By India McCarty
Have you ever wanted to peek inside the mind of legendary puppeteer Jim Henson? Here’s your chance!
“Jim Henson’s Creature Shop — which birthed hundreds of the world’s most famous puppet characters, including those from THE MUPPETS, FRAGGLE ROCK, LABYRINTH and SESAME STREET — is now offering public tours of its Queens, NY, property,” PEOPLE reported.
The 80-minute tour takes visitors through the studio, with a live puppetry demonstration and a meet-and-greet with one of the Creature Shop’s puppet builders.
Related: MUPPETS Creator Jim Henson to Receive Disney+ Documentary
“There is a level of expertise here that we’re sharing. It’s not just going to a pop-up store or something like that,” Jason Weber, the shop’s creative supervisor, told the AP News. “Things are made one-of-a-kind, made by hand with artisans who have been trained for years and decades.”
Sierra Schoening, a senior puppet builder, told the outlet that working at the Creature Shop was her “pie-in-the-sky” dream job when she was growing up.
“I just really always wanted to know how those illusions were made,” she shared, adding, “I know all the secret sauce, and I’m making the secret sauce now.”
Henson’s son Brian, who took over as chairman of The Jim Henson Company in 1991 following the death of his father, spoke to Fast Company about how the Creature Shop and its employees work.
“There are generally two basic backgrounds for creature creators. Some come from art school or are more focused on the design side of creatures. Some are mechanics, who have come out of special effects or even prop building but do really incredibly intricate mechanisms. This show celebrates the very few people who can do both mechanics and design,” he explained. “The all-around creators are the rarest. What these creature designer builders can do is the closest thing to magical that I know.”
Brian continued, “The primary things we’re looking for in a creature is believability and performability. The creature needs to look believably alive and act believably alive. There is a lot of emphasis on story. If you don’t have a back story for a creature, then it’s hard to create a creature with that element of believability. It lets you create with credibility.”
He admitted creating these puppets is “really hard work” but said he’d rather work in the shop than answer emails all day — “It particularly horrifies me when people say that they can do email all day long and feel like they’ve accomplished something. I don’t feel that way at all.”
Tickets for the Creature Shop tours are available now.
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