In March 2011, Open Eye will present the 5th Toy Theatre After Dark, and for the first time, will partner with the Walker Art Center for the festival. This partnership allows Toy Theatre After Dark to expand into a two-week festival complete with duo programs, workshops, artist discussions, and social gatherings. Selected work will be divided into: Program 1, appropriate for all ages, and Program 2, potentially not recommended for children under age 12. Both programs will have evening and matinee performances. Covering two weekends, the festival will give local and national audiences two opportunities to see the whole program in a single weekend.
Open Eye is soliciting proposals for image/object/puppet driven small-scaled performances that resonate with the traditional form and contemporary approach to toy theatre. Up to 10 artists will be selected. Works that will be considered may be 5 to 20 minutes in duration, must be self-contained and portable for quick changeover, intimate in scale (though large enough for a 90-seat theater-work will not be projected), and finished to the point of being ready for a first public presentation. Projects chosen will represent a broad spectrum of form and content and show a professional stance. Artists may propose single or multiple short pieces or one longer piece
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| Sean Sharp shared this post card with me today of the ongoing exhibition (through the end of the year) in San Francisco, featuring toy theatre! |
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| Tess in her Toy Theatre booth this past weekend... |
The World Maker Faire here in New York City was just terrific and happily overwhelming. We had good crowds, and a lot of families lamented not getting the weekend pass to take advantage of all the teaching booths—this was all so new to locals. Maker Faires usually have pricey entrance fees (ours was $25 at the door and a weekend pass $35 with much lower rates for kids). But once you go in, there are many many booths where you can get free lessons and I made sure to show anyone who would stop long enough how I make my rod puppets. I did not go as a seller, but to simply show what I do and demonstrate what I make and how I do it. My booth was covered with balloons so I was a kid magnet. We had a little over 500 exhibitors from all over the Eastern seaboard, and many came pretty late in the game as I did because the word got around so slowly.
The important thing about Maker Faire is that it is the vision of a man named Dale Dougherty. He looks like a low key professor with a pleasant demeanor and amused smile. But he is a true believer, mover & shaker of DIY, i.e., it helps the Earth with recycling and repairing objects, and it helps the individual save money and maybe even build a business. In this economy, we can't have enough people who see the world this way. Maker Faire encourages Makers to talk to each other and be supportive. It is so refreshing to encounter business people who are opposite the corporate model of ruthless Capitalism. The Makers believe in what I think should be called Capitalism with a beating heart. Many of the makers I met referred other makers to booths for supplies or to share technical problems (I brought flyers for two of my suppliers, also). I had a tricky moment right up front when I discovered my gridwall required an Allen wrench which the seller did not inform me about. A local maker helper passing through brought me an Allen wrench in five minutes and helped to put it up.
Tess' Italian Toy Theatre
Tess' Medieval Toy Theatre - I LOVE the draw bridge stage!
FRIDAY NIGHT: I am a zombie! Here is my basic booth, and I will be bringing the toy theaters in early tomorrow thanks to a kindly cab driver who took me home and said he was still working and could come pick me up. SOLD! Oh my. I have had five hours of sleep in the last 48 but I will write again very early tomorrow morning. I just have to conk! You should see the looks I get - kids go crazy. I have a super spot on a landing right by the major attraction: a lightining show by a guy in a metal suit! It's WICKED! I am making signs in the morning!Sounds like Tess is having an amazing experience - lots of hard work, but lots of great exposure for toy theatre in a major venue, and that's a GOOD thing! I look forward to seeing more later today...
