Pif-Paf

Pif-Paf creates high-quality theatre with a big heart and take it to the places it doesn’t normally go

Pif-Paf is a wildly ambitious theatre company creating top-notch performance and sculpture and taking it to the places it doesn’t normally reach. Our work is presented outdoors and in non-traditional spaces and we are keenly involved in the development of outdoor arts. We are based in Sheffield working around the UK and beyond delivering small and mid-scale touring shows and commissions all with a unique visual, high-quality and accessible style – with a trademark mix of humour, pathos, science and renowned design.

The company is based around the collaborations of joint-Artistic Directors Pete Gunson and Eleanor Hooper, supported by an amazing crew of freelance performers, makers and musicians.

Pete Gunson, co-Artistic Director, producer, engineer

Pete formed Pif-Paf in 2003 in Manchester inspired by an engineering background and the companies he had worked for (Spacecadets and I.O.U), and work that was popping up all over the city in the early 2000s as part of Streets Ahead. He has aimed to make visually arresting, joyous shows that open the doors to aspects of our lives that we take for granted, yet have the potential for effecting great change.

After graduating in ’98 from Manchester University with an MEng in Civil Engineering (with French) the next few years were spent between fine furniture making, public art, sustainability campaigning and participatory arts – as well as living and travelling around the nooks and crannies of Europe and West and North Africa.
Pete never leaves home without a leatherman and a notebook.

Eleanor Hooper, Co-Artistic Director, lead artist

Eleanor trained as a fine artist specialising in portraiture, mask making and performance art, writing a dissertation in the Origins of performance and contemporary street theatre practice. She then trained in acrobatics and physical theatre with Greentop Circus, Marcello dos Ramos, Antonio Fava in Reggio Emilia Italy, Song of The Goat and in 2014/15 completed LISPA’s physical theatre training. Eleanor worked in an acrobatic duo for five years performing and teaching in across Europe.

Since 2008 she has been co-Artistic Director of Pif-Paf with Pete, directing, writing, making and performing in all of our work.

She is currently a BOOM resident at Oxford Contemporary Music and training with the Theodore Children’s Trust to be a giggle doctor.

Marianne Bolton, Company Administrator

Since 2012 (minus a couple of maternity leaves) Marianne has managed bookings, performers, finance, promotion and supported everywhere else that’s needed, including packing hundreds of envelopes of Wild Flower seeds for the Bee Cart show.