Worlds in Miniature

The Museum of Performance & Design is making preparations for a new exhibition featuring the world of toy theatres.

Toy Theatres: Worlds in Miniature opens in July and will showcase 21 rare toy theatre models from around the world, some dating back to the 18th century.

Toy theatre certainly isn't dead. In recent years contemporary artists including Sandow Birk and William Kentridge have used toy theaters to create stunning new work.

Sandow Birk produced and filmed his interpretation of Dante's Inferno entirely on the stage of a toy theatre, and Kentridge used a toy theatre to create a production of Mozart's Magic Flute that employed Kentridge's unique projections.

You can see more images of toy theatres at MPD here. I've had the opportunity to work with some of these models and they truly are a fascinating coming together of the visual and performing arts.

Photo of "William Tell" toy theatre courtesy of MPD.