Theatre on a Tabletop

Originally published on the Playlab NYC Playground Blog on February 7, 2009.

Theatre on a Tabletop: Puppetry for Small Spaces
by Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin

“We do small shows because it gives us the chance to pursue our wildest ideas free from the costs and constraints of big-scale, big-budget theatre production without the burden of having to coordinate dozens of production, crew, and cast people. Using tabletop theatre techniques professionally give us the means to administer, produce, create, and perform a show within our own small organization”

The above excerpt from Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin’s book Theatre on a Tabletop serves a permission slip for my own theater company, Playlab NYC, to explore big ideas within our own small organization. It is a needed spark of inspiration to carry me forward into Playlab NYC's second year.

Using the term “Tabletop Theater” allows the authors to explore three different types of puppetry: toy theatre (a popular Victorian era children’s entertainment), found object theatre, and overhead projection theatre (a type of shadow puppetry). For each of the three forms, they provide a brief history, offer directions and diagrams for building puppets and theaters. Finally each section includes an excerpt of a script the authors have produced.

Theatre on a Tabletop: Puppetry for Small Spaces contains not only inspiration, but practical lessons informed by years of tabletop puppetry work by Fong and Kapin. There are diagrams, photographs, supply lists, eight “Basic Laws of Puppetry,” and a useful bibliography.

With a constant eye toward the classroom, the final third of the book shows what a powerful teaching tool tabletop puppetry can be. It includes outlines for workshops of varying length from two hours to two weeks, offering advice for each step of the development of a workshop production including: story boarding, design, rehearsals and presentations. There is also a short coda for puppeteers interested in creating professional tabletop productions.

It is safe to say that I will be taking some time to apply the lessons that Kuang-Yu Fong and Stephen Kaplin provide. More importantly it is their inspiration that I hope to instill into the work of Playlab NYC.

Toy Theatres of the World

There are so few books that tackle the topic of tabletop theater, that when one turns up, I cannot help but feel obligated to celebrate it. Peter Baldwin, the owner and operator of Benjamin Pollock’s Toy Shop in London, wrote Toy Theatres of the World, and it is a gorgeous book filled with hundreds of black and white photos and color plates.

According to the dust jacket, Baldwin’s book "is the first publication in English to cover the subject of toy theatres worldwide," and at a scant 175 pages it is surprisingly comprehensive in its scope. Toy Theatres of the World has chapters devoted to: toy theatre in England; the papiertheater of Germany; dukketeater in Denmark; the kindertheater in Austria; and the Imagerie Français. No stone is left unturned as the model theatre movement is traced to Spain, Italy and Sweden. It even includes a chapter on toy theater publishers in North America, where the author suggests that many of the theatres in America were copied from English publications.

Peter Baldwin has gathered an astonishing collection of photographs of theatres and character sheets from leading publishers and designers from all over the world including: William West, Benjamin Pollock, J. S. Schreiber, and Theodor Guggenberger.

I do not doubt Peter Baldwin’s passion for his subject. Unfortunately his writing style is very dry, and mostly of scholarly interest. The following excerpt is an example of Baldwin's prose,

Other stage sizes quickly followed:  series 'D' (just 35 x 39 cm) in 1892 and series 'A', the largest (106 x 80 cm), in 1906 (Fig 66).  1912 saw the launch of a new, smaller stage size (the 'F' series) heralded by the publication of an elegant moorish proscenium and character sheet for an adaptation of Aladdin (Pls XXII and XXIII).

By far the greatest chapter is saved for the end. “Through a Child’s Eyes” covers the lasting impact of toy theatre by using the accounts of G. K. Chesterton, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Charles Dickens.

I cannot imagine the difficulty of researching and writing about something as ephemeral as a one hundred year old children’s toy made of paper. I wish that there was more information about the personalities and style of the artists and designers involved. A short appendix is included that discusses a Russian Ballet that was created around various plates found at Benjamin Pollack’s shop. Between the photos of the ballet and the recollections of the various English authors previously mentioned I hungered for more about the inspiration that toy theatre has provided to artists.

Published in 1992 by A. Zwemmer Ltd. the book is out of print I am afraid, but you will find copies available at Benjamin Pollock’s Toyshop.

The Toy Theatre and Charles Dickens

The Victorian Web is a valuable internet resource created by George P. Landow, a professor at Brown University.  

There are a couple of short articles about toy theatre by Philip V. Allingham. Pictured on the right,  Allingham is a contributing editor to The Victorian Web.  He has written extensively about Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy.

The first article, The Toy Theatre and Charles Dickens, is about Dickens' life long interest in juvenile drama.  It discusses his own childhood productions and his efforts to interest his son in toy theatre.

The second short piece, Victorian Toy Theatres, briefly discusses the history and publishers of toy theaters.

Comedia Dell'arte

I purchased Commedia Dell 'Arte in a Matchbox at the same time as my Curiosa Cabinett in June of 2002. I'm afraid that I didn't pick up the other two that are available at Benjamin Pollack's Toyshop, the Grande Opera or Casper & Consorten.

Like Curiosa Cabinett, Commedia Dell 'Arte in a Matchbox is from a German publisher, and was designed by Richard Wetzel.

My favorite detail of this model are the three Commedia figures. They hang from threads hung on a cardboard arm that is just above the proscenium arch.

On a side note, I can't but help begin to notice that the German publishers seem to be putting out new theaters, while the English publishers seem to be content reprinting old paper theaters.