Bread & Puppet Theater Announces December Events

Bread & Puppet Theater: The Possibilitarians and Dead Man Rises, along with The Circus of the Possibilitarians (family-friendly). Presented by Theater for the New City. Performances run December 6 through 23. Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th St.), New York City. For advance tickets, visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109.

Soon to begin celebrating its 50th anniversary, the award-winning Vermont-based Bread & Puppet Theater, featuring Artistic Director Peter Schumann and his troupe of puppeteers, returns for its 41st annual visit to Theater for the New City, bringing their signature powerful imagery, masked characters, and giant papier-mâché puppets. This year, the 3 week residency includes the evening double bill The Possibilitarians and Dead Man Rises (recommended for ages 12 & older) and Sunday performances of The Circus of the Possibilitarians (for children of all ages), along with the sale of Bread & Puppet’s legendary Cheap Art and the opportunity to savor Schumann’s home-made sourdough rye bread spread with garlic-laden aioli.

All the visuals are created by Schumann, including sculpting and painting of all the major masks and puppets, with input from the company. Although all Bread & Puppet events have a seriousness of purpose — a few laughs are always thrown in!

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