Bio
Frankie grew up in Chicago, Illinois, where his magician/clown father and supportive mother nurtured an early love of puppetry. At age 8, he joined the Chicagoland Puppetry Guild and attended his first of many Puppeteers of America Festivals, earning many awards as a young puppeteer. Frankie went on to earn a BFA in Puppetry at the University of Connecticut, where he was twice awarded the Jim Henson Memorial Prize in Puppetry. Puppetry credits in New York City include performances for La MaMa ETC, Theater For The New City, HERE Arts Center, PS-122 with Kevin Augustine’s Lone Wolf Tribe, Concrete Temple Theatre, The Producers Guild Theater, The Chocolate Factory with Tom Lee, Ontological, Carnegie Hall, and The Metropolitan Opera. His TV credits include commericals for The Ohio State Lottery and McDonald’s, ”Sesame Street,” a principal guest puppeteer on the Noggin television series “Oobi,” and as a puppet wrangler and puppeteer for the PBSKids series “It’s a Big, Big World.” In Chicago, Frankie has puppeteered with Hystopolis Productions in their award-winning production of “The Adding Machine” and with Blair Thomas & Co.’s touring production of “Pierrot Lunaire,” a staging of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 composition. His Chicago television puppetry credits include Nick Jr. Baby’s DVD series “Curious Buddies” and Noggin’s “Jack’s Big Music Show,” both with Spiffy Pictures of Highland Park, Illinois. Most recently, Frankie made his directorial debut on “The Whole World and You” a music video for Atlantic Records, for the whimsical rock band Tally Hall, which featured miniature automaton-inspired rod puppets.
