#bread and puppet theatre

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

INSIDE A BARN last month, a couple of hours after the rehearsal for the “Heart of the Matter” pageant, several dozen performers from around the world — paid puppeteers, interns, community volunteers — presented their proposed circus acts. Schumann typically reviews and critiques the sketches.

Most of the acts had a whimsical tone. A man imitating a bee (collapsing bee colonies the inspiration) did a frenetic waggle around a cardboard city that transformed itself into a tangle of dancing urbanites. An orca ambushed yachting billionaire puppets. When somber-looking tree figures appeared with a narrator reading facts about boreal forests versus the more flammable monoculture ones burning in nearby Canada, Schumann became agitated.

“It’s too cliché, something everyone already knows,” he shouted. “You have to stop using so many words and solve things puppetry-wise.” Then he jumped to his feet and started moving people and puppets around. He had puppeteers throw the trees and then dance with them, causing some confusion.

“It’s what you do, not what you say,” he said. “It’s puppetry, not preaching.”

He told them he would return in a half-hour to see a revision. Then, as dinnertime approached, he excused himself to help the kitchen staff make potato pancakes — a recipe from his war-torn childhood.

With admirable control, the puppeteers discussed how to rework their savaged piece, each giving the others time to suggest solutions. It was a utopian vision of collaboration, agile and practical — and typical of how the company functions.

“Peter has a strong directional voice,” said Ziggy Bird, 26, a company member who took notice of Schumann’s work in a theater history class at Temple University. “It’s never personal and some of the most beautiful moments come from frustration, which can be a kick in the pants.”

+

[from comments]

In 1970, Father Daniel Berrigan was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list for his anti-war activities which led to a conviction and then his failure to show up for prison. A major event supporting Berrigan, after he became a refugee, was held in Ithaca.

The FBI was there waiting. The question was whether Berrigan would appear and speak to the thousands in the audience.

I was a stage hand and watched Berrigan enter the stage, unrecognized as he wore a motorcycle helmet. He removed the helmet to cheers and gave a speech. The FBI probably figured that they would avoid a riot and grab him as he left the building.

But then, from the back of the huge arena (Barton Hall), came chanting, weird music and lights. It was The Bread and Puppet Theater to the rescue. The ten foot puppets moved about as weirdness took over. Berrigan was alone on the stage, when the giant puppets came on stage and swirled around him in a spiral. I think I was the only one who noticed, from my stage hand perspective, as Berrigan slipped inside one of the puppets as the swirl unwound itself and kept chanting as they left the arena.

It took the FBI another seven months to catch up to Father Berrigan and send him to prison. I believe that this was one of the greatest puppet shows in history.

Yet, this is a story that few know about. Berrigan really was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. and The Bread and Puppet Theater squirrelled him away to safety.

[amaiguri]

Okay, fine, we'll TALK about Nouveau Thuille...

Nouveau Thuille is a city settled in a fertile valley under the Upper Continent run by a collection of mafia-like families -- and of those, there are four (kinda) primary House with the most influence:

House d'Magnia — The Spec Ops & Research

House d'Aramitz — The Military & Production

House d'Fealtoire — BIG old money folks

House d'Romanach — The Factory Workers & Agriculturalists

House d'Solais (Deceased) — The local-equivalent of King Arthur's house

The nobles collectively tell the people that they are holding power until their Emperor Under the Mountain, the Once and Future Emperor, Riavh Solais, returns to lead the world to eternal peace. And they definitely all believe that and it isn't propaganda. Definitely. 🙂

Anyway, without a very clear central authority, there are functionally no laws for nobles or those affiliated with them -- this includes this like murder and using corpses for science experiments and so forth. And so... there are basically laws for no one, because even the commonfolk farmers will pay taxes to (read: Get extorted by) at least one of the nobles families. That being said, you cannot be SEEN just MURDERING PEOPLE in the streets. You have to SEEM respectable. Openly murdering or kidnapping or robbing people? That's uncouth and you're properly stupid and dangerous if you can't HIDE your crimes. So, perhaps it's better to say, "There are no laws if you don't get caught breaking them."

Somehow, despite this relative anarchy and decentralized government, technology advances steadily. (Probably because competition between the Houses has led to growth!) And, recently, increased contact with the South has led to rapid industrialization over the last 50ish years here, which has led to the creation of a middle class. House d'Magnia and House d'Romanach both appeared into the last three or four generations or so.

