Miss Texas 1988 performing at last year's Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam volume 25: the Queer Edition
This Friday and Saturday, the stage at Theatre Off Jackson will be taken over by creepy ghouls, vampires, aliens, giant bugs, and monsters of all types—and they’re all puppets. At Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam vol. 27, 10 puppet artists from around the West Coast and Pacific Northwest will present their take on the theme Monster of the Week. The result promises “a wide array of absolute chaos and campy fun.”
“This was very much inspired by our love of The X Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer…those ‘creature feature’ episodes that we all love,” explains Cass Bray, who, with Zane Exactly, is a co-producer of Fussy Cloud.
The theme fits our current times: monsters seem to be everywhere these days, from real political and social evils in the world, to the so-called monsters that are just misunderstood.
“Every day we're living with these invisible monsters that kind of rule our lives,” Bray says, “so there's something refreshing about creating a theme where the monsters are celebrated, and the monsters are created by us, chosen by us.”
Zane Exactly (left) and Cass Bray, the duo behind Shadow Girls Cult and co-producers of Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam. Photo by Ethan Chiem.
Fussy Cloud is Seattle’s longest-running puppetry review show, originally launched in 2011. Exactly became a co-producer in 2019, and Bray joined in 2022. Since the two started collaborating, they’ve been on a mission to “queerify the puppetry community that we have in Seattle, and bring in a lot of acts from the drag community, the burlesque community,” as Bray puts it. “I think it’s going well so far.” Along with producing Fussy Cloud, Bray and Exactly run their own collaborative puppetry studio, Shadow Girls Cult, that utilizes overhead projectors and silhouettes cut from a variety of translucent, weird, and wonderful materials to create cinematic experiences. For their Monster of the Week piece, Shadow Girls Cult is performing an X-Files-inspired sketch.
Monster of the Week (an 18+ show) will be one of Fussy Cloud’s longest shows yet, with acts from puppet artists like Shadow Circus Creature Theatre, Frechettist Marionettist, Gelatin Factory, Zoo Pack Puppets, Mx. Positions, Keziah & Juniper, Treasure Trove, Alice’s Malices, and Seatown Proletarian Puppet Uprising. Seattle theatre artist and burlesque performer Tootsie Spangles will be returning to emcee.
Half Pint Puppets at Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam volume 24 in 2023
Bay Area-based puppeteer Dave Haaz-Baroque, whose Shadow Circus Creature Theatre is a frequent part of Kat Robichaud’s Misfit Cabaret, will perform a “Homeland Security Vampire Hunter” sketch where vampire hunter Rod Brotaser tries to sniff out who the real vampires exactly are. “Our character is based on a bungling version of ICE,” Haaz-Baroque says.
In the sketch, Brotaser is so fixated on his ideas of what a vampire looks like that he completely misses the vampire right in front of him. “I started doing this sketch so long ago that there were a bunch of Twilight gags in it,” Haaz-Baroque notes. The way our culture tends to vilify those who are different from us through fear mongering is, he says, “unfortunately something that’s very evergreen.”
In another act, Mx. Positions will be debuting a monstrous cockroach that combines drag, puppetry, and burlesque all in one. Positions attended their first Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam in 2023 (Lisa Frank Apocalypse was the theme), and found themselves an enthusiastic participant when one of the artists called on help from the audience. Ever since, Positions was hooked.
Monster will be Positions’ fourth Fussy Cloud as a participating puppet artist. When not dabbling in things puppetry, Positions frequently performs burlesque as characters Annie Position, Manny Positions, and Mx. Positions. Puppetry has provided new ways to explore and add dimension to the burlesque side of their craft.
“It's helped me take it to a different level, and helped me tap into the younger part of my creativity,” Positions says. “It makes me feel like I found my place, where my art life really just has taken form and shape.”
Across Haaz-Baroque’s 25+ years of experience in the puppet world, they found the community in general to be not diverse, and very homogenous. Until they crossed paths with Bray and Exactly in 2019: "I realized there’s this whole other group of performers that really is more diverse and welcoming," Haaz-Baroque says. "I was sad I wasted so much time without exploring that. I really felt like this is my space.”
Frechettist Marionettist in Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam volume 24 in 2023
In advance of every slam, Bray and Exactly estimate they give away anywhere from 10 to 30 free tickets, sometimes via the Seattle Queer Exchange Facebook group. Tickets are always Pay What You Can (with a suggested rate of $15–$25).
It makes sense that queer, drag, and burlesque communities would find a home in the campy world of adult puppet slams, but there’s something else that appeals to everyone: analog magic that takes place before your very eyes.
While most of the entertainment we consume these days likely has some degree of CGI involved, puppetry has always remained as analog as it gets—which means, refreshingly different. “There's just something about the act of bringing life to things right in front of you,” Exactly says, “knowing that the people standing there are the ones that are doing it, making the life, they are giving the voice, or, in our case, hiding behind the screen, manipulating the puppets…knowing that what you're seeing is being created in front of your eyes…that’s the heart of it, I think—that magic.”
Mark Van Streefkerk is a freelance writer, journalist, and editor. He is currently the Arts, Culture, & Community Editor for South Seattle Emerald. You can find out more about him at markvanstreefkerk.com and on Instagram at @markthewriter.
