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Toy theater facts for kids

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Toy theatre (c.1845-50), Edinburgh Museum of Childhood
Toy Theater (c.1845-50) by John Redington of London, showing a scene from Isaac Pocock's two-act play "The Miller And His Men". An exhibit in the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood

Toy theater, also called paper theater and model theater (also spelt theatre, see spelling differences), is a form of miniature theater dating back to the early 19th century in Europe. Toy theaters were often printed on paperboard sheets and sold as kits at the concession stand of an opera house, playhouse, or vaudeville theater. Toy theatres were assembled at home and performed for family members and guests, sometimes with live musical accompaniment. Toy theatre saw a drastic decline in popularity with a shift towards realism on the European stage in the late 19th century, and again with the arrival of television after World War II. Toy theatre has seen a resurgence in recent years among many puppeteers, authors and filmmakers and there are numerous international toy theatre festivals throughout the Americas and Europe.

Construction and format

Mass-produced toy theaters are usually sold as printed sheets, either in black and 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.

In modern media

  • Adam Keen, when proprietor of the Pollock Toy Shop, published a toy theatre version of Laurence Olivier's film of Hamlet (1948) with characters and a short playscript.
  • 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.
  • Set Designer Heidi Landesman based her designs for the 1991 musical The Secret Garden on toy theatres.
  • Julie Taymor used toy theater puppets in a scene for the 2002 film Frida.
  • Sean Meredith's comedic Dante's Inferno (2007) is an entire toy theater film.
  • Toy theaters are a motif in a number of Jan Švankmajer's films.
  • A toy theater is featured at the conclusion of Terry Gilliam's 2009 film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, both as a feature of the plot and the format of the end credits.
  • In the 2011 horror-themed video game, Shadows of the Damned, players battle against a demon in a toy theater like screen with characters appearing as toy theater puppets for the level.
  • The 2019 Japanese film Violence Voyager claims to utilize a new technique called 'gekimation' (taken from the Japanese word 'gekiga' which is a term for adult manga). However, the "animation" style is more in line with toy theater.
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