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Community Corner

12th Annual Paper Theatre Festival: It's the Smallest Show on Earth!

12th Annual Paper Theatre

Festival:   It’s the smallest show on Earth!

A full production in a scale

model theater is featured on Sunday afternoon, August 18th at 2:00 p.m. in the

Seuss Room of Geisel Library at UC San Diego.

Paper theatre (also called

toy theatre and tabletop theatre) was a popular Victorian Era educational toy:

families gathered, after hours of cutting & pasting, to bring a play to

life.

An exhibit of Victorian Era replicas and modern takes on paper

theatre is featured all weekend long in the Seuss Room of Geisel Library (Noon

to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 17 and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 18)

with an actual performance at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, August 18th, 2013 (free and

open to the public.)

For more information, contact Scott Paulson at (858)

822-5758 or spaulson@ucsd.edu

ABOUT PAPER THEATRE:
These colorful

scale model theaters were originally distributed as posters promoting specific

playhouses and its season offerings. Assembly was required: scissors and paste

were a must --and yes, those tools were available in the nineteenth

century.

The paper doll characters in these kits were shown in the

likeness of popular actors of the era and costumed as seen in a specific stage

play. Distinctive architectural elements of the historic playhouses were

meticulously recreated on the paper sheets of these scale-model promotional

kits, including accurate renderings of curtains and multiple miniature backdrops

for set changes.

Scripts, translated into several different languages,

were included in the kits, showing the international popularity of these

toys.

Come to Geisel Library at UC San Diego to learn more!

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