Bread & Puppet Theater at Theater for the New City: "The Possibilitarians" and "Dead Man Rises" December 12, 2012

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
Crystal Field, Executive Director
presents

BREAD & PUPPET THEATER

"The Possibilitarians"
and
"Dead Man Rises"

Through December 22

“Part carnival, part protest, all pageant,
Bread and Puppet productions
express political outrage and satire …
Mr. Schumann shows that he remains
urgently invested in the politics of the age.”
[New York Times, Dec. 12, 2011]

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

Soon to begin celebrating its 50th anniversary, the award-winning Vermont-based Bread & Puppet Theater (http://www.breadandpuppet.org), 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-mache 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!

“… surprisingly warm and lively,
despite the grim subject matter …
It’s hard not to be charmed by
[Schumann’s] twinned passions
for puppetry and lefty politics,
still vibrant after all these years.”
[Village Voice, Dec. 7, 2011]

Detailed listings information:

Evening Performances [recommended for ages 12 & older]:
Bread & Puppet Theater: The Possibilitarians and Dead Man Rises
8 pm performances: Dec. 12-15 (Wed.-Sat.), Dec 19-22 (Wed.-Sat.)
$12 general admission [$6 for those under 12, although not recommended for this age group]
Running time: 1 ½ hours with a short intermission.
Description:
The Possibilitarians, a play with live music and giant puppets, addresses present day occupiers, uprisers, and possibilitarians to learn from the 17th century diggers and levelers, and to start digging and leveling and opposing and countering the crumbling economic system and its inherited misrelation to Mother Earth, and to re-educate the disemployed hands & feet of the machine-age! Dead Man Rises is a fairytale-like life-size puppet show originally created by Bread & Puppet in the mid 60's, most notably performed as part of the student occupation at Columbia University in New York City in 1968. Performed by director Peter Schumann and the Bread & Puppet company, along with a large number of local volunteer puppeteers and musicians. After each performance, the audience is invited to join an informal talk-back with the artists, to eat home-made sourdough rye bread spread with aioli, and to peruse the Cheap Art, posters, and banners for sale.

Official Website: http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net/bread.htm