The History of Red Smarteez Marionettes

After graduating, Brenda travelled to Prague, Czech Republic, and soon became immersed in an artistic milieu where the art of puppetry was so accepted that she saw whole colleges and theatres devoted to it. Her lasting impression was that puppets could relate to a wider audience than paintings in galleries ever could. When she returned to Alberta, her puppet work would begin with street performing and children's shows at schools and festivals but would soon acquire an edge when performing with other artists.

Red Smarteez (named as the antithesis of our stilt walking friends in Calgary, Green Fools) became collaborative as Brenda needed other individuals to help operate puppets, perform music and provide voices. Some early experimental shows were at performance cabarets in Calgary in the mid 1990's where the use of irony, parody and improvisation became strong characteristics of her style. Peter Stinson, a painter, writer and performer, became more involved in 1998 which led to the first full theatrical show, The Inglewood Affair, in 1999. Peter's multi-disciplinary background expanded their work into media arts and, specifically, the creation of several super8 puppet films. The first film was One Last Trick, a story based on Peter’s taxi driving days and which came about from a challenge by a colleague in the film world. Eventually, they would progress to make the 16mm film, tangly wood, a story about the influence of childhood memories on an artist's life.  This led to The Kay Stories, a series of personal films about Brenda's older sister, Kay. With this work, it is apparent that personal films using puppets can provide some comic relief and catharsis for the challenges some face in life.

We moved to Saskatoon in 2007 to find an affordable home and, while our output slowed, much of our creative energy went into renovating the new home and working on the garden. In recent years, Brenda's short and long-term memory has been affected by a cognitive disorder related to Multiple Sclerosis (she was diagnosed about 20 years ago). However, Brenda remains generally physically able but she still has a vision for her work and has said "I am still an artist and my health should not prevent me from being one"!