So, with all that said, let's get into the thing WE ALL CARE ABOUT the most: What do people even EAT? Here's just a handful of foods:

- Stroganina -- Cut frozen fish into strips, eat raw

- Salmon Roe

- Frozen Rumateur Liver -- Freeze a Rumateur lamb liver, eat raw

- Eider Foie Gra -- (Force) feed an eider a diet of mostly black pine nuts, blood, and meat scraps, kill it at a year old, fry the liver on a rock slab, salt and top with thyme

- Rumateur jerky

- Rabbit Stew -- Every family has a unique stew recipe.

- Frozen Cream -- Rumateur cream is whipped and mixed with wild berries frozen or dried from the summer

- Bechamel Sauce -- Butter, barley flour, warmed and whipped. Add salt or honey for different flavors, frequently put on bread

- Barley Bread -- Both risen and flattened

- Fermented Rumateur Milk -- Has a vodka/soda like taste, sometimes warmed before drinking

- Barley-based Beer

- Rumateur Tongue Sandwich -- Traditionally on a barley bread bun with rumateur cheese, Tongue is grilled, roasted, or fried in lard, Lightly salted, sometimes dusted with thyme, sometimes eaten with bechamel sauce

- Barm Cake

- Blood pudding

- Scrap Meatloaf -- Made of scraps of meats from other meals, ground up, frozen into a cube, and then fried in lard

- Honey Mead

- Berry-Wines/Champagne/Ciders -- Every family has unique fermenting process for their Wild Berries

The Evolution of Theatre in Nouveau Thuille

This might seem random but hear me out: What could be more important to a culture than HOW THEY TELL STORIES about themselves?

See, for the longest time, across the North, they would tell stories of legendary figures, animals (particularly seals), and stock characters in song-form -- with funny voices for each of the characters. Sometimes puppets would be involved, particularly with children.

Then, around the time of Riavh Solais, the oral tradition just evolved to have more specific forms of songs -- and more people were expected to learn to sing songs or at least have their own, unique verse to a song -- but the melodies became more standardized, as a means of telling history. Character voices and accents became very specific, and some costumes became iconic. However, sorta like Opera, you didn't have to move around -- you just entered, exited, maybe even only stood up and sat down, and sang/played your instrument to play your role -- maybe with some, minor hand gestures or props. This means that they often explicitly said what they were doing, rather than demonstrating.

Today in Nouveau Thuille, shadow plays are popular -- typically set to music, sometimes with the help of tiny music boxes that cast shadows -- but dolls are considered crude and for children. This evolved into shadow dances briefly before just becoming actual dances, set to music, with poetry being recited -- sometimes by the actors themselves but usually by the chorus or the musicians. But the body language -- intended to be slightly stylized but with realistic facial expressions (much like their paintings being stylized but leaning towards realism these days) -- is supposed to do most of the work. And sometimes, there will be extended periods of no-speaking, only dance, and music.

These are performed in people's homes or the streets, but special effects in Ysse contraptions, alchemy, and other such special effects are used to enhance the performance and Nobles particularly are expected to tip to learn the secrets of how it was done -- and so, theatre is just an extension of the industrial military complex.

Nouveau Thuillean Language

For all 2 of the Conlangers who follow me (unless you've come over from YouTube... in which case, hello all ~650 of you lol), Nouveau Thuillean is intended to look and sound Franco-Irish. It has two grammatical genders (Normal or Transcendent), a definitive and subjunctive mood, and special Timeless conjugation -- for things that are happening regardless of time.

Since I have a whole language breakdown on my website, I won't dig into it here but here's just some sample sentences for you:

If you had loved me, none of this would have happened! = The ev'vatoirias eu, flavon s'de eblivui. I hear the call of the Abyss. (I.e. I feel self-destructive, I want to do/know something that will hurt me. "Call of the void" refers to something that will hurt you but you MUST do) = Nenne theillan d'flavoneisse. It's a flower. (i.e. It's really simple/easy.) = Zaira peo.

AND WITH THAT, I will leave you for the day. This was such a long post lol and I didn't even cover everything XDDDD

[eireanness]

Complete! This scene is inspired by the Escaflowne drama CD Thoughts of Jeture. I thought it'd be cute to do a "what if" moment. What if Dilandau hadn't attacked at that time in Asturia? What if the characters had been able to attend the Festival of Jeture?

