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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=3 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>BREAD AND
PUPPET THEATER</span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font size=2
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black;font-weight:normal'><br>
<br>
“</span></font></b></strong><b><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic'>TEAR OPEN THE DOOR OF HEAVEN</span></font></i></b><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>”<br>
and<br>
“<b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>DIRT CHEAP MONEY
CIRCUS</span></i></b>”<br>
<br>
“…the images and puppets are something to behold...”<br>
[“Tear Open The Door Of Heaven,” nytheatre.com, Dec. 4, 2009]<br>
<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on"><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>Boston</span></font></b></strong></st1:PlaceName><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></span></font></b></strong></st1:place><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> for the Arts<br>
CYCLORAMA<br>
</span></font></b></strong>January 25 through <strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>January 31<br>
<br>
</span></font></b></strong>presented <strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>in partnership with the<br>
<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 as part of the<br>
Cyclorama Residency Series<br>
<br>
</span></font></b></strong>(<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Boston</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">MA</st1:State></st1:place>) <strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Bread and Puppet Theater </span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>presents</span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'> <i><span style='font-style:italic'>“</span>Tear
Open The Door Of Heaven” </i></span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>and</span></font></b></strong><strong><b><i><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'> “Dirt Cheap
Money Circus” </span></font></i></b></strong><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'>: two separate performances
presented in partnership with the </span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Boston Center for the Arts</span></font></b></strong><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> </span></font></b></strong>as
part of the <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Cyclorama Residency Series</span></b>.<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b>Performances, Art Exhibit, and Cheap
Art Sale run from January 25 through January 31. All held in the<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> Cyclorama </span></b>at the <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Boston</span></b> <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Center
for the Arts</span></b>, 539 Tremont St., South End, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Boston</st1:place></st1:City>. 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/boston/"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.theatermania.com/boston/</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 or log onto <a href="http://www.bcaonline.org/"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.bcaonline.org</span></font></a>.<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 <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vermont</st1:place></st1:State> puppeteers,
returns for a fourth year to the <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>BCA’s</span></b>
<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, <strong><b><i><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-style:italic'>“Tear Open
The Door Of Heaven”</span></font></i></b></strong> (January 28-31,
evening shows primarily for ages 12 & older), the <b><i><span
style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>“<strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>Dirt Cheap Money Circus”</span></font></b></strong></span></i></b><strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial;font-weight:normal'> (January 30-31, </span></font></b></strong>family-friendly
matinees), along with a week-long political art installation, <b><i><span
style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>“Relics of the Paper Maché
Religion”</span></i></b> (running January 26-31, with an art opening on
January 25).<br>
<br>
Although all Bread and Puppet events have a seriousness of purpose —
a few laughs are always thrown in!<br>
<br>
<u>Detailed 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'>Tear Open The Door
Of Heaven<br>
</span></font></i></b></strong><strong><b><font face=Arial><span
style='font-family:Arial'>Jan. 28</span></font></b></strong>-Jan. 31,
Thurs.-Sun., 7 pm<br>
</span></b>$12 general admission [$10 students, seniors, & groups of 10 or
more]<br>
<u>Description</u>: <i><span style='font-style:italic'>“<strong><b><font
face=Arial><span style='font-family:Arial'>Tear Open The Door Of Heaven” </span></font></b></strong></span></i>is
a pink and blue puppet show about Heaven and its effects on the Underneath,
presented by the practitioners of the brand-new paper maché religion. The
play features over life size puppets representing God, his daughter and
stepdaughter, a US president and his war-waging office, mountaintop removal
protesters, money printing artists and stargazers of the North East Kingdom of
Vermont. The six acts of the play are supplemented by six dance
interventions performed by the Lubberland National Dance Company.
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. Sourdough rye bread will
be served and cheap art will be for sale after each performance. [Evening show
clips by Till Osterland: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByVahEcJO0"
title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByVahEcJO0"><font color=black
title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByVahEcJO0"><span
title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByVahEcJO0"><span style='color:black'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qByVahEcJO0</span></span></font></a>.]<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'>Dirt Cheap Money
Circus<br>
</span></font></i></b></strong>Jan. 30-Jan. 31, Sat.-Sun., 4 pm [Take note that
the Sunday matinee performance will be ASL interpreted by Jody Steiner.]<br>
</span></b>$10 general admission [$5 students, seniors, and pre-school children
(children 2 & under free)]<br>
<u>Description</u>: The family-friendly <b><i><span style='font-weight:bold;
font-style:italic'>"Dirt Cheap Money Circus"</span></i></b> features
the billionaire bonus celebration dance, the logic of the US Healthcare System,
the history of humanity and the removal of a mountaintop, interspersed with
appearances by Karl Marx, who confronts the 2010 economic situation with his
existential thoughts about money and our relationship to it. All with
live circus band accompaniment. 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. The
audience is welcome to examine all the masks and puppets after the show.
