| Gretchen Van Lente is a freelance actor, puppeteer, set and prop designer, and as of mid 2008, a Marquis Studios Teaching Artist. She is also the Artistic Director of the puppet company, Drama of Works (www.dramaofworks.com) and has been performing, building, directing, and teaching in the field of puppetry for over the past decade. Through this time, Drama of Works has created over ten shows and received 4 Henson Foundation grants, among others. Gretchen taught “Puppetry 101” to American and Asian artists in Bali as a part of her APPEX 2004 Residency, “Modern Puppetry.” Gretchen taught object theatre exercises, to professional puppeteers at the Barents Region International Puppet Theatre Festival in Finland and more recently puppetry workshops to college students at both the University of Maryland and Goddard College. She has been a teaching artist in NYC public schools through LEAP and the Brooklyn Arts Council for about six years. She received her BFA in illustration from Parsons School of Design and her BA in theatre from Eugene Lang College. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York; where she also works part-time at the Prospect Park Zoo as a science educator. |