Courtesy of STC.
The Masters of Puppetry at World Famous Workshop are Creating Featured Puppets for STC’s Production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Washington, D.C. (September 10, 2026) – Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) announces today its partnership with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, which began construction last month on featured puppets for the theatre’s upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The production, directed by Artistic Director Simon Godwin, includes puppetry design and direction by Basil Twist. A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays STC’s Harman Hall from December 4 through January 10.
“It has been an incredible process with Basil to discover how puppetry can elevate the magical elements of Midsummer,” says Godwin. “I’ve always been inspired by the brilliance of Jim Henson’s work in the fantasy realm, and Basil has run with that. It’s exciting to finally share the partnership with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, whose world-class artisans are crafting these one-of-a-kind creatures as we create a fantastical world.”
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is a leader in the field of character creation and effects. Its long history of combining an extraordinary array of puppet making skills with cutting-edge animatronic and digital technologies has been part of pop culture for decades, showcased in live, film, and digital entertainment. In recent years, their work has been part of stages around the world, from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Lady Gaga performances.
“As always, working with Basil Twist is proving to be an exciting, ambitious creative adventure. We are enjoying helping to bring to life such a well-known and iconic story with a unique approach. Puppets allow us to play with scale, movement, and design so we can populate the fantastical world of this production in a completely original way,” said Jason Weber, Creative Director of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in New York.
Basil Twist is a recognized name in puppetry design and direction, both nationally and internationally. The only American to graduate from the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in France, his work includes theatre, opera, dance, and more, including multiple collaborations with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Their collaborative work is currently wowing audiences on London’s West End in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of My Neighbour Totoro, based on the popular Miyazaki animated film.
“This will be the fourth time I’ve worked with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, and I’m still star struck by them. The quality of their work is beyond anything else,” says Twist. “I’ve loved working with Simon on figuring out how puppets will inhabit the world of the fairies, the forest, and also how puppetry can pop up throughout the story in unexpected and magical ways.”
The design team for the production includes Choreographer Jonathan Goddard, Scenic Designer Robert Brill, Costume Designer Heather C. Freeman, Lighting Designer Tim Lutkin, Sound Designer Christopher Shutt, and Composer Michael Bruce.
As previously announced, the cast will include recent familiar STC faces Melanie Field (Othello, The Wild Duck) and Ben Turner (Macbeth, Othello) as Titania/Hippolyta and Oberon/Theseus, respectively. The complete cast, which includes a mix of actors and puppeteers, will be announced at a later date.
Single tickets as well as season subscriptions and multi-play packages for STC’s 26/27 Season are now on sale. For more information, visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
DEC 4, 2026–JAN 10, 2027
Harman Hall
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Lives are thrown topsy-turvy when four young Athenians flee into a forest ruled by mischievous fairies hell-bent on sowing confusion and merriment. Add a mysterious love potion, a befuddled group of amateur actors, and the miraculous transformation of a man into a donkey and you have Shakespeare’s most magical romantic comedy. Simon Godwin directs this joyous production, surrounding the acting company with eye-popping puppetry directed and designed by Basil Twist (My Neighbour Totoro) and featured puppets built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY
For 40 years, the Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre Company has been recognized as the nation’s premier classical theatre. Classical plays are realized best not by originalism but by walking the path Shakespeare himself followed, creating works that spoke to his own contemporary audience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Simon Godwin and Executive Director Angela Lee Gieras, STC tells vital stories in audacious forms, stories that are Shakespearean in the deepest sense, even if, and especially when, they are not written by Shakespeare. By focusing on works with profound themes and complex characters, STC’s artistic mission is unique among regional theatres: to bring to vibrant life groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and eminently accessible theatre.
ABOUT JIM HENSON’S CREATURE SHOP
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop™ provides animatronic creatures, digital puppetry, and soft puppets to the international film, television, theater, live event and advertising industries. Recent credits include the wildly popular music video “A Boggart Ballad” for Magic: the Gathering, Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (Apple TV), for which it won an Emmy, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Netflix), the Blumhouse horror franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s, and a recent all-puppet episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The Shop is renowned for designing and building some of the world’s best-known characters including the Sesame Street puppets, the classic Muppets, and characters from Dinosaurs, Farscape, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and more. Additional credits in film and television include The Naked Gun, Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2, Lost Ollie, Come Play, Julie’s Greenroom, and Where the Wild Things Are. The shop is also known for its performance work for theatrical productions including My Neighbour Totoro, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Jim Henson’s inspired Silliness, and Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, as well as for its partnerships with commercial clients like Snuggle, Topgolf, and General Mills, and with artists like Coldplay, The Avett Brothers, Cee Lo Green, Ben Rector, Lady Gaga and Deadmau5.
A recipient of multiple Emmy Awards for its outstanding work building puppets for Sesame Street, the Shop also received an Academy Award for its visual effects work on the film Babe. Other awards include a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for the Henson Performance Control System, a powerful custom-based interface for puppeteers, and an Emmy Award for its work in developing the Henson Digital Puppetry Studio, a patented control system technology that enables puppeteers to perform a computer generated (CG) character in real time.
