The Penny Theater Tradition
Noyes Children’s Library is known and loved for many special features - musical librarians, toy trains, the friendly owl over the door, and of course, Penny Theater!
What is Penny Theater? Penny Theater has a long and rich history that began in Victorian England, but in Montgomery County, Maryland, Penny Theater is a homegrown art form used to adapt classic children’s books to a tabletop-size theater with lights, scenery, props, characters, and other elements of live theater.
“A Penny Plain and Two Pence Colored"
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Described in detail in an 1884 essay by Robert Louis Stevenson, “A Penny Plain and Two Pence Colored,” Victorian penny theaters were handheld children’s toys made of heavy paper. Figures entered the stage from the wings, attached to sticks that allowed the figures to be moved. Scenery could be added and changed. Children used their sets to tell classic children’s stories, or to animate stories they created themselves. In the early 1970s, Marguerite Murray, a Montgomery County librarian who saw a Victorian penny theater on display at the British Museum, was inspired to adapt the penny theater format as a way to tell children’s stories to larger audiences. Early versions were made from cardboard boxes; librarians read or told the story as it was acted out on the stage. |
Penny Theater Comes to Noyes
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By the early 1980s, a Penny Theater stage could be found in every Montgomery County library. The development of Penny Theater in Montgomery County coincided with the establishment of the Noyes Library as a model and resource for children’s library services locally, and eventually nationally. Penny Theater quickly became a central element of Noyes, with the stage occupying a prominent permanent spot in the library. In 2016 a local Girl Scout Troop created a Penny Theater set for Eric Carle's beloved "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book. The Scouts performed at a family dance party sponsored by the Foundation and it was a huge success! |
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"Halley Came to Jackson" - a Penny Theater Success Story
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In 2012, the Noyes Children's Library Foundation was selected from a highly competitive field to receive a public outreach grant from the American Physical Society (APS), the international organization dedicated to promoting the study of physics.
The grant was used to create a Penny Theater set based on Halley Came to Jackson, Grammy Award-winning singer Mary Chapin Carpenter’s song and book (HarperCollins, 1992), to perform for preschool and kindergarten students in the Washington metropolitan area. The book is based on the life and memoirs of award-winning southern writer Eudora Welty, who saw the Halley’s Comet twice, at the beginning and near the end of the 20th century. The story and accompanying activities are used to introduce young children to concepts related to space and time. |
As part of the project, Hardwood Artisans, a local custom cabinet and furniture maker, donated its services for the design and construction of three new Penny Theater stages. One is for permanent use at the Noyes Library, one for the Foundation’s outreach services, and one was donated to the Quince Orchard Library. The new theaters are elegantly designed in beautiful oiled cherry, and have programmable LED lighting.
As of 2017, the Halley penny theater program had been presented to more than 1200 viewers. In March of 2014, the Foundation’s presentation of the results of the project was warmly received at the American Physical Society’s annual meeting in Denver, CO.
As of 2017, the Halley penny theater program had been presented to more than 1200 viewers. In March of 2014, the Foundation’s presentation of the results of the project was warmly received at the American Physical Society’s annual meeting in Denver, CO.
Additional Information
• The Robert Louis Stevenson essay on Penny Theater can be found here: http://www.online-literature.com/stevenson/memories-and-portraits/13/
• Penny Theater has been used in modern times in a variety of forms for entertainment, storyboarding, and production design by luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Ralph Fiennes, and Orson Welles. Click HERE for a description of the recent creative use of a Penny Theater-style technique by award-winning children’s author/illustrator Brian Selznick:
• Archived instructions and specifications for building a Penny Theater like those built for Montgomery County libraries in the 1980s are HERE. This is an older document that would have been available to the public in the 1970's.
• Penny Theater has been used in modern times in a variety of forms for entertainment, storyboarding, and production design by luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Ralph Fiennes, and Orson Welles. Click HERE for a description of the recent creative use of a Penny Theater-style technique by award-winning children’s author/illustrator Brian Selznick:
• Archived instructions and specifications for building a Penny Theater like those built for Montgomery County libraries in the 1980s are HERE. This is an older document that would have been available to the public in the 1970's.
