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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><strong><b><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER</span></font></b></strong><b><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-weight:bold'><br>
</span></font></b><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>SOURDOUGH PHILOSOPHY<br>
SPECTACLE & CIRCUS<br>
<br>
</span></b>“… <i><span style='font-style:italic'>the exceptional
design of the puppets, and <br>
their stunning manipulation are undoubtedly an <br>
accomplishment, as well as the commendable objectives <br>
of this production and the Bread and Puppet Theater generally</span></i>.”<br>
[nytheatre.com, Dec. 5, 2008]<br>
<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>Boston</span></font></b></strong></st1:PlaceName><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></span></font></b></strong></st1:place><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> for the Arts</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>CYCLORAMA</span></font></b></strong><br>
January 26 through</span></b> <strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>February 1</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<br>
</span></b><strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;
font-weight:normal'>in partnership with the</span></font></b></strong><br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>Boston</span></font></b></strong></st1:PlaceName><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></span></font></b></strong></st1:place><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> for the Arts</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Cyclorama Residency
Series</span></font></b></strong> </span></b></span></font><strong><b><font
face="Times New Roman"><o:p></o:p></font></b></strong></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>(<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’s <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Sourdough
Philosophy Spectacle & Circus </span></i></span></font></b></strong>as part
of the <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>BCA’s Cyclorama Residency Series</span></b>.<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b>Events run from January 26 through
February 1. Performances, Art Exhibit, and Cheap Art Sale 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, <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Boston</st1:City></st1:place>. Wheelchair
accessible. Tickets for the performances available for purchase [cash or check
only] in the Cyclorama one hour before each show. For advance tickets, log onto
<a href="http://www.theatermania.com/"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.theatermania.com</span></font></a> 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 617-426-5000
(press option one) or log onto www.bcaonline.org.<br>
<br>
Back by popular demand, 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 8 Vermont puppeteers, returns for a third year to the <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Cyclorama</span></b> bringing their signature powerful
imagery, masked characters, and giant papier-mâché puppets. Their residency
includes two different puppet shows (the “spectacle”, primarily for
ages 12 & older, and the "family-friendly” circus) and a
week-long political art exhibit. <br>
<br>
<u>Detailed listings information</u>:<br>
<br>
<u>Evening Shows</u> [recommended for ages 12 & older]:<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater: <strong><b><i><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>Sourdough
Philosophy Spectacle</span></font></i></b></strong></span></b><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'>Jan. 29</span></font></b></strong><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>-Feb. 1, Thurs.-Sun., 7 pm</span></b><br>
$12 general admission [students, seniors, & groups of 10 or more $10]<br>
<u>Description</u>: "The Sourdough Philosophy Spectacle" is about the
need for human fermentation. It takes a lesson from how apple cider
is made. Our republic teases us with the possibility of democracy, but citizens
are raised like military apple orchards, pruned down to their predictable
minimums, yielding controlled fruits that lack the ecstasy of nature.
However, human fermentation occurs in parts of the human body that are not
governed by the government, like the guts and the gutsy parts of the brain.
Fermented citizens are corrupted by the ecstasy of nature and from that
corruption, derive strength to corrupt military-orchard citizens. The show is
run by a bunch of cooks, specialists in cooking the various stews and pancakes
of our everyday first world existence. Performed by Peter Schumann and the
Bread & Puppet Company, along with a large number of local volunteer
puppeteers and musicians. Informal talk back with the artists follows each
performance.<br>
<br>
<u>Family-Friendly Matinees</u>:<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater: <strong><b><i><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>Sourdough
Philosophy Circus</span></font></i></b></strong></span></b><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Jan. 31-Feb. 1, Sat.-Sun., 3 pm [Take note
that the Sunday matinee performance will be ASL interpreted by Jody Steiner.]<br>
</span></b>$10 / $5 students and seniors / children 2 and under free<br>
<u>Description</u>: The family friendly "The Sourdough Philosophy
Circus" is about the need for human fermentation, taking a lesson from how
apple cider is made. The concept is applied to dancing zebras and turkeys and
free range cows. The show is run by a bunch of cooks, specialists in cooking
the various stews and pancakes of our everyday first world existence.
