Bread & Puppet Theater: 3 separate shows, w/"Oratorio" and "Circuses" in Boston area, Labor Day wknd

BOSTON - July 18, 2014 - PRLog -- The award-winning Bread & Puppet Theater takes its annual Labor Day weekend "little big tour" down to the Boston area, this year not only bringing a new Insurrection Oratorio, to be performed in The Quarry located at Contemporary Arts International (CAI) in Acton on Saturday August 30th, but also their new The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus presented in Cambridge's Magazine Beach Park on Sunday August 31st. Bread & Puppet will then cap the holiday weekend by also performing their Circus at the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival in Lawrence on Labor Day Monday.

Detailed listings information:

Bread & Puppet Theater: Insurrection Oratorio
Saturday, Aug. 30, 7 pm, rain or shine
The Quarry, Contemporary Arts International, 68 Quarry Road, Acton, MA 01720
[Closest stop on the Fitchburg Line commuter rail: South Acton Station, 3 miles biking distance.]
$20 general admission ("walk-in discount" $10), $35 per carload (over 3 people $10 each); tickets available at the door (cash or check only) or general admission in advance at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/777264.
For more information: www.contemporaryartsinternational.org, 617-699-6401.
Description: An improvised piece developed by Peter Schumann, artistic director of Bread & Puppet, with instrumental music created on mechanical sound sculptures including "Container Man," a massive multi-media kinetic sculpture. All sound sculptures were designed by Viktor Lois, Hungarian-born artistic director of Contemporary Arts International (CAI). The Oratorio will include Bread & Puppet's signature visual elements, along with movement, vocals, and pertinent political social commentary. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance. Presented by CAI.

Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Sunday, Aug. 31, 3 pm, rain or shine
Magazine Beach Park (along the Charles River), 719 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139
[Located at the foot of Magazine St., across from Trader Joe's and the Micro Center; in close proximity to the Red Line stop: Central Square Station, less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
Pass-the-hat donation, rain location TBA.
For more information: www.magazinebeach.org/events, www.cambridgema.gov/arts/Programs/summerinthecity.aspx, 617-286-6694.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet's "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be made available (with a recommended donation) after the performance. Presented with assistance from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Cambridgeport Neighborhood Association.

Bread & Puppet Theater: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus
Monday, Sept. 1, 4 pm performance (entire festival runs noon-5pm), rain or shine
30th Annual Bread & RosesHeritage Festival, Lawrence Common, Lawrence, MA 01840
[Located in close proximity to the Haverhill commuter rail stop: Lawrence Station, less than 1 mile walking/biking distance.]
The Festival is free & open to all, festival donations welcome.
For more information: www.breadandrosesheritage.org, 978-794-1655.
Description: The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus is for the not yet existing upriser masses and their kids who need to practice their upriser skills by teaming up with butterflies, cockroaches and elephants. Lions, horses and dogs are also employed to invent the correct rhythmical patterns that fight planetary destruction. The boot flags of the 15th century peasant revolution lead the way, with a lively brass band for accompaniment. Bread & Puppet's "Circus" acts can often be politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. Sourdough rye bread will be served and cheap art will be for sale after the performance. Presented as part of the 30th Annual Bread & Roses Heritage Festival, an open-air social justice celebration.

BRIEF BACKGROUND ON BREAD & PUPPET THEATER

Now in its 51st year, the Bread & Puppet Theater is one of the oldest and most unique self-sustaining nonprofit 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 & Puppetis based on a large farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. The theater was founded in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City by Peter Schumann, a German born artist-dancer, 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. The theater’s renowned "Our Domestic Resurrection Circus," a two day outdoor festival of music, art, puppetry and pageantry, began back then at Goddard, and ran almost every summer – first at Goddard from 1970-1973, then continuing up through 1998 at the theater’s current home in Glover, VT -- drawing crowds of tens of thousands. 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!

www.breadandpuppet.org