Cheryl Henson

Last updated

Cheryl Henson
Born
Cheryl Lee Henson

(1961-08-07) August 7, 1961 (age 63)
United States
Alma mater Yale University (BA)
Occupation(s)Puppet builder, philanthropist, puppeteer, actress, producer
Years active1971–present
Notable work
TitlePresident of Jim Henson Foundation
Spouse
Edwin A. Finn Jr.
​
(m. 2001)​
Children2
Parents
Family

Cheryl Lee Henson (born August 7, 1961) is an American puppet builder and philanthropist who has served as the president of the Jim Henson Foundation since 1992. [1] A supporter of puppetry arts and artists, she serves as a board member of The Jim Henson Company. [2] She was honored in 2010 at the LaMama Gala, and in 2011, she won the New Victory Arts Award for her leadership in puppetry. [3]

Contents

Early life

Cheryl Henson is the second child of Jim Henson and Jane Henson. Lisa Henson (born 1960) is her older sister; Brian Henson (born 1963), John Henson (1965–2014), and Heather Henson (born 1970) are her younger siblings. [4]

Career

She began her career building puppets for The Muppet Show while still in high school. As she told Smithsonian Magazine in 2006. "They were singing fruits and vegetables – an artichoke, a bunch of asparagus and a grapefruit – for the fruit and vegetable stand that sang, 'Yes, we have no bananas.' My older sister, Lisa, made a tomato.", [5] She also performed puppets for John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together (1979) and built puppets for The Dark Crystal (1982) before beginning college. [6]

After graduating from Yale in 1984 with a BA in History, [4] she continued working as a puppet and mask maker on various television and film productions including Labyrinth (1986), The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (1986), and one 1987 episode of Saturday Night Live . [6] She attended the Fashion Institute of Technology and earned a degree in textile design in 1987. [4] She sold her own original fabric designs and continued to work on specific projects at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in London and New York, creating puppets for The Storyteller and Mother Goose Stories, and serving as Art Director for The Song of the Cloud Forest , an episode of The Jim Henson Hour . [6]

In 1988, Cheryl Henson designed and built Hugo the Hornet, the first mascot of the Charlotte Hornets NBA basketball team. Hugo was made in the team’s distinctive colors of teal and purple, chosen by fashion designer and North Carolina native, Alexander Julian. [7]

From 1992 to 2000, Henson was a Vice President of The Jim Henson Company, specifically charged with coordinating between the company and the Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), the producers of Sesame Street . During this time she focused on helping to bring puppets and puppeteer training to the international productions of the series. Since 2003, when the Henson siblings repurchased The Jim Henson Company, she has worked with the company’s New York branch, where the Sesame Street puppets continue to be designed and fabricated. [4]

Advocacy for puppetry arts

Since 1992, Cheryl Henson has been the President of The Jim Henson Foundation, which supports innovative contemporary American puppet theater. [8] Each year, she oversees the foundation’s competitive granting process, which to date has awarded over 1000 grants, including grants to over 360 American puppet artists and over 100 grants to theaters in New York City to present puppetry. The Foundation also offers two international travel grants per year and a residency in collaboration with The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. [9]

From 1992 to 2000, she was also the executive producer of the biennial Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. According to the company website, "These five festivals presented 136 different productions from 31 countries in 24 theaters throughout New York City." [4] In 1993, the festival won both an Obie Award [10] and a Drama Desk Award [1] In 1994, Andrew Solomon described the festivals in The New York Times as "more imaginative than Broadway, and greater in its impact than the movies." [11]

Cheryl Henson co-created the Puppets on Film festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which ran annually from 2011 to 2014. [12]

From 2017-2021, she sponsored a clinical research study at the Yale Child Study Center, looking at how kids with autism relate to puppets. The study was supervised by Dr. Katarznya Chawarska, and utilized puppet videos made with the Jim Henson Foundation. [13] The academic paper was published on August 4, 2021, in Autism Research , the journal of The International Society for Autism Research. [14]

She is on the board of the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, home to the Worlds of Puppetry Museum, which showcases the largest collection of Jim Henson’s puppets and the most substantial collection of global puppetry on display in the United States. [15] She is also a board member of The Jim Henson Legacy, a non-profit dedicated to celebrating Jim Henson’s contributions to the worlds of puppetry, television, motion pictures, special effects and media technology; [16] and was on the board of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York from 2018-2021, to support their permanent and touring Jim Henson Exhibitions. [17]