Additional commentary is provided by the Rotten Idea Theater Company. Music is
by the Sourdough Philosophy Brass Band, joined by local musicians. Performed by
Peter Schumann and the Bread & Puppet Company, along with a large number of
local volunteer puppeteers. Take 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><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater: <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Auction Notice</span></i> </span></b>: visual art
installation created<b><span style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b>by<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> Peter Schumann</span></b><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Mon.-Sun., Jan. 26-Feb. 1<br>
</span></b>Free and open to all.<br>
<u>Description</u>: Bread and Puppet Theater Artistic Director Peter
Schumann’s most recent visual art exploration, consisting of very
large paintings depicting the real story of a Haitian-American woman who
received notice about her house being foreclosed and then being told about the
death of her eldest son who was serving in the U.S. military.<br>
<u>Exhibit details</u>:<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Mon., Jan. 26, 6-8 pm</span></b>: <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>opening reception</span></b>, with an art talk given
by Schumann and live music performed by <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Debo</span></b>
(<a href="http://www.myspace.com/deboband"
title="http://www.myspace.com/deboband"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.myspace.com/deboband</span></font></a>);<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Tues.-Fri., Jan. 27-30</span></b>: regular
Cyclorama hours: 9am-5pm [Thursday & Friday hours extended up to and after
the evening performance];<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sat.-Sun., Jan. 31-Feb. 1</span></b>: one
hour before and after each matinee and evening performance.<br>
<br>
Although all Bread and Puppet events have a seriousness of purpose —
a few laughs are always thrown in!<br>
<br>
The Bread and Puppet touring company, for this residency at the Cyclorama,
includes Schumann, along with <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Danny McNamara</span></b>,
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Maura Gahan</span></b>, <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Greg Corbino</span></b>, <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>Diana Sette</span></b>, <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Maryann Colella</span></b>,
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Federica Collina</span></b>, <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Cavan Meese</span></b>, and <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>Susie Perkins</span></b>.<br>
<br>
For the performances, Bread and Puppet will be joined by over 35 local
puppeteers and musicians, including the Somerville/Cambridge-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'> (<a
href="http://www.slsaps.org/"><font color=black><span style='color:black'>www.slsaps.org</span></font></a>)
and members of the </span></font></b></strong>Boston-based <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Activist Music for the People</span></b>, the Jamaica
Plain-based <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Debo</span></b> band (<a
href="http://www.myspace.com/deboband" title="http://www.myspace.com/deboband"><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>www.myspace.com/deboband</span></font></a>),
and the Roxbury-based <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Goosepimp Orchestra </span></b>(<a
href="http://www.goosepimp.net/" target="_blank"
title="http://www.goosepimp.net/"><font color=black><span style='color:black'>www.goosepimp.net</span></font></a>).<br>
<br>
In addition to the “Auction Notice” art installation, the Cyclorama
will also be decorated with the unique Bread and Puppet collection of powerful
black-line posters, banners, masks, curtains, programs and set-props. After
each performance there will be an opportunity to savor Schumann's famous
sourdough rye bread, smeared with garlic aioli, and to purchase the theater's
legendary "cheap art."<br>
<br>
The 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. Their shows are political and spectacular,
with huge puppets made of papier-maché and cardboard, a brass band for
accompaniment, and anti-elitist singing and 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,
sculptural costumes, paintings, buildings and landscapes that seemingly breathe
with Schumann's distinctive visual style of dance, expressionism, dark humor
and low-culture simplicity.<br>
<br>
<b><u><span style='font-weight:bold'>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BREAD AND PUPPET
THEATER</span></u></b><br>
<br>
The 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 <st1:City w:st="on">New York City</st1:City>'s <st1:place w:st="on">Lower
East Side</st1:place>. 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.<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. After each
performance, 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.<br>
<br>
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. There's dance at the bottom of
all of Schumann's work, but since puppet theater is traditionally a
"melting pot" of all the different arts, this is frequently obscure.<br>
<br>
Schumann 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 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, "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.'"<br>
<br>
The most recent creative history of Bread and Puppet Theater was written by
Holland Cotter in the New York Times last summer. Cotter described Peter
Schumann's epics as "spectacle for the heart and soul." He
commended Schumann for the courage "to live an ideal of art as collective
enterprise, a free or low-cost alternative voice outside the profit
system." He testified that one summer, on a mountainside in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Glover</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">VT</st1:State></st1:place>,
Bread and Puppet gave him the single most beautiful sight he's ever seen in a
theater. And when Bread and Puppet led the nuclear freeze parade in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">New York City</st1:City></st1:place> during
United Nations sessions on disarmament, it was "one of the most
spectacular pieces of public theater the city has ever seen." He added,
"For me the real affirmation of the disarmament pageant lay less in the
fact that Mr. Schumann came to New York and created this hugely ambitious
collective work of art than in the fact that immediately afterward he returned
to Vermont, to a farm, to a barn, to the outdoor baking oven, to his workshops
and to his own work, which has come to include an increasing amount of
painting, most of which stays out of the art world’s sight."<br>
<br>
For more information on the Bread and Puppet Theater, log onto <a
href="http://www.breadandpuppet.org/"><font color=black><span style='color:
black'>www.breadandpuppet.org</span></font></a>.<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. Visit <a href="http://www.bcaonline.org/"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.bcaonline.org</span></font></a> for more information.</span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><br>
###END###<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><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<br>
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in
non-traditional venues"<br>
www.marycurtinproductions.com<b><span style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></font></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>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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