SATURDAY MORNING: I fell asleep at 9PM and woke up at 5am. Drinking coffee, gathering together Rod puppets, and clamps to hold my velvet in place. Am making three signs and OH how I wish I could print 11 by 17! That's the next upgrade: both printer and scanner have to be larger format. I will be taking lots of pictures today. Am so psyched! Don't have to iron because I am wearing my crinkly gold shirt which was knotted up under my pillow--sounds weird but it's very pretty. It's humid so I have wild hair--fits with the strange woman inside the balloon house! Very many of the Makers are quite young Gizmodo types but they get a kick out of me as I am a sort of anomaly to them being a parental generation but not like a parent. Am gonna have fun. Keep your fingers crossed! Tess the balloon lady
SATURDAY NIGHT: I have no pictures to show. I am getting there very early tomorrow to shoot my booth and the environs, and later that morning when my brother gets there will get to wander FINALLY to the outside booths. I have to come and go fast because today we got hammered with wall to wall people and my booth covered with balloons is a kid magnet...Tomorrow I will set up ALL of the toy theaters farther away from the front with signs asking not to touch anything. I may actually laminate a few of the characters but the kids really can't handle them because a child has a sense of ownership the minute they have something in their hands. But they do love how the toy theaters look, and I have had maybe 100 of my business cards taken. Tomorrow, with temperatures down into the low 70's, I expect a massive crush! My coloring pages were also a big hit. I hung a lot of my drawings around on clothespins thanks to the gridwall panels I bought.
The staff there is mostly volunteer and extremely helpful. Make Magazine has organized many of these massive affairs, and while they started out expecting 300 exhibitors we reached 500 booths by the time we opened today! When you see the map I will get tomorrow, you won't believe how massive it is. And my booth is totally unique in that it is really about kids, and is a really old fashioned sort of style. But some of the more tech types have loved looking at the miniatures and how I created an atmosphere with my little LED lights. Am still tired and will hit the sack soon. I was up at 5 am and printed solid until I left to get up there at 8:30. It's a 45 minute cab ride, and even longer on the subway.
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| "Medieval Toy Theatre", by Tess Elliott (preview) - This theatre will be featured at this weekend's New York Maker Faire |
Hurray and Hallelujah!Of COURSE, we will 'be there', thanks to Tess, who will be sharing with us her experience. Leading up to that, she has graciously provided the image above, a preview of a theatre she will have at the event. It's still being finished, so there will be more to the theatre than seen here. But it is a wonderful appetizer, and I hope anyone reading this in the vicinity of the Faire, will make an effort to get out and take in Tess' booth, her toy theatres, and the Faire per se. Sounds like a wonderful time to me!
I will have my very own Tess Elliott Design Toy Theater booth at the first World Maker Faire in New York City. I set up September 24th, and stay for a networking event that Friday night. And then I work my butt off all day [Sat & Sun] from 10am to 7pm showing off my stuff.
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| Figures being cut... |
...collaboration between live 'psychedelic folk' performance and live, animated theatrical visuals. This is my stab at turning a folk festival into an all day ritual theatre spectacle.The project is on a deadline, only days away. It'll be interesting to see how it all comes together!
The poetic imagery in much folk music overwhelms me with inspiration, and has always struck me as a form of storytelling in itself. So at last I am doing what I have wanted to do for so long, and attempting to create a visual narrative to accompany a day of folk performances.
The basic aesthetic framework I am using is that of toy theatre - the Victorian tradition of telling stories via flat, animated figures and scenery made of paper, performed within a miniature proscenium arch theatre. Only this toy theatre will be on a human-sized scale, and the musicians will perform within it, surrounded by it.
Performed recently at the Edinburgh ine Festival, an adaption of a controversial work features toy theatre in its design...
In this new work of jumbo toy theater, Zaloom packs a big wallop in not-so-small spectacle featuring veteran nightclub puppeteer Lynn Jeffries. On a mini proscenium puppet stage, utilizing paper and cardboard puppets, Jeffries and Zaloom satirize the Caramel Pecan Cinnebon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, drug product placement in doctors’ offices, ocean dumping, creationism, people who wear sexy cat outfits for Halloween, and more.Sounded like a lot of fun to me!
The purpose of the show is to create an uproariously funny, visually stunning, politically satirical spectacle that will generate unbridled mirth and awe about the things that are killing us all.
