Scrolling Stories: A Crankie Toy Theater Workshop with Abby Palen + Carlos Perez

Crankie Toy Theater is a traditional storytelling device that integrates hand-painted or drawn paper scrolls, a hand-crank mechanism, and the power of imagination to animate miniature scenes. Join our workshop and craft your own crankie theater, design a short scroll, and bring a story to life through animation!

Abby Palen (they/them/theirs) is an award-winning creative storyteller, puppeteer, and multi-media artist with a diverse artistic background. Raised in Kentucky and having traveled extensively, Abby’s experiences and exploration of various art forms serve as the foundation for their work. From acting to puppet design, their artistic portfolio encompasses a wide range of projects, including touring shows and collaborations with renowned puppetry organizations. Abby also shares their expertise through teaching, offering free classes in upcycled art, and fostering accessibility in the arts. Learn more about Abby and their work at abbypalen.com

Carlos Perez (he/him) is a skilled ceramicist, painter, and illustrator. Drawing inspiration from comics, anime, mythology, and Latin culture, Carlos creates figurative statues, highly detailed drawings, and ceramic masks inspired by the traditional vejigante masks of Puerto Rico, where he spent his formative years. Before creating any work of art, Carlos begins his process with meticulous research on the appearance and story of his subject. In the course of creating the work, he adds significant symbolic details to the drawing or sculpture that allude to the narrative of the character depicted. Carlos is a graduate of the Teaching Artist Program at Visionaries + Voices, and teaches his style of ceramics and drawing to students in the greater Cincinnati area.