A new magazine “European Paper Theatre” has been in publication since 2022. all issues are available to download FREE on https://www.grafisk-werk.dk/ept.html. You can also register to have a link sent to you each time a new issue is published.
The articles include news about what is going on in the Toy Theatre world, information about performances and festivals as well as informative historical material, ENJOY!
Joseph Parks of Saltburn-on-Sea published the magazine “Vanity fair” from 1917 to 1927. It then became the “Collector’s Miscellany” from 1928 until 1953. It was a publication for collectors of all sorts of things, including Toy Theatre. It had articles by George Speaight and others. The information is not always accurate but it has period interest and some of it does not appear elsewhere. A lot of the issues have been scanned and can be viewed for free on http://www.friardale.co.uk.
The following is a list of the main items related to Toy Theatre that appear in the issues currently available:
VANITY FAIR
Vol.2 issue 16, November 1925. “March’s Theatre”, Frank Jay.
Vol.2 issue 18, January 1926, “March’s Mother Goose”, Edward Herdman.
Vol.3 issue 28, December 1926, Daily mirror photo of Benjamin Pollock in his shop.
COLLECTOR’S MISCELLANY
Vol.1 issue 6. February 1929. “Juvenile Theatre its History and Development” part2. Frank Jay.
Vol.1 April-May 1932, Letter “Juvenile Drama”, FS
New series:
No.1 November-December 1932. “Plays in Packets” , E.Percival.
No.7 December-January 1933/4 “Juvenile Theatre”, M.W.Stone.
No.8 February-April 1934 “W.West 1811-1831”, M.W.Stone.
No.9. May-September 1934 “The Plays of Hodgson 1822-1834”, M.W.Stone.
No.10 March 1935 “J.K.Green (1808?) 1811”, M.W.Stone.
No.13 October 1935 “Price of sheets 1811-1935”, G.Speaight.
No.14 December 1935 “Juvenile Theatre”, Gerald Morice.
No.15 August 1936 “Practical performances on the Toy Theatre”, G.Speaight.
No.16 October 1936 “The Juvenile Drama Abroad”, Gerald Morice.
No.17 December 1936 ditto part 2.
No.18 February-May 1937. Front cover shows first page of the first issue (1870) of the “Boy’s Halfpenny Weekly Budget of Plays, Stories, Characters and Scenes”, which included 2 free plates of “Timour the Tartar”.
No.22 August-December 1938 “The Toy Theatre”, Gerald Morice.
No.24.January-June 1939 “Side Lines of Toy Theatre Publishers”, G.Speaight.
Fourth series:
No.2 Winter 1941 “Same scene but different play” , Charles Williams
No.3. February 1942 “About Webb’s Plays”, Charles Williams.
No.4. July 1942 “Some Mathew Revivals”, Charles Williams.
No.5. Undated. “Revivals of Andrews & Co.”, Charles Williams.
We are publishing a new Toy Theatre Stage Front in order to celebrate an amazing 70 years of service by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The theatre is called “Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee Toy Theatre” and is loosely based on the famous proscenium of Her Majesty’s Theatre in London.
You can download the stagefront in 3 sheets here. Please note that it prints on A3 paper.
The theatre will take the traditional 6 by 7 inch Toy Theatre scene size.
We are adding another free Toy Theatre play to download. It is “Faust” which we published originally as a printed play back in 1978, although less than a hundred copies were ever sold. It is part of the repertoire of Ulrich Chmel who has performed it in venues in various cities in Austria. We hope you enjoy it, here you have both coloured and plain versions ( allowing you to colour it yourself) and also the playbook. We published the directions for performing Toy Theatre plays last year so please refer to that if you are not familiar.
Here is our latest production, a Toy Theatre version of “Puss-in-Boots”. We think that this may actually be the very first entirely new English Toy Theatre play of the 21st Century, unless you know differently!
Having said that it is not entirely original, we have based the design on illustrations for a book of fairy tales published by Orlando Hodgson. He was a Toy Theatre publisher although he never published “Puss-in-Boots” as a play.
We hope that you enjoy this. You can also download our information about how to perform Toy Theatre plays on our recent “Robin Hood” post.
We have created a new internet version of the play “Robin Hood”, which we first published in 1976. This has A4 size scenery to fit our Grand Theatre and includes a full colour edition as well as a plain edition, if you like colouring yourself. There is also a new note to explain how to perform Toy Theatre plays. All free to download here.
We hope that you enjoy this.
In 2020 the only way that you can experience a live theatrical performance with a large cast and lots of changes of scene is if you are lucky enough to have a Toy Theatre in your home. With this in mind we have produced a brand new Toy Theatre, based on traditional designs, which you can down load here. It uses A4 size scenery and can be built using materials many people will already have in their home, so it suits the present time very well.
The “Grand Theatre” also has a new booklet to help you build it. The 33 pages also include lots of special effect techniques that can be used for any Toy Theatre. If you are very clever you can set up your printer to print it as an A5 page size booklet.
We have been republishing original nineteenth century English Toy Theatre plays under the title of “Skelt’s Juvenile Drama”. The Skelts were one of the most prolific publishers and all these titles derive from their productions. We have stopped selling these and are now making them available as free downloads, the only condition being that you must not make commercial use of them.
Most of these plays are “plain”, which is the way collectors prefer but a few are in colour mainly where the original sheets that we have photographed were coloured.
Wood Daemon
Mary the Maid of the Inn
Der Freischutz internet
Captain Ross
Richard Turpin
George Barnwell
Waterman
Early in 1811 William West, a London print seller, published a sheet showing eight characters from the popular pantomime, “Harlequin and Mother Goose”. The print was in the style of children’s lottery prints, each figure being drawn inside a box with a caption underneath. It is now believed that the plate was engraved for William West by John Green who later claimed to have been “The original inventor”. Green did not draw the figures but copied them from various sources.
The publication appears to have been an outstanding success, 5000 copies were sold immediately. West followed this with the publication of similar souvenir sheets in two or three plates covering at least 21 other plays during 1811. The “box” style was quickly abandoned.
West was not alone. Two lady print sellers, Mrs. Jameson of Duke’s Court off Bow Street and Mrs.Hebberd of Marylebone each published similar souvenir sheets during 1811. In all we know of 35 publications that year covering 30 separate play titles.
A year later stage fronts, wooden stages and scenery made their appearance and the Toy Theatre, as we know it, began. The events of 1811 were however the origin.
Here are copies of typical 1811 sheets for you to download.
“Harlequin and Mother Goose” is the original sheet engraved by Green and published by West. It is the “missing link” between children’ lottery prints and the Toy Theatre.
“Council of Ten” is an example of one of the earliest West publications. It shows the principal characters in that play, which was also known as the, “Lake of the Grotto,” performed on and around the water tank at the Sadlers Wells Theatre. Notice that two characters appear to float on small rafts! The two sheets of this play were copied and republished by George Skelt and these are reproduced here.
The latest in our series of information sheets (No.4) gives details about the publications of J.K.Green. There is a list of all his plays showing how many plates of characters, scenes, wings etc., a list of the wings series with descriptions and other details. It is something of great use to collectors and we are the only people publishing this type of list. Hugo Brown, who is a descendent of Mr.Green himself, has provided much of the information and checked it. We are very grateful to him.
The document can be downloaded here Green.
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