Just something light hearted and hopefully cute! I'm not a big fan of writing. I much prefer to read other people's works, but this is what I wrote for the scene.

"The city was abound with festivities. The echoes of  laughter and song carried on the wind, minstrels were playing instruments that reminded her of a zither, lute, and some type of flute. They were singing tales of the great sea god, Jeture. Songs and poems of the tragic love story of Alia and Meifia. There were troupes doing small puppet theatres acting out tales of the heroic kings of the past, and fables for children.

Delicious scents from food wafted through the air. There were several stalls confectioneries, specialty breads, roasted meats. Young adults dressed in costumes, similar to what they were wearing, passed by; maidens clinging to their partners arms and pointing to the stalls they wanted to visit. Little games for young males to impress their female companions. A medieval type festival… I wonder if this is what they had been like on Earth too? Well… maybe without the beast people... I still can’t get used to this, she thought to herself, as she passed by a dolphin-like couple. They had wandered over to a small, less busy village square to grab some refreshments, Millerna was adamant that they try a particular beverage only served this time of year. Allen, being the ever honorable knight, took on the task to grab said refreshments. Millerna sat down at a small decorative table outside the small cafe like building. “You’ll love this drink! Vino pales in comparison, Hitomi,” Millerna gave a knowing wink to the lightweight. Hitomi rolled her eyes. The princess was elegant and regal, but had a side of mischief to her. She hated to admit it, but she did like Millerna quite a bit, aside from the Allen rivalry. But she knew that she had no chance with the knight. He flirted with her, but that was just how he was. He did it with all the palace maids… every woman he encountered for that matter. Indeed,  he was just a natural charmer.

She huffed and her eyes drifted to the Fanelian king. Van was discretely looking around, his eyes scanning the locality for any sign of Zaibach interference she supposed, Always on edge…Van, can't you ever take a minute to breath? She sighed and took the time to appreciate the festive decorations.

Colorful pennant banners were strewn overheard, going from building to building. Flower boxes were filled with greenery and some had native flora. The centre was home to a simple but beautiful fountain, water spewing from the dragon heads adorning it. The crystal clear water seemed to sparkle, and the fine mist from the spray created beautiful little rainbows in the early noon sun. The little square had slightly less people at this time of day due to the main attractions being scattered around the bazaar, and in other parts of the city.

A small group of younger couples were drawn towards a quartet detting up in the far end of the square. "Oh!!” she exclaimed.  “Van, let’s check that out!” Hitomi grabbed his arm and all but dragged him behind her.

Van had been deep in thought, surveilling the area. He had this feeling someone was watching them, but Hitomi’s ease and lack of concern had him wondering if maybe he was being overly paranoid? Afterall… Hitomi does have that… power which allows her to sense dangers... I can’t rely on that though. He had heard her call his name and mumble something to him, but he was still preoccupied with his thoughts. The next thing he knew, he felt a strong tug on his arm. The shock caused him to stumble slightly, but he was able to quickly regain his composure. He hadn’t  expected the green eyed girl to be so forceful, or brazen. “Come on! Let’s see what they’re doing!” Millerna watched as the two made their way over to the little gathering. Her plan to act as match maker seemed to be working on the young king and his female companion. A sly smile graced her features. "Princess?" Allen had finally returned with a small tray of beverages. "Oh, Allen, perfect timing," Millerna graciously took the beverage handed to her and returned her gaze to the youthful couple. Allen's gaze wandered over to them. "I definitely didn't think I'd see him dancing. It's good to see him in higher spirits. I was worried he'd be brooding," Allen said with a small chuckle. "You have to admit. She has a certain way about her, I think it they're a good match, don't you think so Allen?" Millerna's eyes twinkled. ”It looks like they’re going to dance," she excitedly announced. "Hitomi, we don’t have time to waste on this…” he grumbled. ”Oh come on Van! Live a little! Do you know it?” ”You do realize I am a King, do you not? Of course I’d know of other countries and their traditional dances. Fanelia has one similar to this as well,” he said a slight frown forming on his features. He wasn’t really upset, he enjoyed that she treated him as someone normal. But it did hurt his pride just a bit that she apparently thought him that much of a bumpkin. ”Then let’s do it! You should try to have fun and enjoy this,” she said as she started to mimic what the other young women were doing. Their hands lifted and they were shaking the little bells at their wrists. The steps and motions looked very similar to la Moresca. Van shook his head and a very small, amused smile crept over his lips as he gave in to her whims."

