How to Build Your Toy Theatre

The Pollock's Toy Museum Regency Theatre kit book lies to the right on a green, gridded cutting mat. On the left are various tools set out ready for construction, including glue, a craft knife, a butter knife, and clips. A long metal ruler lies across the bottom of the grid.

Toy theatres were originally published as flat sheets, plain or coloured, ready for the theatrical producer-to-be to cut out carefully and build up into a theatre building, scenery and characters, fit for performance. Instructions were rarely included but we thought some tips and tricks might be valuable for modern toy theatre owners!

So, if you’ve recently found an old toy theatre kit, or purchased one from Pollock’s Toy Museum in sheet or book form, download the instructions in the following PDFs for a helping hand. The first, hand-drawn, set offers general instructions, while the second set, with colour photographs, was produced specifically to match our Regency Toy Theatre. Both may prove useful depending on your preferences!

Once your theatre is built, you might also like to watch our short video for advice on how to perform a toy theatre show. Have fun and break a leg!

How to build a toy theatre (PDF, hand-drawn, black-and-white, 18MB)Download

Regency Toy Theatre Instructions (PDF with colour photographs, 21 MB)Download