Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Wolverhampton
A small History of Toy Theatre
Brief Description
A small History of Toy Theatre seeks to inform the debate on English toy theatre 1810 – 2010. Arnott was commissioned to produce the film by Pollock’s Toy Theatres Ltd., the publishing arm of Pollock’s Toy Museum, London. Toy theatre has reflected contemporary forms of theatre from the regency period to present day. The film has been well received, acquired by museums and screened at festivals, exhibited in the UK, US, Europe and Canada. It was selected for the Festival Du Film De Strasbourg, France, Festival Du Film, 2011, and at Toy Theatres, Worlds in Miniature, Museum of Performance & Design, San Francisco, 2010, curated, Sean Sharp Worlds in Miniature. Held in collections: The Department of Theatre Arts – Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada, The British Museum, Prints and Drawings Departments, London, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre and Performance Archives, London, The Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Childhood, London and Pollock’s Toy Museum, London.
Research Rationale
Arnott’s film is the first feature length documentary to cover the history of toy theatre. During the research process rare documents and archive footage were discovered, featuring key figures in toy theatre history, including Webb, Pollock and Fawdry. Much of the material was previously unknown or unpublished. Arnott proposes that toy theatre predicts the conventions of television, predating it by over a hundred years.
Strategies Undertaken
The piece meets a demand from both collectors and researchers for a film-based history of the subject. In order to create the documentary Arnott undertook original research, in conjunction with Pollock’s Toy Museum. He accessed the museum archives and conducted interviews, with surviving family members of the leading toy theatre publishers. In particular Arnott interviewed Norman Pollock, grandson of Benjamin Pollock, gaining first hand information, which contradicted the accepted position of several books on the subject.
