Friday, June 16, 2006

KQED Profile: Basil Twist

“Puppetry is much deeper than people give it credit because it’s about life and death and what is the frontier there.”
-- Basil Twist

A San Francisco native, Basil Twist first became interested in puppetry through his mother, who was president of the San Francisco Puppeteers Guild. After stints working with designer and Broadway director Julie Taymor and the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in New York's Central Park, Twist became the first American to study at France's École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette.

He lives in New York's Greenwich Village, where he dreams up his shows and constructs puppets in a basement workshop. Spark caught up with Twist in San Francisco, where he was collaborating with dancer Joe Goode and playwright Paula Vogel to stage "The Long Christmas Ride Home" at the Magic Theatre.

Twist first made a splash in 1995 with "The Araneidae Show." Since then, he has won a Bessie Award for the show and been nominated for a Drama Desk Award for "Tell Tale." Though well versed in traditional forms, Twist often creates his own blended styles, pushing boundaries to adapt them to new theatrical expectations.

Read more on the KQED Spark website.

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