Cheap art will be for sale after each performance. [Circus show clips by DeeDee
Halleck: <a href="http://blip.tv/file/2687523/"
title="http://blip.tv/file/2687523/"><font color=black
title="http://blip.tv/file/2687523/"><span title="http://blip.tv/file/2687523/"><span
style='color:black'>http://blip.tv/file/2687523/</span></span></font></a>.]<br>
<br>
<u>Visual Art Exhibit</u>:<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></b>: <b><i><span
style='font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Relics of the Paper Maché Religion</span></i></b>,
visual art installation created<b><span style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b>by<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> Peter Schumann<br>
Mon.-Sun., Jan. 25-Jan. 31<br>
</span></b>Free and open to all.<br>
<u>Description</u>: Bread and Puppet Theater Artistic Director <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Peter Schumann</span></b>’s most recent visual
art exploration, consisting of very large to very small paintings depicting
matters that concern us all.<br>
<u>Exhibit details</u>:<br>
--<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Mon., Jan. 25, 6-8 pm</span></b>: <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>opening reception</span></b>, with refreshments, an art
talk given by Schumann, short skits performed by the touring company, and live
music composed by <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Michael Romanyshyn</span></b>.<br>
--<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Tues.-Fri., Jan. 26-29</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. 30-31</span></b>: one hour
before and after each matinee and evening performance.<br>
<br>
For this residency at the Cyclorama, the Bread and Puppet touring company
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'>Susie Perkins</span></b>, among others.
Both shows will be performed by the company and a large number of local
volunteers and musicians, including the popular Somerville-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>).
</span></font></b></strong>Both plays will also be accompanied by singing and
miscellaneous gongs and horns.<br>
<br>
Somerville-based composer <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Michael Romanyshyn</span></b>
has composed three short pieces to be performed at Peter Schumann’s art
opening. The pieces include “<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>You
Are</span></b>” [a composition for 6 clarinets and 2 drums, featuring
Romanyshyn,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Dana Colley</span></b>,<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Steve
Rauch</span></b>,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Maury Martin</span></b>,<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Ben
Pasamanick</span></b>,<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Grant Smith</span></b>,<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Trudi
Cohen</span></b>, and<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Shaunalynn Duffy</span></b>], “<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>7 Questions for Grace Paley</span></b>” [a
composition for clarinet and tuba performed by Romanyshyn and <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Kaolin Kinsey</span></b>], and <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>a brass band</span></b> <b><span style='font-weight:
bold'>tribute to Stephan Brecht</span></b>, which was originally performed at
Brecht’s memorial service.<br>
<br>
In addition to Peter Schumann’s 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. All pieces are
created by Schumann, including sculpting and painting 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."<br>
<br>
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 shows 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,
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>
<u>A SHORT HISTORY OF BREAD AND PUPPET THEATER<br>
<br>
</u>The <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Bread and Puppet Theater</span></b>
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>
Since its move to <st1:City w:st="on">Glover</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">VT</st1:State>,
Theater for the <st1:City w:st="on">New City</st1:City> has been the company's <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State> home. It
has performed one or more productions at TNC each year since 1981. Last
summer, the company also appeared at Lincoln Center Out of Doors.<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:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Silesia</st1:place></st1:State>.
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 five 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:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> 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:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region>
with his wife, Elka, and at that time, 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, "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:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sweden</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
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 in 2007. 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:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:City> 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.<br>
<br>
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<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<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), <a href="mailto:marycurtin@comcast.net"><font
color=black><span style='color:black'>marycurtin@comcast.net</span></font></a><br>
"dedicated to staging insightful entertainment, particularly in
non-traditional venues"<br>
<a href="http://www.marycurtinproductions.com" target="_blank"
title="http://www.marycurtinproductions.com/"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.marycurtinproductions.com</span></font></a><br>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/marycurtin"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.facebook.com/marycurtin</span></font></a><br>
<a href="http://twitter.com/marycurtin"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>http://twitter.com/marycurtin</span></font></a><br>
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/marycurtin"><font color=black><span
style='color:black'>www.myspace.com/marycurtin</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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