[msogavt]

Back to black and white

I’ve posted a lot color images these past few weeks, but the majority of my work is in black and white. If I go out with one camera, it’ll be loaded with black and white film. If I have more than one camera on me, at least one will be loaded with black and white. That was the case on my trip to see the Bread and Puppet Theatre this past August up in Glover. These shots were made in the group’s…

[etheraltale]

re doing this because the old one is VERY outdated

no spoiler alert bc the story isnt even out yet soo,,

starting with frisk nobody really considered frisk to be the 'leader type' usually they were known to only follow orders, not give them but since they've fallen into the underground the monsters have formed a relationship with them, boosting their confidence therefore when the monsters have escaped the underground, the humans were amazed by frisk making it out alive so on their 17th birthday, they were crowned king / queen. they stopped using resets, claiming from now on theyre only going to be used when they really needed it.

asgore asgore has always been known for being mysterious and cold, he's been king of the monsters since his father died in the war before they were sealed, and now he's the one sending his men and soldiers to the continuation of the fight, now that theyve escaped the underground. he cut off toriel after they separated, leaving toriel to leave royalty and start a new life somewhere called deltaburgh.

toriel since she's moved away from the castle her life has never been better, she started a successful bakery called torielle's and has been selling the best pies in town. she adopted a child named kris as well as caring for asriel. she was also known for her kindness in the town, she'd host food givaway events for the poor and about 30% of her earnings go to poverty she cant really say she hates asgore, she doesn't really love him either although she's willing to forgive him.

alphys since she left the underground there was a burden inside of her, undyne promised that the day they leave the underground, the first thing theyll do is stargaze. they would often "stargaze" at the fake star ceilings of the waterfall hoping that theyd see real stars one day. so what she did, was invent a telescope in honor of undyne. she moved to a lighthouse, and to make her less lonely she created a puppet, mettaton as a side project. she also enjoys going to theatres

mettaton he's still a wip but he's already got personality, he hopes he could perform on stage one day. but for now, he needs to be finished first. hes sorta cocky but he's also very passionate, he also wishes to see alphys happy. he treats alphys as if she was his bestfriend and would try cheering her up or motivating her to work on the telescope. behind his cocky personality, he's a very good listener, and would gladly listen to anybody rant

sans when he and papy left the underground, they both bought a farmhouse to make a living, but papyrus had other plans, he asked sans to help him train, so he helped him ofcourse. as well as helping papyrus sell the wheat to markets. the only thing he knows how to cook are loaves of bread and eggs. he and papyrus weren't really well known either, sans liked his life the way it was until papyrus left him to fight in the army since then, he developed a fear of abandonment, and a smoking and drinking habit

papyrus after he left sans to fight in the war, he was grouped with a small clan to share a big tent with, he realized how lonely his clan members were because they were separated from their families as well, so he became the "dad friend" (even if he's like the youngest in his group) he adopted monster kid after finding him in a hospital without his guardians after a bomb attack. (ps, monster kid's former guardian was alphys. she just lost him unfortunately)

chara they're dead <3

THATSTH IT JS

[banffcentrelibraryandarchives]

ARTISTS’ BOOK DISPLAY FOR JUNE, 2023

Promotional Copy. Robin Kahn. New York: Mimi Somerby in cooperation with S.O.S. Int'l. and B.R.A.T., 1993.

Good Neighbors. Elizabeth Sisco. Self-published [printed at San Diego: Diego and Son], 1995.

Bread. Peter Schumann and Elka Schumann. Bread and Puppet Theatre [1994 edition printed by Troll Press], 1994 [1984].

Project Blue Book. Chris Wilder. Gent, Belgium: Imschoot, uitgevers, 1995.

[str4wanzerin]

Get to know me

Thank you for the tag, @chrisoels

Share your wallpaper: My favourite theatre :)

The last song you listened to: "Honey Bee" by Louden Swain

Currently reading: "Guglhupfgeschwader" by Rita Falk

Last movie: "Super Mario Bros."

