Toy Theatre on DVD

Recently on the toy theatre email group, it has been a matter of spirited and exciting discussion on how to get a good video record of toy theatre performances. Many ideas have been discussed and there's been much brainstorming. Now, the question is, can the momentum be built on towards an actual finished product?

Today I received an email from Gigi Sandberg touching on this subject...

I just received a letter from the Board of Trustees of Puppeteers of America thanking me for contributing 4 DVDs of Toy Theatre Performances to the Audio-visual Library...which had NOTHING on the subject to date and interest in it is growing so fast.

Here is what is on them: George Speight in probably his final performance of The Miller and His Men...Peter Baldwin doing Black Eye'd Susan at the International Toy Theatre Fest in Preez Germany in 2004...and Dirk Reimers at the same fest performs The Fairies's Island. On the second DVD, Barry Clarke does Blackbeard the Pirate...Joe Gladwin does Beauty and the Beast, Robert Poulter does 8 1/2 - History of Opera in 8 1/2 minutes - and Konjecture - a study of progress / Development / conflict...and Merry Margate. On the 3rd DVD Ted Hawkins in Blackpool England includes performance by Peter Baldwin, Pauline Venables, Peter and Sylvia Peasgood....and then a wonderful section of Ted's award-winning model theatre of the Boston Opera House...including a performance of Children in the Wood AND Brian Rogers does his incredible version of Around the World in Eighty Days...followed by a review of some of the tricks and how they are done.

Now, the catch to seeing these is that you have to be a PoA member; I think I shall have to seriously consider becoming a member now...!!