producers of children's records
* Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, German author
* Laurence Olivier, British actor
* Lewis Carroll, British author
* Lynn Fontanne, British actor
* Orson Welles, actor and director of radio dramas and films
* Oscar Wilde, British author
* Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculpter
* Paul Zaloom, American puppeteer and children's television host
* Ralph Fiennes, British actor
* Robert Lewis Stevenson, British author
* Thomas John Dibdin, British dramatist and songwriter

ee also

* Puppetry
* Peep show
* Kamishibai

External links

* [http://www.nysun.com/article/15397 Article in "The New York Sun"]
* [http://www.stage-directions.com/backissues/mar01/allisbut_toys.shtml Article in "Stage Directions"]
* [http://www.ruislip26.freeserve.co.uk/pages/workpage.html Printable theaters]
* [http://www.toytheatre.net/JKG-Frame.htm A long history of toy theatre]
* [http://kannikskorner.com/toytheater/abouttoy.htm A shorter history of toy theater]
* [http://www.greatsmallworks.org/festivals-spaghetti/index.html Great Small Works, curators of the International Toy Theater Festival]
* [http://www.dollshousetheatre.co.uk Dolls House Theatre] The first performing model theatre in the word dedicated to keeping "theatre alive".