Bread & Puppet Theater and Boxcutter Collective to Premiere New Collaboration At La MaMa ETC
The Divinity Supply Company plays The Downstairs at La MaMa for four performances only: May 26 – 29, 2022.
By: A.A. Cristi May. 10, 2022
La Mama Experimental Theatre Club presents The Divinity Supply Company, a new puppet-show collaboration between Peter Schumann, founder and director of the relentlessly inventive company, Bread and Puppet Theater, and Boxcutter Collective, a puppet company made up of Bread and Puppet alumni who have been making innovative and irreverent political puppet shows at a furious pace since their founding in 2016.
This premiere is the result of more than a year of development and experimentation in Glover, Vermont and Brooklyn, New York and showcases the combination of Schumann's extraordinary aesthetic power and political plainspokenness with the talents and sensibilities of Boxcutter Collective's new generation of political puppeteers. The Divinity Supply Company plays The Downstairs at La MaMa for four performances only: May 26 - 29, 2022.
From out of nothing, an ancient god's divine laughter creates the universe, then promptly
abandons the scene. Ruled over by flimsy paper authorities, the newly created masses attempt to escape the darkness of the suffering valley with help from The Divinity Supply Company. But
can The Divinity Supply Company produce the exact god for the exact dilemma, as they
advertise? Or will the suffering valley be stuck in the Dilemma-Of-The-Pleading-Now as they
stumble towards a There-Is-No-End-In-Sight Conclusion? Also featuring: clouds, Santa Claus, an Idiot Manifesto, a brass band, and a 100 watt lightbulb.
For 59 years, Peter Schmann and his anti-war, anti-nuclear, anti-capitalist, pro-humanity,
pro-sky, pro-Possibilitarian theater company has left an indelible stamp on the world of
theater and the American cultural landscape since its founding in 1963 on New York City's
Lower East Side. In his relentless drive to use puppets to challenge the status quo, he has
worked with masses of puppeteers, carpenters, musicians, dancers, agitators, gardeners and
bread-bakers of all sorts. It was from within this exciting whirlwind environment of
puppet-show making that Joe Therrien, Samantha Wilson, Tom Cunningham, and Jason
Hicks, and Ali Dineen, members of Boxcutter Collective, all met. After years of working
together in different capacities, they all found themselves living in Brooklyn and decided to
commit themselves wholly to working together to make liberatory puppet theater in the face
of ever-increasing oppression and bleakness of the world around them. Since forming the
Boxcutter Collective in 2016, they have established their puppet vision which, while partially
inspired by their time at Bread and Puppet, is fully their own distinct voice and aesthetic. This
show is the result of their desire to work with their mentor, Peter Schumann, as fellow
puppeteers trying to make sense of the seemingly senseless world we have found ourselves
in.
May 26 - 29, 2022
The Divinity Supply Company
The Downstairs at La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003
Thursday - Saturday May 26-28 at 8:30 PM
Sunday, May 29 at 4:00 PM
Tickets: Thursday, May 26 - Pay-What-You-Can starting at $10; All other performances - Adults: $25/Students & Seniors: $20. Tickets may be purchased at www.lamama.org
All in-person events at La MaMa will require proof of vaccination against the Covid-19 virus and use of facial masks at all times while on the premises.
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