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Crechemania was born of a love for the toy theater and 3-dimensional paper models of the Nativity…
Looking at some beautiful old creches in a book I wondered, "Would there be a way to bring these lovely images back to life?"
And Crechemania was born…
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| Gateway to a world of the imagination — a classic Theodor Guggenberger proscenium from Schreibers becomes the stage for an age-old story. |
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There's so much in the toy theater treasure trove.
Proscenium sheets? Those oversized, fanciful, two-dimensional images that were able to transport us into a universe just as real as our three dimensional one?
Youthful impressariors? A toy theater, a few figures, a few lines and you had your own little version of the Globe: your audiences hissed the villain and cheered the hero just like in days of old. Today, for many, the play's still the thing, and many of you treasure your collections of toy theater melodramas in many languages.
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| What happens when the curtain goes up in " A King looks for adventure"? (Barellmann & Søn.) | ||
This point was really driven home recently when a little book came in the mail, sent to me most promptly by Pollocks Toy Shop, London. Teatrini Di Carta, by Italian author Gastone Scheraggi, may be only 55 small pages, but what a find it is! The author searched through his personal archives and created this collection just for us. (You can read more about Teatrini di Carta in our book section.)
Signor Scheraggi, of course, found his audience through the fine help of the folks at Edizioni Essegi, Ravenna. We may not be so fortunate, but it doesn't matter—we have that latest incarnation of Gudenberg's miracle—The World Wide Web—at our disposal.
And so, with a few clicks of the mouse, words and images stream around the world. Can an audience be far off?
And speaking of bringing things to life, I hope you'll find my special interest of constructing 3-d paper models using toy theater as source material of interest. I have been using Adobe Photoshop at work, and it was inevitable that I would sooner or later stumble on the answer about how to bring back to to life dusty images from dusty drawers—and dusty imaginations…
For your pleasure, I'll be offering a number of 3-d models for you to print and assemble, and tell you how it was done—just in case you just might want to try your hand yourself.
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| A Greek "fatni" (manger) from the 1950s—share your collection with us. | ||
Would you like to tell us about books, special events, gatherings, museum collections? I couldn't believe I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a two-week photo shoot recently and did not realize that its museum has wonderful toy theater collection. By the time I found out about it in Peter Baldwin's Toy Theaters of the World, I was back home.
Would you like to tell us about Toy Theater Lore? Toy theater greats? Memorable productions? Or offer toy theater directorial hints, dos and don'ts? Would you like to tell us about favorite toy theater plays? What is the king in Konger paa Aeventyr ('The King in Search of Adventure,' a classic tale of Danish toy theater ) really up to? I bet you Fritz Krannik knows.
Welcome to Crechemania—I can't wait to meet you.