Visual
artists and performers, Bridget Rountree and Iain Gunn, joined forces in 2005
and began collaborating in a series of performance art pieces that combined
mixed media, physical theatre, and puppetry. In 2007 they launched Animal
Cracker Conspiracy a contemporary hybrid puppet company and co-founded Zirk
Ubu: live arts ensemble. Zirk Ubu with a cast of nine performers produced over
fifteen pieces of original work dedicated to physical theatre, puppetry, circus,
and sideshow, from 2007-10 in San Diego and Mexico. In 2010 Bridget and Iain
focused solely on Animal Cracker Conspiracy after receiving their first grant
from the Sator Arts Foundation for an adult piece of puppet theater “The
Collector”, which received two Jim Henson Foundation Grants in 2011 and
2012. In 2010 Animal Cracker Conspiracy
began hosting quarterly shows, The Adult Puppet Cabaret, producing and
fostering an audience for adult puppet performances in San Diego, which has
received three Puppet Slam Network grants and has been highlighted in Puppetry
International. During this time Animal Cracker Conspiracy has participated in
both national and international artist residencies and workshops with Bread and
Puppet, North American Creative Laboratories, La Pocha Nostra, RosenClaire, and
the Old Trouts Puppet Collective.