Vaughan's Steve Shnier promotes literacy through puppetry

Yorkregion.com
June 21, 2016
By Jonathan Hiltz

If you think of puppets as simple children’s toys, you might be surprised what you could learn from Steve Shnier, founder of Puppets Cool! and self-named “Sultan of Socks.”

Shnier has a deep appreciation for puppets both simple and complex.

“I enjoy working with puppets and animatronics because I see them as mechanical and engineering challenges,” he says. “In most cases, I’m creating creatures or devices that have never existed before, so they’re experimental.”

Now he’s sharing his ideas with local students through Puppets Cool!, which brings workshops promoting media literacy through puppetry and animation to the classroom.

“In its simplest terms, media literacy builds upon the foundation of traditional literacy and offers new forms of reading and writing,” Shnier says. “We explore how characters are designed and perceived by the viewer. These principles apply not only to puppetry, but to graphic representations in print and video media and are commonly used to instantly convey character personality traits.”

Students from junior kindergarten through Grade 12 can learn how to create and operate near-professional calibre hand puppets.

“For the older grades, I bring a Hollywood animatronic puppet to the classroom, where the students can study its operation and compare ‘Hollywood state-of-the-art’ to what they’ve built. And the results are surprising.”

Although some of the materials are simple, everyday items, put together they can bring to life some intricate creations.

“Students create original and unique characters out of fuzzy socks, buttons, pipe cleaners and chopsticks,” Shnier says. “It’s amazing how some very sophisticated puppets can be made from such basic materials.”

Shnier also offers animation workshops that teach students the elements of classically drawn animation as well as stop-motion animation.

Lisa Hirsh-Wax, teacher and literacy lead at Yorkhill Elementary School in Thornhill, says Shnier’s program is both engaging and educational.

“Steve is a seasoned professional who brings a wide range of knowledge to the classroom,” she says. “He strives to provide a structured learning program, where his enthusiasm for the subject matter excites his students. His workshops are innovative and unique-and can be tailored to suit a group’s specific needs, interests and the curriculum expectations being covered in the unit.”

Shnier started Puppets Cool! in 2012 following a successful career in the animation industry, having done sound effects for Inspector Gadget, produced the first season of the popular series The Magic School Bus, written for Atomic Betty and much more.

“I started Puppets Cool! because I saw a real need for quality media literacy training in the schools,” he says. “By quality, I mean programs that are taught by people with professional experience, training and legitimate media industry credits. Puppets Cool! is the only company in Canada that delivers on that ideal.”

He starts each workshop with a question: What is a puppet? Or, for the animation workshop: When you watch a movie, TV show or a video game, what are you really seeing?

“Building on the answers to these questions, we begin the creative process,” he says.