From the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival:
An “anchor attraction” is The Plastic Bag Store, open for the duration of the festival in a street-level storefront in Chicago’s Wrigley Building. New York artist Robin Frohardt’s tragi-comic ode to the foreverness of plastic appears to be a storefront grocery, but it’s actually stocked with hundreds of hand-made items—fruits, vegetables, sushi, deli meats and more—all crafted from organic NYC trash. Several times a day, the Store transforms from an installation into a micro-cinema for a series of dynamic puppet-films that transport the audience from the distant past into a dystopian future. With her distinct sense of humor, Frohardt challenges us to think about how future generations will misinterpret us by the waste we leave behind.
Opening Night: Thursday, January 20
Immersive Puppet Film at 4pm and 7pm
All Other Dates: January 21-30
Tuesdays-Fridays: Store open 11am to 3pm; Immersive Puppet Film at 4pm, 6pm and 8pm
Saturdays: Store open 1pm to 3pm; Immersive Puppet Film at 11am, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm
Sundays: Store open 1pm to 3pm; Immersive Puppet Film at 11am, 4pm and 6pm
Tickets to Immersive Puppet Film:
$30 Regular, $20 Students
Store visits are freeFilm Running Time: 60 minutes
Film: 8 and up
Store: All Ages
Get tickets here: https://chicagopuppetfest.org/buy-tickets/?WebInstanceId=Plastic-0120-4pm
Robin Frohardt is an award-winning artist, puppet designer, and director living in Brooklyn, NY. She received a Creative Capital Award and a DisTil Fellowship from Carolina Performing Arts for The Plastic Bag Store, which was presented in partnership with Times Square Arts in 2020 and was named to the NY Times Best of 2020 Theater list. Frohardt’s performance and puppetry-based work has been presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse and in New York City, as well as national venues including the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts and the NEXTNOW Festival in Maryland. Her films have been screened at the Telluride Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Maritime Film Festival at the Parish Museum and Puppets on Film Festival at BAM. Her original play The Pigeoning, which debuted in 2013 and was hailed by the New York Times as “a tender, fantastical symphony of the imagination,” has been translated into German, Greek, Arabic and Turkish. She has been the recipient of Made In NY Women’s Fund Grant Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is a MacDowell Fellow and a member in good standing of both the Walgreens and CVS Rewards Programs. robinfrohardt.com