One of the most influential and consistently creative theatrical artists in the country,
Bread & Puppet Theater
founder and artistic director Peter Shumann brings the award-winning Vermont-based
company to the Twin Cities for an extended community-based residency. Using exquisitely
designed, larger-than-life neoprimitive puppets to powerfully blend the mythic and
spiritual with the political, Bread & Puppet will present six performances of classic
and premier works that feature the full Bread & Puppet company as well as local puppeteers
and musicians. In addition, the company will conduct workshops in area schools and colleges. The residency is copresented by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and
Mask Theatre. the Walker Art Center, and Macalester College.
Schumann opens the residency on Tuesday, February 16, at 7 pm, with his popular Fiddle
Lecture at the Walker Art Center Auditorium. On Friday-Saturday, February 19-20,
the company will perform Joan of Arc
and The Breadbaker's Cantata
. On Friday-Saturday, February 26-27, Bread & Puppet will present Flatman Reality
, a new work developed, in part, during the residency. Friday performances are at
7:30 pm; Saturdays at 2 and 7:30 pm. All performances take place at In the Heart
of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre.
Peter Shumann, Silesian-born sculptor and choreographer, founded the Bread & Puppet
Theater in 1963 on New York's Lower East Side. In 1970 the company moved to Vermont
as theater-in-residence at Goddard College. Bread & Puppet's massive spectacles,
performed in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, address social, political, and environmental
issues as well as the common urgencies of our lives. The company has received an
Obie Award, the Erasmus Award from Amsterdam, the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Puppeteers of America Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Tickets for the Bread & Puppet Theater performances are $12 ($8 Walker members) and
are available by calling In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre at 612.721.2535.
Lecture tickets are $6($3 Walker members and student with ID) and available at the Walker box office or by calling 612.375.7622 (voice); 612.375.7585 (Touchtone Device
for the Deaf.)
In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is located at 1500 east Lake Street
in Minneapolis.
The Walker's ongoing Adventures in New Puppetry series is made possible with the generous
support of Target Stores.
Tuesday, February 16, 7 pm
Peter Schumann's Fiddle Lecture
Walker Auditorium
Schumann's Fiddle Lecture is a combination lecture-performance in which he plays his
matchstick violin and toy fiddle and sings and hollers about the state of the world.
Following the performance, he will take questions from the audience.
Friday, February 19, 7:30 pm and
Saturday, February 20, 2 and 7:30 pm
Joan of Arc
and The Breadmaker's Cantata
In the Heat of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
Bread & Puppet offers its landmark work, Joan of Arc
, based on the life and death of the legendary saint. Joan of Arc
was created in 1977 and toured the United Sates, France, Italy, and Spain. It was
revived in 1989 for a month-long tour of the Soviet Union. The black-and-white work
with minimal text is set in a large box with painted canvas walls. Outside the walls,
a three-piece band performs, adding momentum to a puppetry performance whose actions
range from minimal to wild, and its mood from serious to comic.
The Breadbaker's Cantata
recounts the history of Bread & Puppet bread. It begins in Silesia (a country annexed
by Germany, now part of Poland), with a peasant woman telling a young mother of five
how to bake old sourdough rye.
Friday, February 26, 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 27, 2 and 7:30 pm
Flatman Reality
In the Heat of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
In this new work, developed, in part, during the residency, the company examines the
two basic human types: fatsos and flatsos.
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