Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Monday 12 January 2026
On January 12, TORCHES will kick off with a conversation with creative innovator Basil Twist. Basil is an award winning puppeteer (including MacArthur and Rome prizes) and director of HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program.
Basil Twist (Creator & Director/Puppeteer), from San Francisco, is a third-generation puppeteer. Original work includes Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, Dogugaeshi, Rite of Spring, Hansel & Gretel, Arias with a Twist La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, A Streetcar Named Desire (La Comédie Française, also co-director), Titon et l'Aurore (with Les Arts Florissant at The Opera Comique and Theatre Royal de Versailles), The Book of Mountains and Seas by composer Huang Ruo and Twist as designer/director. He is the puppetry designer/director of My Neighbour Totoro, currently running in the West End. Most recently; he designed and staged the sets and puppetry for The Monkey King with The San Francisco Opera. Past honors include an Obie, Henry Hewes, Doris Duke Performing Artist, Creative Capital Award, Asian Arts Council, multiple UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, Rome Prize and a Roth Family Scholar.
Torches: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance
As co-founder of HERE Arts Center—described by the OBIE committee as “a lasting home for the weird and wild in downtown performance”—Kristin Marting spent the past three decades immersed in making, witnessing, and supporting groundbreaking performance in NYC. Torches is a much needed exploration of New York City’s unique and influential downtown performance world from the 1990's through the 2020's. Part memoir, part oral history, and part cultural inquiry, Torches offers in-depth video conversations with 30+ of the most imaginative and boundary pushing artists working in the field today. Torches is both a living archive and an offering for the future. Learning about these artists and their work is not just looking back; it can ignite what’s coming next. They are not only inventors of form—they are keepers of community, fire-starters for our future. See more about the project on the TORCHES website at torchesnyc.org.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.
Monday 12 January 2026
On January 12, TORCHES will kick off with a conversation with creative innovator Basil Twist. Basil is an award winning puppeteer (including MacArthur and Rome prizes) and director of HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program.
Basil Twist (Creator & Director/Puppeteer), from San Francisco, is a third-generation puppeteer. Original work includes Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, Dogugaeshi, Rite of Spring, Hansel & Gretel, Arias with a Twist La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Sisters Follies, A Streetcar Named Desire (La Comédie Française, also co-director), Titon et l'Aurore (with Les Arts Florissant at The Opera Comique and Theatre Royal de Versailles), The Book of Mountains and Seas by composer Huang Ruo and Twist as designer/director. He is the puppetry designer/director of My Neighbour Totoro, currently running in the West End. Most recently; he designed and staged the sets and puppetry for The Monkey King with The San Francisco Opera. Past honors include an Obie, Henry Hewes, Doris Duke Performing Artist, Creative Capital Award, Asian Arts Council, multiple UNIMA and Bessie Awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, Rome Prize and a Roth Family Scholar.
Torches: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance
As co-founder of HERE Arts Center—described by the OBIE committee as “a lasting home for the weird and wild in downtown performance”—Kristin Marting spent the past three decades immersed in making, witnessing, and supporting groundbreaking performance in NYC. Torches is a much needed exploration of New York City’s unique and influential downtown performance world from the 1990's through the 2020's. Part memoir, part oral history, and part cultural inquiry, Torches offers in-depth video conversations with 30+ of the most imaginative and boundary pushing artists working in the field today. Torches is both a living archive and an offering for the future. Learning about these artists and their work is not just looking back; it can ignite what’s coming next. They are not only inventors of form—they are keepers of community, fire-starters for our future. See more about the project on the TORCHES website at torchesnyc.org.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in this community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our contribute content page.