Horatio's outsized Corinthian stage was lit by strong lights from in front (with the glare shielded partially by an umbrella) and a video camera set up right in front. Details of the set and figures (mounted on wooden sliders) magnified brilliantly on to the tower. The core audience (made up of toy theatre followers and the curious) sat on deck chairs on the second floor mezanine and was in good humour throughout this short performance (about 30-40 minutes). We responded ably to the play's rousing patriotism...the play provided a variety of contrasting scenes and effects - a battle at seas, sword fights, the appearance of a ghost, songs and memorable speeches.1 - I can't recommend the essay at this link high enough - an insightful, delightful essay not just on this event, but with insights on toy theatre period. I get a kick out of the references to William West's sketch artists and his quick printing of current theatre productions of the time, as the 'pirate DVDs' of the 19th century, for instance!
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Time travel story involving toy theatre! |
Then he did a strange thing. Leo saw him take a small twist of paper from his waistcoat pocket, unfold it, and scrutinise the contents. ‘Have you seen this before Leo?’ He held out the scrap of paper. There, glowing brightly, was a tiny sliver of blue rock.As many readers know, there is an amazing shop in London called Pollock's Toy Shop, run by Peter Baldwin, ably assisted by Louise Heard.
Leo peered into the paper. ‘No, never seen anything that colour.’
Mr Pollock shook his head. ‘I got this last night from a friend of mine. He was telling me some strange nonsense about … ‘ The man put his hand on Leo’s shoulder. ‘I was wondering if you might be linked to it … you seem … so different to my usual boys. As though you don’t belong here.’
Leo put his finger to touch the blue rock, and as he did so, Benjamin Pollock shimmered before him in the growing darkness, his voice echoing ‘Don’t, don’t’, while Leo’s insides somersaulted, and he was tossed through a hot whirlwind to land on his duvet in his room, staring up at the red Chinese paper lampshade which was twisting crazily above his bed.
- From Leo's Heroes, by Mo Heard
I'd like to tell you about my new children's book, Leo's Heroes, which features a time-traveling boy who meets real people from the past. In the first chapter he's whizzed to Benjamin Pollock's shop, and then later Mr. P gives him a show.The framework of how Mo is telling Leo's tales reminds me of the television series several years ago called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In that series, director Steven Spielberg - using his famous film character Indiana as a little boy and young man - told stories of famous events and featuring famous people from history. I adored that series and the premise it used - pure genius I thought.
The whole story will gradually unfold on my children's blog (the outline of the Pollock story is up there already), and my own blog describes how I had the idea for the book.
There were two Victorian men - mudlarks - who duped the antiques world with their fakes of medieval medallions, (they were called 'Billys and Charleys') and I have Leo actually giving them the idea when he's zoomed back to the poverty-stricken East End!
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| Detail of a backdrop from a melodrama to be shown at the National Theatre |
...Nobody's going to look ashamed of them at the National Theatre in August, when the British Stage in Miniature – that's Horatio Blood, showman and scholar of popular arts, and his unlikely company – puts on three melodramas. I'm one of that company, having long ago met Blood, pasteboard's Diaghilev, in a cellar (it should have been a dungeon) over tea and stacks of scenery. He presents the visuals on his glowing Corinthian stage, and they're simultaneously projected to vast dimensions on the theatre's fly-tower – period Pixar, before your very eyes, with live music. The words will be as serious as they were when fresh.
Since completing the fully animated toy theatre production of The Corsican Brothers last year I've been trying to animate The Battle of Waterloo, The Corsican Brothers is usually available to buy on ebay and you can find a few clips here in my videos as a taster to the full 37 minute version.
The Battle of Waterloo will follow the original script again and is currently up to about 22 minutes in length, so still a long way to go! Each day of rendering produces just a few seconds of video.
I've found a site that offers a great deal of royalty free music, so this is almost a test to see if I get nobbled by youtube for using this music after all :-)
