The Falcon King
Drama of Works and TLab Shares presents
the world premiere of...
THE FALCON KING
December 3rd - 13th, 2026
Thursday - Saturday at 7pm
Saturday - Sunday at 2pm
Photos from our work in progress showings at the
La Mama Puppet Slam (credit: Marina Levitskaya
and Puppet Blok Dixon Place (credit: Stefan Hagen).
The newest original work by Drama of Works
(with help from Rachel Carson, Wagner, Tom Cade, T.S. Eliot, and many others...)
Coming December of 2026 - our newest Henson award-winning production The Falcon King.
All puppets are made using only found, natural, and recycled materials. We hope this piece will inspire humanity to take better care of nature and each other.
Using natural and found-material assemblage puppets, The Falcon King tells a tale of confusion, heartbreak, anger and action. The frogs tried to warn them, but when the birds' babies all start dying panic ensues and they don't know who's to blame or who to turn to. Will the cursed King help save them or sit idly by, watching from his castle on the hill? In a world where humans’ war on insects is destroying their blood lines, the birds are hoping they can find a miracle. Will humans learn from their arrogance or damn the birds to extinction?
The recovery of the Peregrine Falcon from the brink of extinction remains to this day one of the most successful conservation efforts in history. What is most remarkable is that it was done almost entirely through grassroots efforts by people across the country. How can we ensure this never happens again? What did we learn?
All puppets in the production are made from found, natural and recycled materials. The story of the play follows the history of DDT and humans’ resistance to its use paralleled with the birds’ almost medieval response, a la the myth of the cursed Fisher King of Arthurian legend. The script is created from found text, including Richard Wagner’s Parsifal, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland, articles from 1950s Better Homes and Gardens, Fish & Wildlife reports, and much more. The reuse of materials in both the puppets and the play is a thoughtful reflection of the ecological themes of the show.
Proud recipient of a 2025 Henson Foundation Workshop Grant and 2026 Production Grant.
The Falcon King is the recipient of a prestigious PATCH residency September '26.
Drama of Works was also awarded an ART/NY Creative Fund grant for their season.
Many of the materials REused in this project were sourced from Materials for the Arts.
HUMANS
Gretchen Van Lente, director and lead text editor, co-puppet designer, sound designer
Sonya Sobieski, dramaturgical consultant
Taylor Harrison, co-puppet designer, costume designer, set designer
Rodney Perez, lighting designer
Skye Ross, stage manager
Aaron Dugan, composer/musician
Amy Carrigan, music director
Daisy Martin, assistant text editor
Curtis Flees, assistant director
BUILDERS: Hailey Bendar, Curtis Flees, Edison Hale, Brittany Bartely, Maggie McGrath,
Daisy Martin, Khristian Mendez, Nic Bolton, Bob O'Brien
ENSEMBLE: Emmanuel Elpenord, AnJu Hyppolite, Suzanne Temple, Hailey Bendar,
Daisy Martin, Harrison Greene, Paola Kipp
THANK YOU to the many people and organizations who have helped us along the way:
- Tate Mason and the fine people at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, ID
- Erin Gavin, Scott Bowe and everyone who helped us peruse the "pesticide collection" at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, PA
- as well as Phillip Bellizzi and everyone at the Othmer Library of Chemical History
- Jessica Simon, Brenna Ross and all at the P(at)CH series
- Cassie Stoddard with the Princeton Ornithology Department
- Jane Catharine Shaw of the La Mama puppet slam, Renee Philippi of Concrete Temple Theater and Manuel Moran of the NY International Puppet Fringe Festival - for giving our various work-in-progress excerpts a place to shine