Bread And Puppet Theater "Tear Open The Door Of Heaven" At The Boston
Center For The Arts
http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/1122
by Dave Goodman
Jan-27-10
BOSTON/South End - This week, for the fourth winter in a row at the
Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, the Glover, Vermont based Bread
and Puppet Theater troupe present their subversively entertaining
brand of politics and punditry.
Members of the year round Bread and Puppet collective again will be
joined this week by scores of local actors and performers (a mix of
pros and mostly amateurs who have been rehearsing all week at the
BCA) who responded to the annual call for volunteers.
Led by their 75 year old founder, puppeteer and muralist Peter
Schumann, the Bread and Puppet residency will include "Tear Open The
Door of Heaven," Thursday through Sunday at 7:00pm and the
kid-friendly "Dirt Cheap Money Circus" on Saturday and Sunday at 4:00pm.
On Monday, Schumann led an audience around the circumference of the
Cyclorama and discussed his murals. This year the display is called
"Relics of the Paper Mache Religion." Unlike past years, when he
agreed to participate in public forums about art and politics,
Schumann opted not to hold a symposium this week, according to
publicist Mary Curtin.
For the past two years, local supporters of Israel have loudly
protested Schumann's attention to the plight of Palestinians living
in Occupied Gaza and the West Bank.
The mural display will be free and open to the public all week during
regular Cyclorama hours: 9:00am-5:00pm.
During Monday's opening, members of the troupe were joined by local
musicians for a performance of composer Mike Romanyshyn's "Music for
Six Clarinets and Percussion." Romanyshyn, also a puppeteer, started
as a member of Bread and Puppets while living in Vermont in 1975 and
performed with them for 17 years.
It's not unusual to hear present and former troupe members say how
much Bread and Puppet has influenced their lives in a multitude of
positive ways.
About 50 people gathered to hear Romanyshyn and his clarinet, along
with members of the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass
Band, which will provide musical accompaniment to both the evening
Bread and Puppet shows and the weekend circuses.
A Bread and Puppet audience invariably includes activists
representing a rainbow of progressive movements. David Fillingham of
Veterans for Peace wore a T-shirt with an anti-war message and
engaged a reporter in a discussion about Smedley D. Butler, the
Marine Major General, anti-imperialist, and author of the 1935
published speech "War Is A Racket."
There's nothing small about a Bread and Puppet Theater Performance.
In order to help demonstrate how grand are some of these puppets,
Monica Raymond of Cambridge agreed to pose next to one of the
troupe's corporate CEO characters.
But for nearly 47 years it's been Peter Schumann and his band of
merry performers who have brought an award-winning and unparalleled
energy and exuberance to the Bread and Puppet performances. Their
mere presence, in fact, has been so threatening that puppets have
been confiscated by police and performers detained during each of the
last three presidential nominating conventions.
Maryann Colella and Greg Corbino, members of the Bread and Puppet
Theater, were looking forward to this week's performances at the Cyclorama.
Ruth Hill, a long-time advocate for theater and storytelling, was
among those participating in the opening Monday. Despite the recent
loss of her husband of 60 years, storyteller, actor, dramatist, and
minister, Brother Blue (Hugh Morgan Hill), she seemed in relatively
good spirits. Hill says a tribute to Brother Blue is being planned
for May 8 at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul on Tremont Street in Boston.
--
OMB Audio: Mary Curtin, publicist, Maryann Colella, actor, and Mike
Romayshyn, actor, musician, and composer, join Marc Stern and Dave
Goodman of "RADIO with a VIEW" in a conversation about the Bread and
Puppet performances at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclarama the
week of January 25 - 31, 2010. {recorded Sunday, Janaury 24, 2010)
[See URL for audio and photos.]
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Web resources
http://www.breadandpuppet.org
http://www.bcaonline.org
.
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