Zoya Holds Court

I posted here recently about some amazing puppets created by Brian Flavin, based on characters created by a friend of mine, Vanesa. Her ultimate goal was to recreate them all in life-size versions.

Well this week she added another life-size version to her growing collection, for the character of Zoya. As with the others, Zoya is rather special, having not just eyes and mouth, ears and hair, even hands and feet complete with nails, but also detailed (and functional) genitalia.¹

Full Credits

Conceptual Design: Vanesa Littlecrow Wojtanowicz and Gypsy-Maria Lorimer
Construction and Technical Design: Brian Flavin

The saga of their construction from the very beginning can be seen here.

¹ -I have no idea how or if that will enter into any performance, but I'd love to find out sometime...!

Dramatis Personae: Catalogue 101

A complete set, eight sheets, of “Hodgson’s Characters in the Infernal Secret.” [London]: Hodgson & Co., 1822. Original hand coloring; light toning to edges; nicks to corners and edges, away from images; bright. [$400] One of the less common sets of Hodgson figures, with four shrouded inquisitors and the three sheets of scenarios (a pair to each).

So goes the description on Item #76, in the current Dramatis Personae catalogue, just announced today...

Opera in 10 Minutes

Festival Review

A German review (translated here) of the recent toy theatre festival in the Netherlands...

Puppet Avant Garde

I spent this past week visiting an amazing friend in the wilderness of Minnesota. It's so far off the beaten path, that they are not on Google maps, and it's on purpose. They live in a dome house by their own design, he farms¹, she does...well, just about everything. She is a multidisciplinary artist. Trust me, this woman works hard. She's the hardest workin' woman in show business, at least that's my opinion. Anyways, she's damned talented, that's for sure.

I know those of you out there that come here for toy theatre are starting to think, what is this post about?! Well, it's about puppets, that's what. My friend among many, many other things is an comic and cartoon artist. She got it into her head awhile back to bring her creations to life, so to speak, and began a journey of recreating them off the page in puppet form. The photos here show their genesis, from small crude handmade versions, to less crude (but still - purposely - crude-but-improved) versions. Eventually, she made them into large, full-scale versions. Not only are they large scale, but they are detailed down to anatomically-correct genitalia. Yeah, you read right. Also, nipples, piercings, tattoos, fingernails, tongues, teeth, eyelashes...the details are mindboggling and impressive. And yeah, there are damned good reasons for this. If you take the time to not only check out, but delve further into the world of these characters, you'll see why they are made this way. My friend's stories are violent, sexual, disturbing. They are not cute in a Disney sense (although there can be cute moments of a type), but they are not supposed to be. To paraphrase her, she exorcises her demons through her art and writing in these characters and storylines. Those of us lucky enough to run across these stories are invited to come into her looking-glass world if we dare. I hope you do...I dare ya.

Their stories are at Rasputin Catamite, Polska Sucka, Killer Dyke, and Upir's Mark...

¹ - He is also an artist, in his spare time!

Toy Theatre Evolution

Change. It's a good thing.

At least that's my personal opinion. It makes life interesting, challenges us.

Toy theatre is currently undergoing a huge revival as well as evolution. One such recent example (albeit only one among many) was Sandow Birk's animated film adaption of Dante's Inferno.

Another is the currently-in-production of the classic The Corsican Brothers. The man behind it all is Nigel Peever, who among his many talents includes being an actor. How he finds the time for all this is beyond me, but we can be thankful he does, because I can tell it will be an amazing piece of entertainment when complete. I'm excited already just from seeing his trailer.

I'll definitely keep readers appraised. Stay tuned...

Three Days in May

Catch the highlights of the recent festival here...

Wow, there was even a toy theatre adaption of my all-time favorite comic saga, Krazy Kat & Ignatz Mouse!

A Follower Shares

One of the followers of this blog popped up to share her recent project incorporating elements of toy theatre. Quite colorful, creative, and fun!

Corsican Brothers Poster

This is the poster for the soon-to-be-released toy theatre production (on video) of the classic Corsican Brothers.

Produced by Nigel Peever, who is a veritable one-man production company using 21st century computer technology for an 18th century medium. But hey, I'm all for it. Anything that can spread the word about how amazing toy theatre can be (in its myriad of styles, this being just one) is a good thing in my book!

2nd International Toy Theatre Festival

It's just about here!

Heart of Beast May Day

A regional puppet group puts on an annual May Day event...

Trailer: The Corsican Brothers

An amazing trailer for a production of The Corsican Brothers, by Nigel Peever.

Nigel had this to say about making it...

For the last three months or more my two poor computers have been rendering night and day and I'm finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With twenty-seven and a half minutes "in the can" so far, most of the voices and sound effects all ready to go, and all manner of test edits made while I'm waiting for the darn thing to render, The Corsican Brothers- The Movie is almost complete, so I've knocked together a little trailer at youtube do please drop by and have a look and let me know what ya think.

It's a very 21st century toy theatre production but I've tried to be as faithful as was possible but also taking advantage of the fact that I don't have to use metal slides so the characters can roam freely around the stage (I managed to resist the temptation to make Boissec actually swing his axe) The camera too can be quite mobile.

Bravo!

Camera Obscura

Childhood Memories

A British artist, living in France, had this to say recently on his blog...

From working on the stage set recently, reminded me of Pollock's Toy Museum in London's East End.

As a young teenager in the 1950's I visited this toyshop many times and have very fond memories of its narrow stairs and tiny rooms, stuffed with wonderful toys - especially penny-plain and twopenny-coloured toy theatres.

It was here that I re-discovered my passion for the theatre. I bought the Adelphi Theatre, built it and acted out plays of my own devising.

The Museum is still there (just!) and can be found at the corner of Whitfield and Scala Street, off the Euston Road. Nearest tube station is Goodge Street.