<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="address"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PostalCode"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="Street"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceType"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceName"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="State"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>For Immediate Release<br>
Theater (both Adult and Children-of-all-ages shows) /<br>
Visual Art Exhibit<br>
December 2007<br>
Media Contact for Bread and Puppet: Mary Curtin, 617-241-9664, 617-470-5867
(cell), marycurtin@comcast.net<br>
Media Contact for the BCA: Alyssa DiPasquale, 617-426-1522,
adipasquale@bcaonline.org<br>
[high res digital images available]<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>BREAD AND
PUPPET THEATER</span></font></b></strong><br>
</span></font><img width=419 height=228 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C841CA.8A8CED70"><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
[photo by Jack Sumberg]<br>
<br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>returns
to the </span></font></b></strong><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Boston Center for
the Arts</span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>CYCLORAMA</span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>February 4-10</span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>as part of the </span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>BCA 2007-2008
Cultural Partners Series</span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
</span></b></span></font><strong><b><font face="Times New Roman"><o:p></o:p></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>(<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Boston</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">MA</st1:State></st1:place>) The <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Boston Center for the Arts</span></b> co-presents the <strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></font></b></strong>
as part of the <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>BCA 2007-2008 Cultural
Partners Series</span></b>. Events run from February 4-10. Performances,
Art Exhibit, and Cheap Art Sale [details below] all held in the <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Boston</span></b> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Center
for the Arts Cyclorama</span></b>, 539 Tremont St., South End, Boston.
Wheelchair accessible. Tickets for the performances available for purchase
[cash or check] in the Cyclorama one hour before each show and during regular
gallery hours. For advance tickets, log onto www.theatermania.com or call
866-811-4111 (toll free). For detailed information regarding the
week’s events, call the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Boston</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> for the Arts at
617-426-1522 or log onto www.bcaonline.org.<br>
<br>
The award-winning <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></b>,
featuring Artistic Director <strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:
Arial'>Peter Schumann</span></font></b></strong> and his troupe of seven <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Vermont</st1:State></st1:place> puppeteers, will
join forces with over 20 local puppeteers and the 17-piece locally-based <strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Second Line Social Aid &
Pleasure Society Brass Band </span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>and their musical
friends</span></font></b></strong>. Bread and Puppet Theater’s residency
at the <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cyclorama</span></b> includes two
different puppet shows (one geared towards adults and one
"family-friendly”) and a political art exhibit. Each of these events
will also include an opportunity to savor Schumann's famous sourdough rye
bread, laden with garlic aioli, and to purchase the theater's legendary "cheap
art." <br>
<br>
The following events will showcase the <strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></font></b></strong>'s
signature powerful imagery, masked characters, and giant papier-mâché puppets.
Although all Bread and Puppet events have a seriousness of purpose —
a few laughs are always thrown in!</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>The</span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> </span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>Bread and Puppet
Theater’s <i><span style='font-style:italic'>The Divine Reality Comedy</span></i></span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>“</span></font></b></strong><i><span
style='font-style:italic'>hits you harder than all of the breathless cable news
coverage in the world</span></i>”<br>
[Claudia La <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Rocco</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">New York</st1:State></st1:place> Times, Dec.1, 2007] <br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><u><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Evening Shows</span></font></u><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> [recommended for ages 12 and
older]:<br>
<strong><b><i><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>The
Divine Reality Comedy</span></font></i></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Feb</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>. 7-10, Thurs.-Sun., 7 pm</span></b><br>
$12 general admission [students, seniors, & groups of 10 or more $10]<br>
<u>Description</u>: <strong><b><i><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:
Arial;font-style:italic'>The Divine Reality Comedy</span></font></i></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>, </span></font></b></strong>a
brand new translation of Dante's <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Divina
Commedia</span></i>, <strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;
font-weight:normal'>consists of four parts: </span></font></b></strong><u>Paradise</u>,