Publications

The Muppets Make Puppets, by Cheryl Henson and The Muppet Workshop, an activity and crafting book featuring how to make puppets out of everyday objects, give the puppets character and perform shows. Workman, 1995 [18]

It’s Not Easy Being Green and Other Things to Consider, a collection of quotes, anecdotes, and insights from Jim Henson, his characters, and those who knew him best, edited and introduced by Cheryl Henson. Hyperion, 2005 [19] In 2006, Cheryl accepted the Quill Award for this book on behalf of her father, stating "The Quills are chosen by readers so it is especially thrilling to accept this award on my father's behalf. To see people continue to connect and respond to my father's ideas about imagination, joy and wonder is a tribute to the ongoing legacy of work he created." [5]

Cheryl has also written introductions to Puppetry: How to do it by Mervyn Millar [20] and Out of the Shadows: The Henson Festivals and their Impact on Contemporary Puppet Theater by Leslee Asch; [1] and a forward to The Dark Crystal: The Ultimate Visual History by Caseen Gaines [21]

Personal life

She has been married to Edwin A. Finn Jr. since May 26, 2001. They have two children. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Henson</span> American puppeteer (1936–1990)

James Maury Henson was an American puppeteer, animator, actor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notability as the creator of the Muppets. Henson was also well known for creating Fraggle Rock (1983–1987) and as the director of The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kermit the Frog</span> Muppet character

Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created in 1955 and originally performed by Jim Henson. An anthropomorphic green frog, Kermit is the pragmatic everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably as the showrunner and host of the sketch comedy television series The Muppet Show and a featured role on Sesame Street. He has appeared in other television series, feature films, specials, and public service announcements through the years. He also served as a mascot of The Jim Henson Company and appeared in various Henson projects until 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Muppets</span> Puppet characters created by Jim Henson

The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, surrealist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they have become a media franchise encompassing children's films, television, music, and other media associated with the characters. Owned by the Jim Henson Company for nearly five decades, the characters of the Muppets franchise were acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Henson</span> American puppeteer (b. 1963)

Brian Henson is an American puppeteer, filmmaker, actor and the chairman of The Jim Henson Company. He is the son of puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Clash</span> American puppeteer (born 1960)

Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer, director and producer best known for puppeteering Elmo on Sesame Street from 1985 to 2012. He also performed puppets for Labyrinth, Dinosaurs, Oobi, and various Muppet productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Jim Henson Company</span> American entertainment company

The Jim Henson Company, formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc., is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is known for its innovations in the field of puppetry, particularly through the creation of Kermit the Frog and the Muppets characters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikki Tilroe</span> American actress and puppeteer (1941–2005)

Nikki Tilroe was an American actress, dancer and puppeteer. She is best known for her work as the "Mime Lady" on the children's television series Today's Special. She also operated Muppets on Fraggle Rock and played "Beaver" on Cucumber.

The Jim Henson Foundation is a foundation that was founded by puppeteer and Muppet creator Jim Henson to promote and develop puppetry in the United States. Since 1992 Jim Henson's daughter Cheryl Henson has served as the president for the Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Jacobson</span> American puppeteer

Eric Jacobson is an American puppeteer. He is best known for his involvement with the Muppets, performing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle for The Muppets Studio, as well as Sesame Street characters Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Guy Smiley—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performers, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney, and Jim Henson.

Jane Ann Henson was an American puppeteer and co-founder of Muppets, Inc. with her husband Jim Henson.

Pamela Arciero is an American puppeteer and voice-over artist. She has performed for Between the Lions and Sesame Street, playing Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grundgetta in the latter. In addition to performance work, she worked as a director on the Noggin preschool series Oobi, which featured both writers and performers of Sesame Street. She is also the Artistic Director of the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Michael Earl was an American puppeteer. A four-time Emmy Award-winner whose credits include Mr. Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street (1978–1981) and Dr. Ticktock in Ticktock Minutes, a musical series of PSA's on PBS he also co-created, scripted and wrote lyrics for that garnered 11 Southern Regional Emmys, a 1998 National Emmy for Best Public Service Announcements, a Gabriel Award, two Parents' Choice Awards and numerous other honors. Earl performed the original Shrek character in a motion-capture development test film for DreamWorks and puppeteered lead characters in Paramount Pictures' Team America: World Police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Puppetry Arts</span>

The Center for Puppetry Arts, located in Atlanta, is the United States' largest organization dedicated to the art form of puppetry. The center focuses on three areas: performance, education, and museum. It is one of the few puppet museums in the world. The center is located in Midtown, the city's arts district. It was founded in 1978 by Vincent Anthony.

