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Animated Play Act
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Interactive Play Act
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Toy Theatre Toy theatres and the characters and plays used in them date back to the early 1800s. At that time there were only three licensed theatres in London, and these were great halls which seated large numbers of people for marathon five-hour performances. Typically, a production might include a full-length tragedy, a comedy and a farce, lasting from seven p.m. until midnight. Printed bills showing the principal members of the cast in costume, and later these were reduced in size so that more characters could be shown and the bills could be sold as keepsakes. Before long, the possibility of creating whole shows from miniature reproductions of the theatre with cutout characters, backdrops and edited scripts was being explored by publishers as "juvenile dramas." William West, Hodgson & Co., and later the well-known Skelt familyJ. K. Green and Benjamin Pollock all specialized in publishing adaptations of adult plays for juvenile impresarios. Famous fairy tales such as Aladdin and Bluebeard were followed by tales of the High Toby (stagecoach robberies), folk tales as in The Maid and the Magpie, and courtly dramas like The Silver Palace. Toy theatres gave enormous pleasure to children in the 1800s. In his essay "Penny Plain, twopence coloured," the title of which refers to the cost of the printed sheets of characters, Robert Louis Stevenson celebrated the intense enjoyment he derived from preparing the characters, sets, and miniature special effects such as stage lights. These anticipatory thrills were seldom matched by the actual performance, which was usually a rather pallid follow-up unless the stage caught fire or some other unplanned excitement occurred.
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There are a number of toy theatres in a number of museums and libraries, including a special collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. The Osborne Collection, which holds several original and facsimile toy theatres, is indebted to Pollock’s Toy Museum, Ltd. of London, England, which as the holder of Pollock’s publications copyright generously agreed to the reproduction of images and the revision of an original Pollock’s script on this page for the educational use and enjoyment of children everywhere. Try using the theatre, characters and script provided to produce a play. |
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Toronto Public Library acknowledges with thanks permission of Pollock’s Toy Museum, Ltd. to reproduce original images and characters from Pollock’s publications. Pollock’s Toy Museum website may be visited at http://www.pollocks.cwc.net/museum1.htm Green’s characters in The Silver Palace. New Cut. London: J.K. Green, 1941. The silver palace. Green’s Juvenile Drama. London: Benjamin Pollock, 1946. "Adapted only for Green’s Characters and Scenes in the same." The maid and the magpie, a drama in three acts. London: Benjamin Pollock, [n.d.]. "Adapted only for Pollock’s Characters and Scenes." |
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