A playwright, director, filmmaker, designer, and puppeteer, theatre artist Robin Frohardt spends years meticulously hand-crafting fully realized worlds and characters that become intricate puppetry-based performances. Attracted to puppetry’s traditional exemption from seriousness and to the humbleness of the materials, her narratives consider capitalism, consumerism and the resulting environmental catastrophe through a darkly humorous lens. In the Plastic Bag Store project, part immersive theatre experience, part installation in the form of a fully stocked grocery store made entirely from discarded single-use plastic, the transformative set moves audiences from mere spectatorship to participant. Always rigorous, whimsical and attuned to the complexity of the quotidian, Frohardt is expanding our understanding of what “the theater” can be.

photo: Maria Baranova