Basil Twist

Basil Twist is a puppeteer and director based in New York who is best known for his underwater puppet show called Symphonie Fantastique. Since 1998, he has been directing and performing puppet shows to live orchestra music like in Master Peter's Puppet Show, Dogugaeshi, and Hansel & Gretel, just to name a few. Basil seems to be another one of those puppeteers to work in operas and anything classical, similar to James Ortiz, Mary McClung, and Haley Who. Twist also made the puppetry for the Broadway productions of The Addams Family and The Pee-Wee Herman Show, both in 2010. Some of the projects he did have used unique styles of puppetry like Symphonie Fantastique was done in a water tank. His other abstract puppetry techniques include creating wind puppetry for Red Beads and in Dogugaeshi he used Japanese sliding screens to tell the story. It would seem that Basil Twist has a taste in unique styles of puppetry and he somehow manages to direct them so well, working alongside other people of course. Within the theater he has been considered an important artist by critics of New York newspapers and magazines. And he also got national and regional recognition through numerous awards and presents his work internationally. In addition, Basil is one of those puppeteers to be openly gay, others include Muppet legend Richard Hunt as well as Ali J. Eisner and Kermit Love. In recent years, Twist led the puppetry in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaption of My Neighbor Totoro, with characters made by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. I'll bet he was honored to collaborate with such a legendary puppet and creature effects company. Theater has really made this person the legend he is today and will probably stay that way for a while. Basil Twist, you are magnificent in the theatre using puppets for plays and operas. Keep up the fantastic work and getting more recognition for that area. Never underestimate the power of show business in your career. Perfectly performed Basil. You're a theatrical genius Twist!

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