[act-ma] Sept. 1, 2013: Bread & Puppet Theater descends on the Cambridge Common

Tue Aug 13 19:49:40 PDT 2013

BREAD & PUPPET THEATER
BnPCircus2013
[photo by Mark Dannenhauer]

Total This & That Circus

Cambridge Common
Sunday, September 1st, 3 pm

Bread & Puppet Theater: Total This & That Circus. Held outdoors on Sunday,
September 1st at 3 pm. On the Cambridge Common, near the intersection of
Mass. Ave. and Waterhouse St., Cambridge. MA 02138. Free performance
[pass-the-hat donations welcome], rain or shine. For further details, call
the Boston-area Bread & Puppet Theater information line 617-286-6694 or log
onto www.breadandpuppet.org <http://www.breadandpuppet.org/> .

As part of a world-wide birthday celebration of "50 Years of Sublime
Arsekicking Puppetry," the award-winning Bread & Puppet Theater from
Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom presents their Total This & That Circus on the
Cambridge Common, a public space they used to frequent prior to the
mid-1980’s. For the past few years, the company has once again revived its
descent upon the park, resurrecting that age old Harvard Square tradition of
outdoor theatrical political rabble rousing.

Total This & That Circus includes the following ingredients, as described by
Bread & Puppet's artistic director Peter Schumann: 
Daffodil combat forces battling F-35 jets; the elimination of the 800,001st
Palestinian olive tree, totally unattended by the National Outrage
Orchestra; an Animal Rental Facility, which offers disenchanted customers of
civilization instant transformation into frog or deer, cricket or rat. There
will also be new characters, such as underprivileged Corporate Dwarves,
overshadowed by Ordinary 99% Giants promoting brand-new economy-shrinking
ventures, while the Lubblerland National Dance Company enhances the program
with eternal values gloves-on dances presented to the gloves-off
practitioners in Guantanamo and elsewhere.

Please take note that if some of the circus acts are politically puzzling to
adults, accompanying children can usually explain them. The audience is
welcome to examine all the masks and puppets after the performance, and
Cheap Art will be for sale. Examples of Bread & Puppet’s work can be found
at www.breadandpuppet.org <http://www.breadandpuppet.org/> .

Harvard Square's Revival Month:
Bread & Puppet’s outdoor Circus on the Cambridge Common kicks off what now
has become Harvard Square’s annual “Revival Month.” The finale to this
entire "month of reincarnations” will be the return of the HONK! Parade on
Sunday, Oct. 13th. Bread & Puppet will join two dozen HONK! Festival street
bands and hundreds of local participants in a procession to "Reclaim the
Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet" on Massachusetts Avenue leading into
Harvard Square’s 35th Annual Oktoberfest (from noon-6 pm). For complete
information on Harvard Square’s “Revival Month” visit www.harvardsquare.com
<http://www.harvardsquare.com/> . For more information on the HONK! Festival
and the parade that runs from Davis Square to Harvard Square, log onto
www.honkfest.org <http://www.honkfest.org/> .

Bread & Puppet 2013 Celebrating "50 Years of Sublime Arsekicking Puppetry"
in the Boston-area:
The Circus on the Cambridge Common also serves as the local launch of a
series of national and international "50 Years of Sublime Arsekicking
Puppetry" anniversary events. Besides the aforementioned HONK!, there will
be a Total This & That Circus performed as part of Lawrence, Mass.' Bread &
Roses Festival (www.breadandrosesheritage.org
<http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org/> ) on Monday, September 2nd. Soon
after on Saturday, September 14th, Boston College will host "50 Years Bread
& Puppet: Cheap Art and Political Theater" (www.bc.edu/BP50), a day-long
symposium packed with scholarly and artistic presentations showcasing the
breadth and depth of Bread & Puppet's influence on politics as well as art.

Special thanks to the Cambridge Arts Council and the Harvard Square Business
Association for helping make Bread & Puppet's return to the Cambridge Common
possible; funded in part by the Cambridge Arts Council.

BRIEF BACKGROUND ON BREAD & PUPPET THEATER

Bread & Puppet Theater is one of the oldest and most unique theatrical
companies in the United States. The theater champions a visually rich
slapstick style of street-theater that is filled with huge puppets made of
paper maché and cardboard, combined with masked characters, improvisational
dance movement, political commentary, and a lively brass band for
accompaniment. The company’s performances are described by The New York
Times as "a spectacle for the heart and soul."

Bread & Puppet is based on a large farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. It
was founded by Peter Schumann, German born artist-dancer, in 1963, and for
the next decade his giant puppets figured prominently in anti-Vietnam War
demonstrations in New York City, Washington DC and other cities in the US
and abroad. Indoor performances were both simpler and more complex, ranging
from quiet, intense masked shows ("Fire", "Man Says Good-Bye") with 4-6
players, to huge, lengthy spectacles ("Cry of the People for Meat").

In 1970, an invitation from Vermont's Goddard College to be
theater-in-residence, facilitated a longed-for change to country life. "Our
Domestic Resurrection Circus," an outdoor festival of music, art, puppetry
and pageantry, began then, and ran almost every summer, growing to crowds of
tens of thousands, until 1998. Since then, a smaller (but with giant puppets
intact), more dispersed version continues on Sundays in July and August; the
company continues touring and workshopping the rest of the year in New
England and around the globe; and Schumann continues as director and artist
— and bread baker — with a vengeance!

Bread & Puppet is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-sustaining theatrical
companies in this country. www.breadandpuppet.org
<http://www.breadandpuppet.org/> 

--submitted by marycurtinproductions [on behalf of Bread & 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
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