Deep in a cavernous New York City warehouse, the artisans behind some of the world's most beloved children's characters have been fashioning puppets for years in relative anonymity. Now Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the workshop founded by the legendary creator of the Muppets, is drawing back the curtain. This year, the company opened the doors of its Queens workshop to public tours for the first time, allowing fans to meet a puppet builder, see a puppetry demonstration, and take photos with iconic characters. Jason Weber, the shop's creative supervisor, said the tours, which cost $150 a person, are an opportunity to celebrate the unsung craftspeople who bring these famous characters to life. "There is a level of expertise here that we're sharing," he tells the AP. "Things are made one-of-a-kind, made by ... artisans who have been trained for years and decades."
Besides Kermit, Miss Piggy, and other Muppets, Henson was the creative force behind Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and other famous Sesame Street denizens, as well as the Fraggle Rock characters. He died in 1990. Henson originally founded the workshop in the 1960s in Manhattan and it has moved multiple times around the city since. It's been at its current location in Queens since 2009. The 80-minute New York tours take place on Saturdays. Visitors start in a large room filled with real show props and creations. It's also the only spot on the tour where visitors are allowed to take photos and videos, as much of what's in the actual workshop are still works in progress or proprietary.
Among the centerpieces in that first room on the tour is an Oscar the Grouch display where the Sesame Street character is in his familiar trash can surrounded by heaps of fake garbage. There's also a menacing black throne from The Dark Crystal, Henson's 1982 live-action fantasy film, and a full-sized working puppet of Junior Gorg, a giant from Fraggle Rock, which requires multiple performers to manipulate. The workshop space itself is filled with fantastical creatures in various stages of assembly. There are drawers and bins tucked into nearly every corner, brimming with colorful furs, textured fabrics, and ready-made puppet body parts, clothing, and accessories. "Everything we do is custom," says Melissa Creighton, the shop's director.
The shop's past credits include the horror movie Five Nights at Freddy's, the children's fantasy film Where the Wild Things Are, and the 1990s television sitcom Dinosaurs. Sierra Schoening, a senior puppet builder, said working at the shop was her "pie-in-the sky" dream job. Her favorite movie growing up was The Labyrinth, Henson's 1986 musical fantasy film starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. "I just really always wanted to know how those illusions were made," Schoening says. "I know all the secret sauce, and I'm making the secret sauce now."
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