Whilst most people would associate the term of ‘toy theatre‘ to actual toys (ie. children’s playthings), it doesn’t at all mean that.

Toy theatre is actually more like model making (set design models or doll houses) and paper dolls. Americans would most likely call them ‘dioramas’ (everyone else in the world can try to recall The Simpsons episode where Lisa made a diorama of The Telltale Heart, with the beating heart under the floorboards). From what little I know about dioramas though, they are designed to be static, not puppetry.

The simplest and best description of toy theatre is that it consists of a miniature version of a theatre: a box, cut out with a proscenium arch, a hole at the top and sides for access, and a set up that allows for rigging of miniature backdrops, sets and other pieces. The puppets, which are normally paper cut outs, can be worked on rods or strings, below or above, or from the sides.

An example of toy theatre might be my miniature Lego city for my play in ‘07. Although it’s certainly not a traditional toy theatre, it does share similar aspects: moving parts, contained within a box, is miniaturised… etc.

There are quite complicated toy theatres, where you can create a quite literal mini theatre, as discussed in this book: Build your own model theatre; illustrated by Diana Tull by Anthony Parker [review to be added], or you can be extremely simple and use a print-out foldable pattern. Larger toy theatres can be used to great effect in small theatrical venues, but generally these types of puppets are too small for the average audience to see (my Lego city is 80cm wide and 50cm tall - we had a 50 seat venue and people were struggling to see the puppetry from the back three rows). 

Toy theatre started in Europe in the early 1800s, and were mainly for entertainment at home; TV before TV was invented really. Because it’s simple to make and use, toy theatre is great puppetry for and by children. It’s almost one step up from finger puppets, and you can create a lot of great scenes from a few basic materials.

Here’s the tutorial on making your own toy theatre! (Sorry, we’re not making the Lego city above . You can read most of the building process at the link above. You can however make something much much simpler, using recycled materials: it’s also kid friendly.) More free patterns can be found here.

Want more? Help build a puppet!

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