David in the Dark

David Worobec performing at King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam,
a scene from "Sweeney Todd" (October 2018 in Portland, Maine...)

Toy Theatre Salon

Painting by Jill Hoy

Jill Hoy created an extraordinary painting of a real-life event.  It shows a toy theatre performance that took place in a private home to a group of invited guests.  In fact, it was a full-blown dinner theatre.  A quite rare event, so a very special occasion to all those in attendance.

I recently spoke to Jill to ask her how the painting came to be.  She shared with me how "...the salons are a very rich environment for everyone - the diverse mix of people, including professors and artists who are friends of the family and invited to a dinner theatre in their home."  A dinner theatre of the small.  "It's total magic!  All the different voices for all the play's characters, all the songs sung, all done by David."

That would be David Lewis Worobec, the man behind it all.

Jill Hoy wanted to create a painting that captured the camaraderie of one of these events, all held in David's home.  The focal point of the painting is David.  He is in mid-performance far right in the back, the lights from the stage illuminating him from below.  Joy herself can be seen doing some sketching of the scene before her - sketches that she would later paint - just below the figure of David.  "The owl is a symbol of David's mother," Jill added.

I asked David to share what the salons have meant to him.

One of These Days...

...I'll finally put on a real toy theatre production...hopefully Sweeney Todd!

Sweeney, Reinterpreted

I am blessed to know one of the most creative and talented persons around. Her name is Vanesa, and her team of artists are helping me develop a slightly more warped and sinister SWEENEY TODD character set.

While I like Stephen Langdale's SWEENEY, I wanted to use it as a study guide rather than to perform with it. Using it as such, my friend had her associates do up some preliminary sketches of character sheets, examples of which you see here.

I particularly like Sweeney sans wig - this is not going to be for the faint of heart (I gleefully say in my head!)

Baby Steps

[Stephen Langdale's Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber]

I humbly offer evidence of my first attempts at coloring toy theatre sheet...

I would love to have made my copies onto watercolor paper, but the print shops around me don't have any large enough for the theatre I'm going to be using this for. The best they could offer was a heavy paper like card stock, recommended because it would make a good strong print. I'm using high quality pastels to color it with, and the color so far looks very nice. I also obtained some gold leaf which I might use a bit of around the proscenium eventually...

Langdale SWEENEY TODD

Just got the Stephen Langdale SWEENEY TODD toy theatre play in the mail today. Lucky me got the character and scene sheets, also! Being the neophyte I am, it will take me time to read and absorb it all, let alone mount, color, cut, etc. all the characters and scenes! It will be a lot of fun, but a very slow process for me as I work full-time and have other free-time commitments. But fear not, dear readers, I will keep you posted...

Commission Toy Theatre Update #3

Ann Neff emailed me the other day saying she's back to work on the toy theatre for me (yayyyy!) and that got me thinking about the 'next stage' to all this - the first play I want to do in my first ever toy theatre!

I decided to solicit for interest to artists I know and appreciate, if they might be interested in taking on a small commission from me in that regard...

While I can buy such things as the scenery and actors on what are called sheets, pre-fab, either originals or reprints, but I'm more interested in a particular play that I cannot find as being adapted for the toy theatre before (I may be wrong here but I don't think so...)

I'm asking my artist friends if they would be intersted in creating the characters (actors), and background scenery for a toy theatre adaption of SWEENEY TODD.

My interest in SWEENEY TODD is a personal one in that I tend to go for the macabre, and find the story themes in the play fascinating. I'm conducting research on it right now, boning up on the supposed core true story behind the now mythologized versions we know, trying to get a handle on how it might be told in a simpler yet compelling way for the toy theatre stage. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears!