[act-ma] 1/23/2012-1/29/2012: Bread and Puppet Theater's "Attica" and "Man of Flesh and Cardboard" w/ "Man=Carrot Circus" at the Cyclorama -- week of Jan. 23rd, 2012

Wed Dec 21 18:39:04 PST 2011

BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER

Attica 
and 
Man of Flesh and Cardboard

along with
Man = Carrot Circus
(family-friendly)

Boston Center for the Arts
Cyclorama
January 23 through January 29

presented in partnership with the
Boston Center for the Arts as part of the
Cyclorama Residency Series

“Part carnival, part protest, all pageant, 
Bread and Puppet productions
express political outrage and satire 

Mr. Schumann shows that he remains
urgently invested in the politics of the age.”
[New York Times, review of 
Attica and Man of Flesh and Cardboard,
Dec. 12, 2011]

(Boston, MA 02116) Bread and Puppet Theater presents Attica and Man of Flesh
and Cardboard, along with Man = Carrot Circus (family-friendly):
performances presented in partnership with the Boston Center for the Arts as
part of the Cyclorama Residency Series. Performances, as well as an Art
Exhibit and Cheap Art Sale, run the week of January 23 through January 29.
All held in the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), 539
Tremont St., South End, Boston [conveniently located near the MBTA Orange
Line & bus connections]. Wheelchair accessible. Tickets for the performances
available for purchase [cash or check only] in the Cyclorama one hour before
each performance. For advance tickets, log onto www.breadandpuppet.org
<http://www.breadandpuppet.org/>  or call 866-811-4111 (toll free). For
further information regarding the week’s events, call the BCA’s Bread and
Puppet Theater information line at 617-800-9539 or visit
<http://www.bcaonline.org/> www.bcaonline.org.

The award-winning Bread and Puppet Theater, featuring Artistic Director
Peter Schumann and his troupe of Vermont puppeteers, returns for a sixth
year to the BCA’s Cyclorama bringing their signature powerful imagery,
masked characters, and giant papier-mâché puppets. This year, their
residency includes the evening program, Attica and Man of Flesh and
Cardboard (January 26-29, recommended for ages 12 & older), the matinee Man
= Carrot Circus (January 28-29, for children of all ages), along with
Upriser Calisthenics, a week-long political art installation (running
January 23-29, with an art opening on January 23), and the sale of Bread and
Puppet’s legendary Cheap Art.

Although all Bread and Puppet events have a seriousness of purpose — a few
laughs are always thrown in!

“
 surprisingly warm and lively, 
despite the grim subject matter 

It’s hard not to be charmed by 
[Schumann’s] twinned passions 
for puppetry and lefty politics, 
still vibrant after all these years.”
[Village Voice, review of 
Attica and Man of Flesh and Cardboard,
Dec. 7, 2011]

Detailed listings information:

Evening Performances [recommended for ages 12 & older]:
Bread and Puppet Theater: Attica and Man of Flesh and Cardboard
Jan. 26-Jan. 29, Thurs.-Sun., 7:00 pm
$12 general admission [$10 students, seniors, & groups of 10 or more]
Description:
The evening's prologue Attica marks the 40th anniversary of the prison riots
at the Attica Correctional Facility in New York State. Attica was created in
1971 in direct response to the prison uprising, and was first performed in
Bread and Puppet's Coney Island theater. The second part of the program is
Man of Flesh and Cardboard, the story of PFC Bradley Manning who is charged
with supplying restricted material to WikiLeaks. Bread and Puppet confronts
the irony of a soldier who faces conviction of a war crime for bringing war
crimes to the light of day. This piece will be performed by director Peter
Schumann and the Bread and Puppet resident company, along with a large
number of local volunteer puppeteers and musicians. After each performance,
the audience is invited to join an informal talk-back with the artists, to
eat the company's home-made sourdough rye bread spread with garlic-laden
aioli, to view the art exhibit, and to peruse the Cheap Art, posters and
banners for sale.
Evening performance segments taken by DeeDee Halleck: 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHQ71VDwU6w
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHQ71VDwU6w&feature=youtu.be>
&feature=youtu.be (Attica), 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQ8u7tW1DY
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDQ8u7tW1DY&feature=youtu.be>
&feature=youtu.be (Man of Flesh and Cardboard).

Family-Friendly Matinees:
Bread and Puppet Theater: Man = Carrot Circus
Jan. 28 & Jan. 29, Sat. & Sun., 2:00 pm
$12 general admission [$6 students, seniors, and pre-school children (2 &
under free)]
Description:  
The family-friendly Man = Carrot Circus is based on the revelation that an
upright man rooted in dirt was created in the image of the upright carrot
rooted in dirt. The production is recommended for audiences ages 1 to 101.
Performed by Peter Schumann and the Bread & Puppet Company, along with a
large number of local volunteer puppeteers and musicians. Take note that
some of the circus acts are politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying
kids can usually explain them. After each performance, the audience is
welcome to examine all the masks and puppets and to peruse the art exhibit
and Cheap Art, which will be for sale.
Circus performance segment taken by DeeDee Halleck: 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ISHcfeLVA
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_ISHcfeLVA&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1>
&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1 (opening sequence).]

Visual Art Exhibit:
Bread and Puppet Theater: Upriser Calisthenics visual art installation
created by Peter Schumann
Jan. 23-Jan. 29, Mon.-Sun.
Free and open to all.
Description:  Bread and Puppet Theater Artistic Director Peter Schumann’s
most recent visual art exploration, a collection of large posters with
offbeat slogans which speak to matters that concern us all.
Exhibit details:
—Mon., Jan. 23, 6:00-9:00 pm: opening reception, with refreshments, an art
talk given by Schumann, short skits performed by the touring company, and
live music performed by the touring company and members of the Second Line
Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band. 
—Tues.-Fri., Jan. 24-27: regular Cyclorama hours: 9:00 am-5:00 pm [Thursday
& Friday hours extended up to and after the evening performance].
—Sat. & Sun., Jan. 28 & 29: one hour before and after each matinee and
evening performance.

For this residency at the Cyclorama, the Bread and Puppet touring company
includes Schumann, along with Maura Gahan, Greg Corbino, Katherine Nook,
Susie Perkins, among others. Both the evening and matinee performances will
be performed by the company and a large number of local volunteers and
musicians, including the popular Somerville-based Second Line Social Aid &
Pleasure Society Brass Band ( <http://www.slsaps.org/> www.slsaps.org),
which serves as the house band for Bread & Puppet’s Boston performances and
is also the host band for the annual HONK! Festival (www.honkfest.org
<http://www.honkfest.org/> ) held in Davis Square.

All the visuals are created by Schumann, including sculpting and painting of
all the major masks and puppets, with input from the company. After each
evening performance there will be an opportunity to savor Schumann's famous
sourdough rye bread, smeared with garlic aioli; and there will also be many
opportunities during the week to purchase the theater's legendary "cheap
art."

Bread and Puppet Theater is an internationally recognized company that
champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art that is
filled with music, dance and slapstick. Its performances are political and
spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard, a brass
band for accompaniment, and anti-elitist dance. Most are morality plays —
about how people act toward each other — whose prototype is "Everyman".
There are puppets of all kinds and sizes, masks, paintings, buildings and
landscapes that seemingly breathe with Schumann's distinctive visual style
of dance, expressionism, dark humor and low-culture simplicity.

A SHORT HISTORY OF BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER

Bread and Puppet Theater is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-supporting
theatrical companies in this country. It was founded in 1963 by Peter
Schumann on New York City's Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and
hand-puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were
rents, rats, police and other problems of that neighborhood. More complex
theater pieces, in which sculpture, music, dance and language were equal
partners, followed. The puppets grew bigger and bigger. Annual presentations
for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day often included children
and adults from the community as participants. Many performances were done
in the street.

During the Vietnam War, Bread and Puppet staged block-long processions and
pageants involving hundreds of people. The theater was briefly located in
Coney Island, in a building that formerly housed Boston's hotel and
restaurant. The insider's history, "Coney Island: Lost and Found" by Charles
Denson relates, "The theater became a hangout for curious young people who
stopped in to see the avant-garde productions. A children's workshop on
bread and puppet making was held on weekends... Before each weekend
performance, the puppeteers used to 'bally' on the streets of Coney Island.
Oddly dressed performers beating drums marched down Surf Avenue with giant
dancing marionettes, attracting a crowd that followed them to the theater.
Bally was a traditional Coney art form that hadn't been used since the days
of the sideshows in the 1950's, and no one knew what to make of it."

In 1970 Bread & Puppet moved to Vermont as theater-in-residence at Goddard
College, combining puppetry with gardening and bread baking in a serious
way, learning to live in the countryside and letting itself be influenced by
the experience. In 1974 the Theater moved to a farm in Glover in the
Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The 140-year-old hay barn was transformed into
a museum for veteran puppets. "Our Domestic Resurrection Circus," a two-day
outdoor festival of puppetry shows, was presented annually through 1998.

Through invitations by Grace Paley, Bread and Puppet Theater became a
frequent attraction at anti-Vietnam War events in the '60s and '70s. By the
'80s, the puppets had become emblematic of activist pacifism and a sine qua
non of American political theater, as exemplified by the massive, ascending
figures that are burned into the memory of anyone who marched with or saw
the haunting, massive June 12, 1982 Disarmament Parade in New York City.

For more information on the Bread and Puppet Theater, log onto
<http://www.breadandpuppet.org/> www.breadandpuppet.org.

ABOUT THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

The Boston Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit performing and visual
arts campus that supports working artists to create, perform and exhibit new
works, develops new audiences, and connects the arts to community. Visit
www.bcaonline.org <http://www.bcaonline.org/>  for more information.

###END###

--submitted by marycurtinproductions [on behalf of Bread and Puppet Theater]
c/o Mary Curtin
PO Box 290703, Charlestown, MA 02129
617-241-9664, 617-470-5867 (cell),  <mailto:marycurtin at comcast.net>
marycurtin at comcast.net
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in
non-traditional venues"
 <http://www.marycurtinproductions.com> www.marycurtinproductions.com
 <http://www.facebook.com/marycurtin> www.facebook.com/marycurtin
 <http://twitter.com/marycurtin> http://twitter.com/marycurtin
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