Snuff Puppets

Last updated
Snuff Puppet Skullies from Scarey Snuff-scarey-skullies.jpg
Snuff Puppet Skullies from Scarey

Snuff Puppets is an Australian puppet theatre company. Founded in 1992, they combine elements of puppetry, live music, [1] visual and physical theatre to discuss taboo topics and make political satire. [2]

Contents

History

Snuff Puppets originated in Canberra as part of Splinters Theatre of Spectacle. [3] They moved to a warehouse in the suburb of Footscray in Melbourne in 1992, and are now based in the historic Footscray Drill Hall. Snuff Puppets was founded by Pauline Cady, Simon Terrill, and the current artistic director Andy Freer. [4] Nick Wilson became Co-Artistic Director in 2023. [5]

Since 1992, Snuff Puppets have roamed the streets, performed hundreds of stage and festival shows, and turned thousands of heads at protests and political rallies. [6]

Snuff Puppets have embarked on more than 40 international tours, with performances in countries including; Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Democratic Republic of the Congo, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan & Thailand. [7]

They have conducted over 40 giant People's Puppet Project community workshops worldwide. [8]

The Victorian State Government and Maribyrnong City Council have supported Snuff Puppets with annual Arts Funding. Crumpler bags are a decades long supporter of Snuff Puppets tours. [9] Snuff Puppets is a registered charity. [10]

Responses

In 2015, Snuff Puppet's promotional video for "Everybody" [11] went viral; copies of the video have been reported as being viewed nearly 1 billion times. [12]

Snuff Puppets Youtube channel has over 550,000 subscribers and 330 million viral video views. [13]

Realtime Magazine wrote the Snuff Puppets have a "commitment to pushing bad taste to its extreme". [14]

Works from repertoire

Snuff Puppet in Footscray Snuff-puppets-bus.jpg
Snuff Puppet in Footscray

Shows

[16]

Workshops

[18]

Roaming acts

[20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria University (Australia)</span> Dual-sector public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Victoria University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a dual-sector university, providing courses in both higher education and technical and further education (TAFE).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puppetry</span> Form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet production. The script for a puppet production is called a puppet play. Puppeteers use movements from hands and arms to control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer sometimes speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, while at other times they perform to a recorded soundtrack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Law</span> British caricaturist

Roger Law is a British caricaturist, ceramicist and one half of Luck and Flaw, creators of the popular satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marionette</span> Puppet controlled from above using wires or strings

A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television. The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Footscray, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Footscray is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km (3.1 mi) west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Maribyrnong local government area and its council seat. Footscray recorded a population of 17,131 at the 2021 census.

<i>Avenue Q</i> Musical comedy by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx, and Jeff Whitty

Avenue Q is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody of Sesame Street, but its content involves adult-oriented themes. It has been praised for its approach to themes of racism, homosexuality and internet pornography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York's Village Halloween Parade</span> Parade held every Halloween in New York

The Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade held on the night of Halloween, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The parade, initiated on October 31, 1974 by Greenwich Village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee, is the world's largest Halloween parade and the only major nighttime parade in the United States. The parade reports itself to have 50,000 "costumed participants" and 2 million spectators. The parade has its roots in New York's queer community.

Puppet Up! – Uncensored is a adult live puppet musical show produced by The Jim Henson Company combining puppetry and improvisational comedy created by Brian Henson and Groundlings performer Patrick Bristow. The show is advertised for "adults only" and as "uncensored". However, one rare and "exclusive" set of shows "for children" were held in Edinburgh in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcus Clarke (puppeteer)</span> British puppeteer and voice actor

Marcus Clarke is a British puppeteer and voice actor from Nottinghamshire. He is best known as the puppeteer and voice actor behind the BAFTA-winning CITV series Bookaboo and the principal puppeteer of Audrey II in the 1986 version of Little Shop of Horrors. Clarke has worked as a puppeteer in over 60 television series and has created a similar number of puppets. He was also a puppeteer and voice actor in two Muppet feature films and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sun Theatre</span> Australian cinema

The Sun Theatre is an eight-screened cinema located in Melbourne, Australia, in the inner-west suburb of Yarraville.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puppet</span> Inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer

A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Puppeteers Cooperative</span>

The Puppeteers Cooperative is an association of puppeteers, musicians, dancers, and singers, working to form community bonds through the medium of puppets, parades, and pageants. It is an extremely loose affiliation - there is no membership as such, so that people are sometimes surprised to find themselves belonging to the group without having joined it.

