Bread & Puppet Theater's "Captain Boycott" plus Sunday "Circuses" at TNC -- December 4-21, 2014

NEW YORK - Nov. 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Bread & Puppet Theater: “Captain Boycott” [recommended for ages 13 & up], along with “The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus” [recommended for everyone]. Performances run December 4 through 21, 2014. Theater for the New City (Johnson Theater), 155 First Ave. (at E. 10th St.), New York City 10003. For advance tickets, visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109.

In keeping with their long standing tradition of "sublime arsekicking puppetry," the award-winning Vermont-based Bread & Puppet Theater, featuring Artistic Director Peter Schumann and his troupe of puppeteers, returns to Theater for the New City, bringing their signature powerful imagery, masked characters, and giant papier-mâché puppets. The 3 week residency includes the evening show “Captain Boycott” (recommended for ages 13 & up) and the Sunday performances of “The Nothing Is Not Ready Circus”(recommended for everyone), 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!

For advance tickets and information, visit http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net or call 212-254-1109. General admission for both the evening shows and Sunday Circuses: $18, $13 students/seniors, $10 for kids 12 & under (although "Captain Boycott" performances not recommended for this age group). Kids 2 & under free for the Sunday "Circuses".

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 theater 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. The company’s performances are described by The New York Times as "a spectacle for the heart and soul."

Bread & Puppetis based on a 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 simple 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