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LucasBrown (talk | contribs) Adding local short description: "Small stage for imitating or testing full-scale productions", overriding Wikidata description "Small stage made of paper on which the technical diversity of a human stage can be imitated or tested in model form." |
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{{Short description|Small stage for imitating or testing full-scale productions}}
[[File: Toy theatre (c.1845-50), Edinburgh Museum of Childhood.JPG|thumb|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]]▼
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}}
'''Toy theater''', also called '''paper theater''' and '''model theater''' (also spelt '''theatre''', see [[British and American spelling differences|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]], [[Theater (structure)|playhouse]], or [[vaudeville|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 (theatre)|realism]] on the European stage in the late 19th century, and again with the arrival of [[television]] after [[World War II]].<ref>Bell, John. "A Short Entertaining History of Toy Theater." Cambridge: Great Small Works, 2008.</ref> Toy theatre has seen a resurgence in recent years among many [[puppeteer]]s, [[author]]s and [[filmmaker]]s and there are numerous international toy theatre festivals throughout the Americas and Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|last=June 14|first=GARY SHAPIRO {{!}}|last2=2005|title=With Toy Theaters, Small Is Beautiful|url=https://www.nysun.com/on-the-town/with-toy-theaters-small-is-beautiful/15397/|access-date=2021-06-21|website=The New York Sun}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2007-09-27|title=Stage Directions Magazine|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927010116/http://www.stage-directions.com/backissues/mar01/allisbut_toys.shtml|access-date=2021-06-21|website=web.archive.org}}</ref>▼
▲[[File: Toy theatre (c.1845-50), Edinburgh Museum of Childhood.JPG|thumb|Toy Theater (c.
▲'''Toy theater''', also called '''paper theater''' and '''model theater''' (also spelt '''theatre''', see [[British and American spelling differences|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]], [[Theater (structure)|playhouse]], or [[vaudeville|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 (theatre)|realism]] on the European stage in the late 19th century, and again
==History==
[[File:John Thomas Haines in Ivanhoe tinsel print VA.jpg|thumb|[[Tinsel print]] of the English actor [[John Thomas Haines]] in character as Brian de Bois-Guilbert in ''Ivanhoe'', about 1830]]
===Late 18th and early 19th century===
The original toy theatres were mass-produced replicas of popular plays, sold as kits that people assembled at home, including stage, scenery, characters and costumes. They were printed on paperboard, available at English playhouses and commercial libraries for "a penny plain or two pence coloured." Hobbyists often went to great pains to not only hand-colour their stages but to embellish their toy theatre personae with bits of cloth and tinsel; [[tinsel print]] characters could be bought pre-tinselled, or a wide range of supplies for home tinselling could be bought. Just as the toy-sized stages diminished a
In the first half of the 19th century, more than 300 of
===Late 19th and early 20th century===
Stage theater of the early 19th century had been based more on spectacle than on depth of plot or character, and these characteristics lent themselves effectively to the format of toy theater. Toward the end of the 19th century, European popular drama had shifted its preference to the trend of [[Realism (arts)|
Despite its fall in popularity, toy theater remained in the realm of influential artists who championed its resurgence. In 1884 British author [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] wrote an essay in tribute of toy
===Late 20th and early 21st century===
[[File:GeniZepelin05.JPG|thumb|Ainé Adriana Martelli performing Gení y el Zepelin at the [[Museo de Arte Popular]] in Mexico City]]
Toy theater has been enjoying a revival in recent decades. Collectors and traditionalists perform restored versions of Victorian plays while experimental puppeteers push the
==Construction and format==
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==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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2016/12/16/hamlet-laurence-olivier-toy-theater/|title = Staging Laurence Olivier's Hamlet with vintage paper dolls in a toy theater|date = December 16, 2016}}</ref>
* A toy theater appears near the end of [[The Railway Children (1970 film)|''The Railway Children'' (1970 film)]].
* Author/artist [[Edward Gorey]] designed a mass-produced toy theater based on his set designs for the 1977 stage production of ''[[Dracula (1924 play)|Dracula]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Edward Gorey's Dracula Toy Theatre|url=https://beta.stageplays.com/products/edward_goreys_dracula_toy_theatre|access-date=2021-06-21|website=Stageplays.com|language=en}}</ref>
* A toy theater is featured at the beginning of [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s award-winning 1982 film ''[[Fanny and Alexander]]''.<ref>{{Citation|last=
* [[Carroll Ballard]] and [[Maurice Sendak]]'s 1986 film version of ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' featured toy theater.
* Set
* [[Julie Taymor]] used toy theater puppets in a scene for the 2002 film ''[[Frida (2002 film)|Frida]].''
* [[Sean Meredith]]'s comedic'' [[Dante's Inferno (2007 film)|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 and terror|horror]]-themed
* The 2019 Japanese film ''Violence Voyager'' claims to
==Notable people who have dabbled in toy theater==
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* [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], German author
* [[Edward Gorey]], American author
* [[Emma Lomax]], English composer and pianist, Early Victorian Theatre, Brighton
* [[Alfred Lunt]], American actor
* [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]], Italian poet and founder of the Futurist movement
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*[[Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop]]
{{commonscat|Toy theatre}}
==References==
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*[http://www.teatritos.com The collection of Lucía Contreras] in English and Spanish
*[https://www.thewatchbox.com/movies/148-dantes-inferno Toy Theatre Representation of Dante's Inferno]
*[http://archives.nypl.org/the/21804 Arthur Weyhe toy theatre collection,
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