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Toy theatres were introduced in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th century. Usually 10 to 12 inches high, when assembled from the light cardboard sheets on which
they were printed they presented a simulacrum of a play, opera or entertainment, a memento or advertisement of the event.
The sheets contained parts from which to assemble the proscenium façade and scenery and figures in the play. At home, children, for whom the toy theatres were primarily intended, used thin wires to move the cut-out figures about. The Toy Theater at the left (c.1845-50) by John Redington of London, shows a scene from Isaac Pocock's two-act play "The Miller And His Men". It is part of an exhibit in the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood. The scale of this toy theatre may be judged by the play-script leaning against the stage left proscenium wall. |
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It was with considerable surprise, then, when a huge toy theatre, complete with scenic pieces for several plays, was discovered in a seldom used closet in the University of
Washington School of Drama. The cut-out “actors” were missing and there were no accompanying play scripts, but several settings were intact and nerely complete.
This was seen as an opportunity to experiment with using video chroma key, which we had used several years before to place live actors into a model scene. Our goal in working with the toy theatre and its settings was to create a teaching tool that would introduce students to the look of performance on the 19th century stage, and provide detailed examples of how that look was achieved. The chroma key video from this large toy theatre was produced with the collaboration of the School of Drama Costume Department and the staff of UWTV. To further support this effort the curator of the Costume and Textiles Collection at the University of Washington Henry Art Gallery permitted the photographing of several hundred articles of 19th century clothing and accessories, and a doctoral candidate contributed nearly 100 images of 19th century shoes from his dissertation research. These photos were incorporated into a software addressable laser disc which also contained engravings of every-day life in the 19th century, as well as several video clips. |
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Detail of 19th century bodice and sleeves. |
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