Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Snell, Jerry
Composer, singer, choreographer, and director Jerry Snell was committed to innovative theatre production and performance, and to left-field sociopolitical ideas. He was born in Vancouver April 17, 1957, and based in Montreal. Since 2008, he lived in Thailand. He died August 7, 2015 in Bangkok at 56 of pneumonia.
A co-founder of the internationally renown Montreal dance theatre company Carbone 14 with Gilles Maheu in 1980 , Jerry Snell played a crucial role in many of its productions. Le Rail (1985), Le Dortoir (1988), and Café des Aveugles (1992) took their edge from Snell's social commentary and often experimental music. That same year (1988) he performed as an actor in Jean-Claude Lauzon's film Un Zoo la Nuit, in Vincent Ward's Map of the Human Heart and Pierre Falardeau's 15 Février 1839.
In the late 1980s, Snell often collaborated with Michel F. Côté, a drummer and stage music composer in the avant-garde music collective Ambiances Magnétiques. He appeared on two albums from Côté's project Bruire: the 1989 Le Barman a Tort de Sourire and the 1992 Les Fleurs de Léo. In 1992, Ambiances Magnétiques released Life in the Suicide Riots, in which Snell assumed the role of lead singer, giving voice to his socially conscious lyrics over music by Côté, Claude Vendette, and Francis Grandmont (both of Abbittibbi). The songs on that album were featured in Café des Aveugles. In 2001 he released a second solo CD, Cash: The Album, a sharp dose of anti-capitalist alternative rock.
In 1995 Snell left Carbone 14. He founded the STP Physical Theatre company and toured the world, presenting workshops in former communist countries. A creative residency with the National Circus School and its resulting performance (co-produced by TOHU, la cité des arts du cirque) attracted an audience in Montreal of over 5,000 spectators in six days. In this same period, Snell created his own new company: Jerry Snell Industries.
In 2005 his circus performance Angels of the Storm created a unique relationship with the directors of TOHU and the National Circus School. In the same year he was in residence in Montreal at the Société Les Arts Technologiques (SAT) along with close collaborator Michel F Coté. In April 2005 he presented with SAT a multi-media performance event entitled La passion de Henry in collaboration with Pascal Dabe, Michel F. Côté, Lorne Brass, Thien Vu Dang, Martin Laporte, Yasuko Tadokoro, and with the virtual presence of Pascale Montpetit, Kurt Chen, Goos Meeuwsen et Acalanto Ensemble.
Snell was invited to return to Asia by choreographer Lin Hsiu Wei to compose and perform music for her company Tai Gu Tales Dance Theatre for a work that opened the Taipei Arts Festival in October 2005 and then toured across Taiwan. The directors of the National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Centre: National Theatre of Taiwan also invited Snell for a residence in 2006 to create an acrobatic performance piece with local Taiwanese Artists.
Jerry Snell Industries had a long-term vision: to bring foreign thought, philosophy, artists and performances to Canada, and to bring Canada across the globe to spectators around the world.
Last updated 2021-10-25
Since October 2002, Athabasca University has hosted the web site, with an editorial board of theatre scholars from across Canada.
To submit an entry, please consult the guidelines for submissions.
Email your submission to: Anne Nothof, Professor Emerita, Athabasca University.
The Encyclopedia collects and disseminates information on plays, playwrights and theatre practitioners. It does not respond to requests for information, auditions, bookings, or tickets.
The Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia web site was originally conceived and developed in 1996 by Gaetan Charlebois—theatre critic, playwright, and actor.