in which the old human Born-to-Die gene is replaced by the brand new
Born-to-Buy gene; <u>Post-Paradise Horsemanship</u>; <u>Purgatory</u>, in which
the shadows of the indefinitely detained speak to you; <u>Hell</u>, the
Guantanamo interrogation process in which an eight-inch papier maché population
recites actual interrogation transcripts and then witnesses three cases of
torture as demonstrated on three over-life size puppets. T<font color=black><span
style='color:black'>he show will be performed by Peter Schumann and the Bread
& Puppet Company, along with a large number of local volunteers, including
members of the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band and
their musical friends. Informal talk back with the artists follows each
performance. <br>
</span></font><br>
<u>Family-Friendly Matinees</u>:<br>
<strong><b><i><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>The
Divine Reality Comedy Circus</span></font></i></b></strong><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Feb. 9-10, Sat.-Sun., 2 pm</span></b><br>
$10 / $5 students and seniors / children 2 and under free<br>
<u><font color=black><span style='color:black'>Description</span></font></u><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>: </span></font><strong><b><i><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>The Divine Reality
Comedy Circus</span></font></i></b></strong></span></font><font size=2><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span></font><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>features the following acts:
Grand Forgiveness Society of Glover VT; the triumph of the small farmer;
advice on where to get really cheap drinking water; a celebratory ballet
by a flock of roosters; the Rotten Idea Theater Company's distillation of
political issues; and much more. <font color=black><span style='color:black'>The
show will be performed by Peter Schumann and the Bread & Puppet Company,
along with a large number of local volunteers, including members of the Second
Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band and their musical friends. T</span></font>ake
note that some of the circus acts are politically puzzling to adults, but
accompanying kids can usually explain them. <br>
<br>
<u>Visual Art Exhibit</u>:<br>
<b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Majd</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>:
the Story of a Palestinian Youth</span></i></b><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Mon.-Sun., Feb. 4-10<br>
</span></b>Free and open to all.<br>
<u>Description</u>: Peter Schumann’s most recent visual art exploration,
consisting of 7 large paintings created after his most recent visit (Fall 2007)
to <font color=black><span style='color:black'>Ramallah</span></font>.<br>
<u>Exhibit details</u>:<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Mon., Feb. 4, 6-8 pm</span></b>: <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>opening reception</span></b>; <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
Tues.-Fri., Feb. 5-8</span></b>: regular gallery hours (which include the Cheap
Art Store): 11 am-6pm [Thursday & Friday hours extended up to and after the
show];<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sat.-Sun., Feb. 9-10</span></b>: one hour before
and after each matinee and evening performance.<br>
<font color=black><span style='color:black'> <br>
</span></font><b><u><span style='font-weight:bold'>BACKGROUND OF THE BREAD AND
PUPPET THEATER</span></u></b>:<br>
<br>
All <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></b>
shows, created and designed by <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Peter Schumann</span></b>
with input from the company, use music, dance and slapstick to get their point
across. Their distinctive imagery — featuring puppets (of all kinds and
sizes), masks, costumes, paintings, buildings, and landscapes — seemingly
breathe with Schumann's distinctive visual style of dance, expressionism, dark
humor and low-culture simplicity.<br>
<br>
The Bread and Puppet Theater is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-supporting
theatrical companies in this country. Schumann founded Bread and Puppet in 1962
on <st1:City w:st="on">New York City</st1:City>’s <st1:place w:st="on">Lower
East Side</st1:place>. The Theater is now an internationally recognized
company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance
art. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of
papier-maché and cardboard, a brass band for accompaniment, and anti-elitist
dances. Most shows are morality plays — about how people act toward each
other — whose prototype is "Everyman." Their overall theme is
universal peace.<br>
<br>
Besides rod-puppet and hand-puppet shows for children, the concerns of their
first productions in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">New York</st1:State></st1:place>
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.<br>
<br>
During the Vietnam War, Bread and Puppet staged block-long processions and
pageants involving hundreds of people. In 1970 Bread & Puppet moved to <st1:State
w:st="on">Vermont</st1:State> as theater-in-residence at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Goddard</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">College</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
The company makes its income from touring new and old productions both on the
American continent and abroad and from sales of Bread & Puppet Press's
posters and publications. Internationally, Bread and Puppet Theater performs
massive spectacles with hundreds of participants, sometimes devoted to social,
political and environmental issues and sometimes simply to the trials of
everyday life. The traveling puppet shows range from tightly composed theater
pieces presented by members of the company, to extensive outdoor pageants which
require the participation of many volunteers. At most performances, the company
distributes bread and aioli (garlic sauce) to the audience.<br>
<br>
Peter Schumann was born in 1934 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Silesia</st1:State></st1:place>.