Alice Dinnean is an American puppeteer, writer and voice actress who works at The Jim Henson Company. Dinnean has performed on many children's television shows such as The Puzzle Place, Sesame Street, Big Bag, Bear in the Big Blue House, Cousin Skeeter, Jim Henson's Pajanimals, Sid the Science Kid and Jack's Big Music Show. She also did work on various non-Muppet productions such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Lagasse</span> American puppeteer

Tim Lagasse is an American puppeteer, puppet designer, actor and director. He has worked on films and television programs for Sesame Workshop, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and HBO. He is known for playing the title character on Noggin's Oobi, and Crash on Disney XD's Crash & Bernstein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Henson's Creature Shop</span> British-American animation and special effects company

Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a British-American animation and special effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based in Hollywood, California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonnie Erickson</span> American designer

Bonnie Erickson is an American designer of puppets, costumes, toys, and graphics, best known for her work with Jim Henson and The Muppets, where her most notable creations include Miss Piggy, Statler and Waldorf, and as a partner in Harrison/Erickson, the Major League Baseball mascot the Phillie Phanatic.

Heather Beth Henson is an American contemporary puppet artist, the daughter of Jim Henson. She serves on The Jim Henson Company, The Jim Henson Legacy, and the Jim Henson Foundation Boards of Directors. She is also a Trustee of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroly Wilcox</span> American puppeteer (1931–2021)

Carolyn Wilcox, known as Caroly Wilcox, was an American theatre professional, best known for her work with the Muppets, on television programs including Sesame Street,The Muppet Show, and Fraggle Rock, and in The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan, and other films.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Leslee Asch (2020). Out of the Shadows: The Henson Festivals and Their Impact on Contemporary Puppet Theater. InForm Press. ISBN   978-0578665344.
  2. ↑ "The Henson Board of Directors". The Jim Henson Company. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Cheryl Henson". American Theatre. 28 (9): 17. November 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "The Henson Family". The Jim Henson Company. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  5. ↑ Drapkin, Jennifer (July 2006). "Q&A: Cheryl Henson". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 "Cheryl Henson". IMDb. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  7. ↑ Berman, Andrei (May 21, 2013). "How An Upscale Fashion Designer And Jim Henson's Daughter Made Charlotte Hornets Gear Legendary". BuzzFeed. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Celebrating Jim Henson and the Art of Puppetry: An Evening with Cheryl Henson". Living Greenwich. May 2, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  9. ↑ "About the Foundation". The Jim Henson Foundation. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  10. ↑ "1990s". Obie Awards. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  11. ↑ Solomon, Andrew (September 4, 1994). "SPECIAL EFFECTS THE NEW OLD-FASHIONED WAY". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
  12. ↑ "BAMcinematek and the Jim Henson Foundation present the fourth annual Puppets on Film festival, a celebration of live puppetry in cinema, Oct 24—26" (PDF). BAM. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  13. ↑ Cummings, Mike (August 5, 2021). "Study finds children with autism respond well to puppets". YaleNews. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Puppets facilitate attention to social cues in children with ASD". Autism Research. 14 (8). August 2021.
  15. ↑ "About". Center for Puppetry Arts. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  16. ↑ "Mission Statement and Officers". The Jim Henson Legacy. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  17. ↑ Musbach, Julie (March 8, 2018). "Cheryl Henson Joins Museum Of The Moving Image Board Of Trustees". Broadway World. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  18. ↑ Cheryl Henson (1994). The Muppets Make Puppets. Workman Publishing. ISBN   1563057085.
  19. ↑ Henson, Jim (2005). It's not easy being green : and other things to consider . Henson, Cheryl. (1st ed.). New York: Hyperion. ISBN   1401302424. OCLC   60454648.
  20. ↑ Puppetry: How to do it. Nick Hern Books. 2019. ISBN   978-1848425460.
  21. ↑ Caseen Gaines (2017). The Dark Crystal: The Ultimate Visual History. Insight Editions. ISBN   9781608878116.
  22. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Cheryl Henson, Edwin Finn Jr". The New York Times. May 27, 2001. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.