Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2002 16:45:31 -0400
Subject: PUPT: Shameless Promotion -- Bread and Puppet in Cambridge, Mass.


(Cambridge) The intrepid puppeteers of the Bread and Puppet Theater venture
forth into the underworld of Eighteenth Century London, armed only with a 
few pieces of cardboard, a few drums and an accordion, as the company presents 
"The Dirt Cheap Opera." The show which is loosely based on Bertolt Brecht's Three
Penny Opera will have two performances, with part of the proceeds to go 
towards the Zeitgeist Gal-lery's Relocation Fund (http://www.zeitgeist-gallery.org).

As conceived and directed by Bread and Puppet founder Peter Schumann, the
familiar story of the misadventures of Captain MacHeath, is told by a cast 
of four performers. With the assistance of dozens of cardboard puppets, they 
bring to life Mack the Knife, Polly Peachum, Tiger Brown, as well as assorted 
thugs, floozies, demons and, last but not least, God himself.

The opera takes place in the presence of all the appropriate cardboard gods 
who make sure that the dramatic events are put into the right light and judged
instantaneously and by the proper authorities. One hour short and 
dirt-cheap, it features full frontal cardboard nudity and is not suited for children or 
other innocent bystanders.

"The Dirt Cheap Opera" will be preceded by two shorter pieces created and
performed by two of the opera company members, Jason Norris and Clare Dolan.
"Insurrection Landscaper" Norris hauls in a trash can full of puppets to
demonstrate "A Few Bad Things." Dolan will then add a new chapter to her 
series "The True Adventures of Go-Go Girl" with "Chapter 15 – War and Peace." Using
paintings and a sung narration, Dolan presents a too-true-to-be-good look at 
one woman's experience of contemporary life.

The entire running time for the Opera and pre-shows is 1 hour and 25 
minutes. The other two members of the opera company are Maria Schumann and Jig 
Gresser. Along with the traditional breaking of Peter Schumann's world famous bread,
there will also be Bread and Puppet Cheap Art available for sale at the end 
of each show.

(Background) The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 on New York 
City's Lower East Side by Silesian-born sculptor and choreographer, Peter Schumann. 
In 1969, a nine-month tour of Europe won recognition and critical acclaim for 
Bread and Puppet. In 1970, the Theater moved to Vermont as theater-in-residence at
Goddard College, letting itself be influenced by living in the countryside. 
Four years later the Theater moved to a farm in Glover in the Northeast Kingdom 
of Vermont. The 100-year old hay barn was transformed into a museum for veteran
puppets. Bread and Puppet Theater does massive spectacles in the U.S., 
Europe and Latin America. Their pageants have a broad theme-oriented appeal to 
large non-elite audiences. They address social, political and environmental issues 
or  simply the common urgencies of our lives. Some of the awards received by 
Peter Schumann and Bread and Puppet are the Obie Award, the Erasmus Award from
Amsterdam, the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, and the
Puppeteers of America Award. Bread and Puppet is one of the oldest, 
nonprofit, self-supporting theater companies in the United States.

The Zeitgeist Gallery (http://www.zeitgeist-gallery.org) recently met with 
the forces of entropy and burned. Up to that fateful day, they had been 
disrupting Cambridge for over seven years, featuring a non-stop array of monthly and
bi-weekly art exhibitions, several monthly music performances, art classes,
films, and a "variated flotsam" of random events. The Zeitgeisters have 
recently found a new space and are rapidly working towards continuing their status as 
the mecca for a legion of Boston-area artists.




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