PRESS RELEASE:
Bread and Puppet is both an origin statement and an artistic vision. The Vermont-based troupe dates to New York’s Lower East Side in the early ’60s when German-born sculptor, dancer and baker Peter Schumann and his wife Elka combined socially conscious avant-garde puppet theater with distribution of free sourdough bread. More than fifty years later Bread and Puppet is still going strong, and their touring company is taking performances on the road this spring from Boston to New Orleans, including a stop at the White Horse Black Mountain on Thursday, April 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Born in the ferment of the 1960s, Bread and Puppet has always addressed political and social issues in its productions. In its early days Bread and Puppet was associated with a loosely-knit avant-garde movement that included the Living Theater, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, Fluxus and Dada-inspired figures like John Cage and Merce Cunningham. As time went on, Shumann’s experimental sensibility was informed by older traditions like medieval passion plays, the Bible, fairy tales and oral story-telling. A guiding principle in the group’s existence has been a commitment to operating within its means, including creating homemade puppets, sometimes very large ones, from existing and readily available materials. Over the past half century Bread and Puppets has evolved into a unique community that involves hundreds of artists, apprentices and volunteers and has influenced theater companies around the globe.
Bread and Puppet’s touring production is entitled “Public Access Center for the Obvious Presents: The Situation”, a new work by Peter Shumann. The puppet play is described by the writer as featuring “dancing horses, an anti-extinction angel, proletariat broom dances, a 100 watt light bulb, a sailing ship of fools, and a swinging brass band, all for the purpose of urging the not yet up-riser-masses into existence”.
Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.
Advance tickets available online.
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