NIGHT VISION PUPPETS™… with ObieYoyo™, Roscoe™, Merkel the Wizard™, Captain Cosmos™ the Demon Brew™, and others… are based in San Francisco,  primarily involved in street theatre and video performances.  The troupe was organized in 1974 and has performed in Spanish and English, with translations into Greek and Turkish, on television and in live performances, often busking on the streets. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the puppets appeared regularly on the local late-night WKEF TV show, Shock Theatre, with Dr. Creep (Barry Hobart) in Dayton, Ohio, USA.  

Live performances usually involved the use of the “walking stage,”™ a framework of aluminum tubes covered with fabric that allows the puppeteer to walk among the audience.

Creator / director / performer John Higgins thought he had “hung up the stage” in the early 2000s . . . but the puppets pulled him out of retirement in 2007. A fellowhip as an artist/scholar-in-residence at Sidestreets in Nicosia in 2008 brought the puppets back to Cyprus after a 12 year interlude.

The last “walking stage” performances were in fall 2010 in the UN Buffer Zone and the Buyuk Han in Nicosia, Cyprus, during Higgins’ time as a Fulbright Scholar with the Cyprus Fulbright Commission. The puppets still show up from time to time on video, on social media, and in the neighborhood.

Photos and updated info are available on Facebook; the gang is also available on Instagram and YouTube. 

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