Robin Frohardt

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Robin Frohardt
Known forpuppet design, playwright
Movementsocial practice art, environmentalism
Websitehttp://www.robinfrohardt.com

Robin Frohardt is an American playwright, puppet designer, visual artist, and director based in Brooklyn, NY.[1]

Career[edit]

Frohardt constructs her sets for films and plays completely from cardboard.[2] She also uses plastic,[3] wood,[4] cloth,[5] and other recycled materials[6] to make puppets and installations. Some of her puppets are realistic people[7] while other objects take abstract forms.[8] Frohardt uses Bunraku-style puppetry, most notably in her show The Pigeoning.[9] Bunraku is a traditional Japanese form of performance that involves puppeteers, chanters, and musicians.[10]

Environmentalism is the primary theme in Frohardt’s work, specifically in Bag Movie,[2] The Plastic Bag Store,[11] and Dumpster Monster,[6] which all focus on the prevalence and permanence of human waste.[3]

Work[edit]

Major exhibitions[edit]

The Plastic Bag Store[11] is an installation in the form of a fully stocked grocery store.[3] Created to look realistic, all products are hand crafted from single-use plastic.[12] This exhibition transformed into a three act live puppet performance at night[3] with original music by Freddi Price.[13] The theme is that humans can never really throw away trash.[3] She tells the journey of plastic waste,[12] and criticizes mass consumption.[3] The Plastic Bag Store was awarded the Creative Capital Award in 2016[12] and before COVID-19 was scheduled to reappear in March 2020 in Times Square.[3]

The Pigeoning[14] is a puppet show that debuted at HERE Arts Center in 2013[15] about an obsessively clean office worker who believes that pigeons are plotting against him.[16] It won the Arlyn Award[17] in 2014 for Outstanding Design in Puppet Theater[18] and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Best Music in a Play for its original music by Freddi Price.[13] Dumpster Monster is a 10-minute puppet performance including audience participation centered around a creature constructed entirely of trash that explodes from a dumpster.[6] It debuted in 2015 at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.[19]

Collaborations[edit]

Frohardt created puppets for Anna Fitch and Banker White’s documentary film Heaven Through the Backdoor.[20] She designed the sets for Nick Jones’s play Jollyship the Whizbang.[21][22] She worked on the additional set pieces for a theater piece on the subway[23] titled IRT: A Tragedy in Three Stations[24][25] by Jeff Stark. She designed the snack bar and ticket booth[26] for Jeff Stark and Todd Chandler’s installation Empire Drive-In.[4] She was a puppet designer for the play Salt of the Earth[27][5] by Zvi Sahar.[28] Frodardt worked with Dream Community[29] as a director and creator of floats, costumes, and puppets in the Dream Parade[30] in Taipei, Taiwan. She designed puppets[8] for the New York and Norway based puppet company Wakka Wakka.[31]

Other experience[edit]

Along with other artists Kirk Lombard, Freddi Price, Ben Burke, Jesse Roadkill, Duskin Drum, and Caryl Keintz, Frohardt founded Apocalypse Puppet Theater [32] which ran from 2005 to 2010. The artists built puppets and wrote plays for the mobile theater that ran out of a wagon pulled by bikes.[32] Frohardt worked with the Cardboard Institute of Technology[33] from 2008 to 2012 to make cardboard installations.[34]

Awards and honors[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  2. ^ a b "Robin Frohardt". Bag Movie. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Times Square Arts: The Plastic Bag Store". arts.timessquarenyc.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  4. ^ a b "Empire Drive-In". Empire Drive-In. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  5. ^ a b "Robin Frohardt". Salt of the Earth. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  6. ^ a b c Apr 21st 2019 - 12pm, Ruth Nerhaugen | (21 April 2019). "'Dumpster Monster' brings garbage to life". RiverTowns. Retrieved 2020-09-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Heaven Through the Backdoor. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  8. ^ a b "Robin Frohardt". Wakka Wakka. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  9. ^ "Plotting Pigeons: Juniata Presents Robin Frohardt's "The Pigeoning"". Gale OneFile.
  10. ^ "Bunraku", Wikipedia, 2020-07-29, retrieved 2020-09-22
  11. ^ a b "Plastic Bag Store". Plastic Bag Store. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  12. ^ a b c "The Plastic Bag Store". Creative Capital. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  13. ^ a b "Freddi Price | Jumping into the vat…". Retrieved 2020-09-21.
  14. ^ "Theater". The New York Times. 2014-08-15. pp. C15. ProQuest 1941419743. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  15. ^ "Robin Frohardt". The Pigeoning. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  16. ^ Collins-Hughes, Laura (2014-08-16). "A Puppet Who Just Wants to Eat His Sandwich". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  17. ^ "Arlyn Award for Outstanding Design in Puppet Theatre". arlynaward.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  18. ^ "The 2014 ARLYN AWARD". Puppetry Journal. 65 (3): 25. Spring 2014.
  19. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Dumpster Monster. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  20. ^ "Heaven Through The Backdoor". Mirabel Pictures. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  21. ^ Genzlinger, Neil (2008-07-20). "Seafaring Puppets Rock on a Trip to Party Island". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  22. ^ "Nick Jones | Jollyship the Whiz-Bang". www.thewhizbang.org. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  23. ^ "irt". www.nyc.subwaytheater.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  24. ^ Mallozzi, Vincent M. (2009-02-01). "In the Subway, Moving Theater, in More Ways Than One". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  25. ^ "Robin Frohardt". IRT. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  26. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Empire Drive In. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  27. ^ "Salt of the Earth". PUPPETCINEMA, ITIM ENSEMBLE. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  28. ^ "PUPPETCINEMA, ITIM ENSEMBLE". PUPPETCINEMA, ITIM ENSEMBLE. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  29. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Dream Community. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  30. ^ "Top 4 Taiwan Parades to Check Out This Year". Taiwan Tour - Loci Amica Travel Inc. 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  31. ^ "Wakka Wakka Productions". Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  32. ^ a b "Robin Frohardt". Apocalypse Puppet Theater. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  33. ^ "Cardboard Institute of Technology". Exploratorium. 2011-02-02. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  34. ^ "Robin Frohardt". Cardboard Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2020-09-22.


External links[edit]

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