<i>King Kong</i> (2013 musical) 2013 stage musical

King Kong is a musical with music by Marius de Vries, lyrics by Michael Mitnick and Craig Lucas, a book by Lucas and additional musical and lyrical contributions by 3D, Sarah McLachlan, Guy Garvey, Justice and The Avalanches. It is based on the 1933 film of the same name. The original production was mounted in Australia in 2013. A re-worked Broadway production premiered in October 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opera dei Pupi</span> Typical sicilian marionette theatre

The Opera dei Pupi is a marionette theatrical representation of Frankish romantic poems traditionally performed in Sicily, Italy.

Human and Hope Association is a registered NGO in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is run entirely by a team of Khmer employees, who focus on reducing poverty in their community.

D'Faces of Youth Arts is a community youth arts organisation based in Whyalla, South Australia. It provides workshops and activities for young people aged 4 to 26 in theatre, dance, circus, visual arts and music and members participate in a broad range of public events including performances, festivals and parades. The organisation celebrated its 21st anniversary in 2016. As of 2022 the organisation is funded by Carclew, plus project specific partners and sponsors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elise McCann</span>

Elise McCann is an Australian actress and musical theatre performer most well known for originating the role of Miss Honey in the Australian production of Matilda the Musical and as Lucille Ball in Everybody Loves Lucy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puppets Against AIDS</span>

In the late 1980s, the African Research and Educational Puppetry Program (AREPP) founded "Puppets Against AIDS", a traveling puppet show that visited African villages and cities to encourage audience members to use condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Amal</span> Giant puppet used in 2021 in The Walk

Little Amal is a 3.5-metre (11 ft) manually operated, partly-animatronic giant puppet and is the centrepiece of the performance art project called The Walk. The project was created by the British production companies The Walk Productions and Good Chance in collaboration with the South African Handspring Puppet Company. With the intention of celebrating human migration and cultural diversity, the puppet initially journeyed for five months from the Syria-Turkey border via Europe to the United Kingdom, and walked and took part in locally arranged events in 65 towns and cities along the way. Little Amal was greeted at some venues by local dignitaries, such as Pope Francis, Vincent Nichols Archbishop of Westminster and Cllr Caroline Makinson, Mayor of Barnsley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giant puppet</span> Type of large puppet

A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.

References

  1. "Finalists – Snuff Puppet Band". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
  2. "Home". Snuffpuppets.com.
  3. "RealTime Arts - Magazine - issue 50 - Snuff Puppets rule!". Raltimearts.net.
  4. "Andy Freer". Snuffpuppets.com.
  5. https://snuffpuppets.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SnuffPuppetsAnnualReport2023.pdf
  6. https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ak438/snuff-puppets-melbournes-punk-puppeteers
  7. Flood, Daniell. "Snuff Puppets". Snuff Puppets. Retrieved 14 July 2024.
  8. https://snuffpuppets.com/what-we-do/peoples-puppet-project/
  9. https://snuffpuppets.com/about/
  10. https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/charities/33232177-39af-e811-a95e-000d3ad24c60/profile
  11. Snuff Puppets - Everybody - Giant Human Puppet on YouTube
  12. "Is this the weirdest clip on the internet? Viral video has almost a BILLION views". Dailystar.co.uk. 12 August 2016.
  13. https://www.youtube.com/snuffpuppets
  14. https://www.realtime.org.au/issue-year/2007/
  15. https://theatrematters.com.au/Reviews/swamp-at-the-end-of-the-world/
  16. https://snuffpuppets.com/mainshows/
  17. https://ganeaa.com.au/ata-program/snuff-puppets-performance-workshop-snuff-skool/
  18. https://snuffpuppets.com/workshops/
  19. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-24/giant-moving-body-parts-made-by-australian-artists-in-singapore/6492650
  20. https://snuffpuppets.com/roaming/
 37°47′55″S144°53′17″E / 37.7986647°S 144.8879336°E / -37.7986647; 144.8879336