From New York Toy Stories
Cyanotype © 2001 Robert Schaefer
 
NEW YORK -- Move over, Beauty and the Beast. A new musical, developed by Theatre in Motion for the Museum of the City of New York, brings toys to life starting 2 PM Saturday March 10.

Written by Theatre in Motion artistic director Leslie Fanelli, New York Toy Stories involves audience members in various up-tempo song numbers and sing-alongs that celebrate a variety of toy artifacts (dollhouses, scooters, teddy bears and board games).

With music by Ken Laufer and Stephen Cornine (additional lyrics by Leslie Fanelli), the 50-minute show will be presented once a month at the Museum of the City of New York. Future performances date include: Saturday, April 21; Sunday, May 6; and Sunday, July 29. New York Toy Stories is a musical take-off, inspired by the Museum of the City of New York's recent "New York Toy Stories" exhibit, a reinstallation and expansion of the museum's beloved Toy Gallery. The exhibit showcases objects from its internationally renowned Toy Collection, numbering more than 10,000 playthings from the late 18th century to the present.

Performed by Cornine, Fanelli and George Trahanis, the musical takes the form of a live board game with the performers and their toy props functioning as live games pieces.

The "Rainbow Song," a musical abracadabra that opens the toy box onstage, features toys that jump out of the box and sing about throughout the show. "A Bear for the President" recounts the history of the creation of the teddy bear in 1902 named after President Teddy Roosevelt, but the story is told through the eyes of the Russian immigrant who created the bear.

Another song, called "Universal Language," names an alphabetical potpourri of toys from the museum's exhibition, while "The Dance of the Toys" conjures the stories the toys in the exhibitions tell when they come out of their cases.

In "A Dollhouse," audience members are invited to the wedding of a bride doll and groom doll. "My Scooter," written and composed by Kenneth Laufer, asks audiences to sing-along while scooting around New York City. Also written by Laufer is "Turtles Dancing Round the Maypole," a gavotte (minuet) and a boogey-woogey about the splendid turtle sculpture in New York Toy Stories. The turtle choreography is by Dean Maitland.

The creator of New York Toy Stories, Theatre in Motion is a participatory, educational theatre company that uses a different brand of non-traditional casting: artists with and without disabilities working together, serving all populations. Executive director Leslie Fanelli designs all programs which focus on Dr. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences in live, "hands-on" workshops for youthful and intergenerational audiences.

Theatre in Motion is the 1993 recipient of the New York City Mayor's Very Special Arts Award for Arts-in-Education.

New York Toy Stories is free with admission contribution, but pre-registration is required. For more information, call 1-888-573-7554 (Theatre in Motion), or the Museum of the City of New York at (212) 534-1672 ext. 257.

For more information, try visiting....
http://www.mcny.org