Heather Henson Carries on her Father’s Legacy

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

ARTS by Tracey Minkin, GoLocalProv Features Editor

Heather Henson carries with her a simultaneously serious and soaring legacy.

When her IBEX Puppetry takes the stage at the RISD Auditorium this Sunday, October 3, as part of this year's FirstWorks Festival, she inhabits the world revolutionized by her father, Jim Henson.

She also returns to her alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design.

This fifth and youngest child of the beloved puppeteer who died suddenly in 1990, made her way to her father's world piece by piece. An animation student at RISD (graduating in 1995), Henson attended California Institute of the Arts to broaden her expertise in visual spectacles for theatre. From there, she founded IBEX Puppetry in 2000, an entertainment company dedicated to promoting puppetry created for stage, gallery, and film.

For FirstWorks, Henson brings Panther and Crane: A Mythic Journey Through Our Earth's Waterway, a multi-media piece that combines stage-scale puppets, projections, as well as movement. The piece explores threats to the Florida ecosystem (Henson lives in Orlando), and features puppets of alligators, migrating cranes and Florida panthers.

IBEX Puppetry's Panther and Crane: A Mythic Journey Through Our Earth’s Waterways, Sunday, October 3, 4pm $22, $16, RISD Auditorium. Get tickets from ArtTix at GoLocalProv, here. For more information, go to FirstWorks Web site or call 621-6123.

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