Robin Frohardt is an award-winning theater and film director known for her rich aesthetic and meticulous constructions that blend puppetry, film, and sculpture into richly detailed worlds. Her immersive, narrative-driven projects use recognizable materials—often trash—to transform mundane objects into poignant critiques of consumerism, capitalism, and environmental catastrophe. A 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, she’s also received the Creative Capital Award, the Herb Alpert Award, and multiple Jim Henson Foundation Grants. Her films have been featured at prestigious festivals, including Telluride Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, and One Earth Film Festival.
Robin’s first full-length play, The Pigeoning, debuted in 2013 to critical acclaim, hailed by The New York Times as “a tender, fantastical symphony of the imagination.” The play follows Frank, an office worker obsessed with safety, order, and a conspiracy he believes is led by pigeons. Her follow-up project, The Plastic Bag Store, weaves puppetry, humor, and sculpture into an immersive, multimedia experience set in a mock grocery store. Using satire to critique the culture of convenience and single-use plastics, the installation premiered in Times Square in 2020 and has since toured Los Angeles, Chicago, Adelaide, and Austin, and recently completed a six-month run at Mass MoCA.