Moby Dick on a Stick!

My friend Karen had an "obsession" discussion at her library (where she works as a librarian) recently, revolving around Melville's MOBY-DICK.

She used some of the art from Matt Kish's Moby-Dick in Pictures to create stick puppets for the program.

Karen led an informal discussion with the participants, in an attempt to answer questions about larger subjects. Questions contemplated were: What does the novel tell us about obsession? [Ahab’s obsessive desire to kill Moby Dick drives much of the novel’s story-line...] What methods does he use to get the crew on board with his personal obsession? And, what do those methods tell us about larger subjects, such as the nature of leadership, tyranny, and democracy?


The video below is a fascinating short film documenting Matt Kish's own obsession with Moby-Dick, and how that obsession compelled him to create a sketch, drawing, or painting every day for a year, that eventually became his book. His art inspired Karen so much, she used several for her project!


Inside the Whale from Southpaw Filmworks on Vimeo.

GSW10 Review: Miniature Theatre, Grand Ideas

When William Shakespeare wrote, 'All the world is a stage,' he probably meant a bigger stage than you can find in the world of Toy Theater, a tabletop universe, usually no more than a meter wide, where big things happen - from Hamlet, to political satire, broad-brush comedy, dreamscapes and everything in between. VOA’s Adam Phillips went behind the scenes at a New York toy theater company.

Old Toy Theatre History Site: Revival?

Front page of old Toy Theatre History page...

I used to have my own domain, and on subdomain I hosted a website I inherited from a fellow in the UK that didn't want to handle it anymore. I used it as a template, and did some major changes to it to make it more logical and user-friendly. I look back on it now and laugh because it looks to primitive to what we can do today.

That said, I think I have enough pieces of the puzzle to be able to resurrect it - at least a good share of it - as 'pages' that link from the front page here.

I want to share some of the information from that old page, because although much of it is 'old news', it's important historically in the world of toy theatre, and to my knowledge, there not a lot of this online. It mostly concerns Benjamin Pollock.

GSW10: Panel Discussion

Main festival stage.  Grand drape painted by Damiano Giambelli of Teatro del Corvo, Milano.
[Click to see full-size]

John Bell from Great Small Works shared this about last night's fascinating panel discussion after Program 3 ("Disaster!") of GSW's 10th International Toy Theater Festival:

The panel, titled "Who is Feeling the Heat? Moving the National and Local Discussion of Climate Change," featured (l. to r.) Jenny Romaine; artist and climate change activist Rachel Schragis; Helena Wong (Executive Director of CAAAV/NYC Chinatown Sandy Response); Diego Ibanez (organizer with Occupy Sandy in Far Rockaway); and Jenny Akchin (Occupy Sandy activist).