He is married to Elka Leigh Scott and they live in <st1:State w:st="on">Vermont</st1:State>'s
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Northeast</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. They have five children and
four grandchildren. You cannot understand Bread and Puppet's work without
acknowledging that it is grounded in dance, but not in formal or classical
dance. Schumann's artistic pedigree is a mixture of dance and visual art.<br>
<br>
He studied and practiced sculpture and dance in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place> and in 1959, with a
childhood friend, musician Dieter Starosky, Schumann, created the Gruppe für
Neuen Tanz (New Dance Group), which invented dances which sought to break out
of the strict limits of both classical ballet and the expressionist dance
tradition.<br>
<br>
He moved to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place>
with his wife, Elka, and their two children in 1961. His formative years in the
<st1:place w:st="on">Lower East Side</st1:place> during the early '60s were
heavily influenced by the radical innovations spearheaded by John Cage and
Merce Cunningham. Schumann rejected the elitism of the '60s arts scene and
embraced the anti-establishment, egalitarian work of American artist Richard
(Dicky) Tyler. He embraced Outsider Art: everyday movement, improvisation,
direct momentary composition, and the jazz impulse toward overall creativity.
He became a regular at Judson Poet's Theater and Phyllis Yampolsky's Hall of
Issues, where puppet shows included making music and marching around. Street
Theater productions followed, at rent strikes and voter registration rallies in
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">East</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Village</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, with crankies on garbage cans
and speeches by a Puerto Rican neighborhood organizer, Bert Aponte.<br>
<br>
He admired the abstraction of Merce Cunningham, and attended lectures at the
Cunningham studio, but ultimately rebelled against it. In an interview with
John Bell in 1994, he said that what "Cunningham demanded of his dancers
was a classical ballet background. He refused to work with anybody who didn't
have that. I totally disagreed. I had traveled around in Europe teaching dance;
to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
to a dance academy and various places, pretending I was a great ass in dance,
and gave them classes. And they took me — I was fresh and I just did it.
I said, ‘I'll show you what dance really is; what you do is just
schlock,' and I tried to liberate them from aesthetics connected to modern
dance and classical ballet and to these various modes of existing dance at the
time.'" There is dance at the bottom of all of Schumann's work, but since
puppet theater is traditionally a "melting pot" of all the different arts,
the dance component is frequently obscured.<br>
<br>
For more information on the Bread and Puppet Theater, log onto
www.breadandpuppet.org.<br>
<br>
<b><u><span style='font-weight:bold'>ABOUT THE <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">BOSTON</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">CENTER</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
FOR THE ARTS:<br>
<br>
</span></u></b>The <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Boston Center for the Arts</span></b>
is a not-for-profit performing and visual arts complex that supports working
artists to create, perform and exhibit new works, builds new audiences, and
connects art to community. Please visit us at www.bcaonline.org for more
information.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><br>
###END###<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><br>
<br>
--submitted by marycurtinproductions [for the Bread and Puppet Theater]<br>
c/o Mary Curtin<br>
<st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on">PO Box 290703</st1:Street>, <st1:City
w:st="on">Charlestown</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">MA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode
w:st="on">02129</st1:PostalCode></st1:address><br>
617-241-9664, 617-470-5867 (cell), marycurtin@comcast.net</span></font><br>
<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>"dedicated
to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in non-traditional
venues"<br>
www.marycurtinproductions.com</span></font><b><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>