Paper
Theatre Festival in Preetz,
Germany
Widow
& the Devil from "The
Widow" - See more of Little
Blue Moon Theatre's adult
repertoire
By
Michael Nelson, Little Blue Moon
Theatre
Note:
This article was written for the
San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers
Guild Newsletter, October, 2005
Toy or Paper
Theatre is a theatre form that
evolved in the mid 1800s as a
printed model theatre that could
be purchased, colored and
assembled. Children (and adults)
could then perform small
productions in their living rooms
or parlors for friends and
family. Themes could be classic
plays, fairytales, scripts
written for the paper theatre, or
then-current productions from the
legitimate theatre, including
depictions of the actual
prosceniums, sets and even
likenesses of the popular actors
of the day. Today toy or paper
theatre is enjoying a renaissance
as experienced and professional
performers take the roles once
relegated to amateurs. As to the
relationship of paper theatre to
puppet theatre, it probably is at
least a close relative if not a
subset of puppet theatre. In
paper theatre a human
(puppeteer?) manipulates the
paper actors generally by sliding
them across the stage, doing
voices for them and telling the
story. Occasionally the figures
may be articulated and have
controls to move an arm or other
part, but more often they are
static. Of note is that Great
Britains Puppet and Model
Theatre Guild (their equivalent
of our Puppeteers of America) was
originally the Model Theatre
Guild, and then was expanded to
include puppets. So which is a
subset of which might be up to
interpretation.
On the second
weekend in September a group of
dedicated paper theatre
performers, collectors and fans
gathered for three days of tiny
theatre performances. This year
marked the 18th annual occurrence
of the Preetzer Papier Theater
Treffen. The performances are
Lilliputian, with some performers
(the paper ones) standing only
3-6 inches tall. The event takes
place in a school building, where
classrooms are converted into
small auditoriums (25 seats),
with each of the fourteen paper
theatre companies moving into
their classrooms and setting up
their stages for the duration of
the 3 day event, performing
between one and three times a day
according to a complicated
schedule that allows audience
members and performers to wander
from class to class, seeing up to
twelve performances over the
course of the weekend. In
addition to the German companies,
performers traveled from Sweden,
the Netherlands, France, Denmark,
Great Britain and the United
States (your truly) to perform,
and audience members came from
all over Europe and the U.S. as
well, to watch shows and purchase
the large variety of new and
antique paper or toy theatre
items offered for sale at the
temporary store as well as at the
live auction (well attended with
some very lively bidding!)
With five
repetitions of our own show to
perform, we only had the
opportunity to see seven other
performances, which we took full
advantage of. As one would
imagine the shows varied widely,
although more strict, traditional
interpretations of paper theatre
held sway here as compared with
the Great Small Works Toy Theatre
Festival which we performed at in
June in NYC. Shows ranged from
plays written for paper theatre
and performed with strictly
traditional images (several of
the performers were preparing for
a British Webb Toy Theatre
Festival (October 10-23 in
Broadstairs, Kent, GB.) where all
shows had to be use original Webb
images, stages and scripts) to
the abstract original works
(Frits Grimmelikhuizen from the
Netherlands used colors and
shapes beautifully set to
original music to create a dreamy
journey for his audiences.) Some
performances were for adults,
some for children, with titles
that would be familiar to many.
Hamberger Altpapier did
Goethes Faust
(a standard in Germany), Robert
Poulters New Model Theatre
did William Tell,
Bodes Koffertheater did
Around the World in 80
Days, Vischmarkt Papieren
Theater did Bambi
(not the Disney version, but the
original), and Svalegangens
Dukketeater did The Little
Mermaid. Incidently,
Svalegangens Dukketeater from
Denmark has had the Queen of
Denmark as designer (she is a
wonderful artist) for their
productions! Other performers
wrote and created original works,
or adapted lesser know stories.
There were also various workshops
for children, and it was a
delight to have some big eyed,
curly headed pixie encouraging me
in German to hurry and come
because the childrens shows
were beginning.
Valerie and I (in
the guise of Little Blue Moon
Theatre) did a double bill with
Tango for Tarzan and
The Widow, both
created by us for toy theatre.
Although newcomers to this form
of theatre, we were pleased and
fortunate that our show became
the buzz of the festival and the
local paper listed it as a
must-see. The
transition from arriving and have
the organizer worried about low
ticket sales for our performances
to having standing room only in
all shows after our first (and an
extra command performance of
The Widow for all at
the end of the Treffen) was
exhilarating and gratifying.
During the three
day event, performers were put up
in local inns and ate together in
a small dining area at the school
where the performances took
place. This allowed for much
sharing and friendship among
performers who basically hung out
together and chatted about each
others shows, techniques, and
other festivals. After hours
everyone would gather across the
street at the local pub, eating
and drinking and chatting in
numerous languages (mostly
English and German) until the wee
hours. We quickly became an ad
hoc family, and after the weekend
a number of performers (and some
audience members) stayed on for
the annual, lovely breakfast at
Dirk and Barbara Reimers
home (Dirk has been involved in
organizing the Treffen since the
beginning, and, in addition to
his and Barbaras
Papiertheater Pollidor, they also
have a magical toy theatre store
in Preetz which you can find on
the internet at
http://www.pollidor.de/ (the
actual store is much better.))
Several of us hung around Preetz
for a few days after, and the
wonderful festival staff, headed
admirably by Treffen newcomer
Marlis Sennewald, arranged sight
seeing and dinners for us.
The Treffen has a
wonderful website, and days after
the event already had pictures
from the shows up. The website is
mostly in Germany, but non-German
speakers should be able to find
their way through, and the dozens
of photos are worth many
thousands of words. Photos of
shows (A Warning: some of the
shows contain images of nudity
and sexual situations and may not
be deemed suitable for children
by some parents): http://www.vhs-preetz.de/pptt/pptt2005/archiv05.htm
Pictures of
festival (mostly candids): http://www.vhs-preetz.de/pptt/pptt2005/fotos05.htm
The Preetzer
Papier Theater Treffen was very
well run, had a wonderful feeling
about it, and seemed to be
enjoyed by all. It is a long way
to travel, but, I think, worth
every minute.
Little Blue
Moon Theatre presents shows that
are of interest to adult
audiences and contain mature
themes. To go to Little Blue Moon
Theatre's website, click HERE.
For family
fare, click HERE to go to
Magical Moonshine Theatre's home
page, or to go to the Kids
Project Pages where you can learn
to make puppets and masks, click HERE.
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