Craving: A new job. I'm not really happy in the company I work at as many people are way too arrogant for my liking. Also I feel that I don't make anyone happy with the work I do which is - I realized - one of the things that usuall, motivates me for a job. I'm looking for a job in the cultural area at the moment.

What are you wearing right now: Jeans, white undershirt, blue blouse, Snoopy socks 😅

How tall are you: 184 cm / 6'

Piercings: I had ear rings but don't wear them anymore.

Tattoos: No.

Glasses/Contacts: 10 pair of glasses. I wear glasses since I went to school and love them.

Last drink: Water

Last show: "Tatort"

Last thing you ate: cheesecake

Favourite color: All shades of green.

Current obsession: It's hard to motivate myself for anything at the moment, but I have fun playing "Dreamlight Valley" currently.

Unrelated obsession: papadum bread XD I found some that you can microwave to get crispy at an asian supermarket and love that stuff!

Any pets: Not in Munich, but my parents have a very sweet 11 year old boy who wakes me up when I sleep there.

Do you have a crush on anyone: Young Mirsolav Nemec 😆 And basically any baritone/bass singer I hear.

Favourite fictional character: Too many to name them all. As a kid it definitly was Benjamin Blümchen. Now of course my "Tatort München" blorbos, Zagreb from "München 7", Aramis from "The Three Musketeers", Scotty and Paul Stamets from "Star Trek", Lupin from "Harry Potter"...

The last place you traveled: A small day trip to Augsburg, visiting the museum of the famous puppet theatre and the city.

No pressure tags to: anyone who reads this ;)

[chrysaliseuro2024]

Georgia Day 1 Tbilisi

Flight which was at 1.30 pm went well. Turkish airlines pretty good and they fed us again without charging extra. Unfortunately a slight hiccup was that we had booked an airport transfer through booking.com but had put July rather than June in as the month of arrival. Only discovered as we were pretty close to boarding so no time to change. This led to some vociferous bargaining with a potential cabbie at Tbilisi airport. In fact he wasn’t a cabby at all. There didn’t appear to be any free ones. Those we saw ignored us and appeared to have already booked trips into town. We did manage to knock about 33% off the original asking price and set off with a guy who probably was just driving his private car. He was ok though, drove sensibly and didn’t look for more money. Had very little English.

Our hotel the Bazzar Boutique was pretty close to (in fact in) the main tourist area (which is not very large) but sort of to one side so perfectly placed. It was to prove a gem with friendly and caring staff a number of whom spoke fantastic English. Room a good size, clean, modern without being characterless. Not much to fault.

We dropped our bags and pretty immediately set off to look around. Nice and warm. Crowds not very large especially after the madness of Istanbul. A number of very grand and very attractive buildings including the house of the president close by. Also some quirky ones such as the leaning clock which is a clock tower built quirkily by the owner of an on-site puppet theatre in 2010. There were also some grand but tired buildings that had seen better days. It just seemed very chilled. Of course there were the odd streets which were catering for tourists including the local version of Lygon St with a narrow walkway with restaurants either side. These mostly specialised in Georgian food and spruikers accosted us in a friendly way as we moved through. All good fun.

First impressions included the number of cars. This reinforced itself over the next few days as public transport is less than ideal so cars seemed to be used a lot. Quite wide boulevards in town and they hare along overtaking and looking for gaps to dive into. No beg pardons among drivers here if there is a gap they go for it. Finally might have found a mob more aggressive than Melbourne drivers. This is belied though by their off-road manner which is quite laconic and very friendly. Pedestrian crossings are few and far between and underground walkways are the go. They typically have little alcove shops in the walkways selling jewellery and mementos etc and some more basic items.

That night we headed for a restaurant which Liz identified from Trip Advisor. It took some finding tucked away down a dark side street but was waell worth it. It looked like a student hangout judging by other clientele certainly a youngies place. A large open area with tables and we found one. Plenty of space around us and we went for the local food. I had a beef goulash sort of dish and Liz barbecued pork. Beer, Red wine and Rose very acceptable and apart from Liz deciding my dish was hers and polishing off about a third of it before hers rolled up all was fine.

We did notice that the beef which was in plenty of sauce was served at not quite tepid temperature but not hot. Though we did asked for it to be heated up it came back a few degrees warmer so we soldiered on. We came to notice that this could be the case with some food not serve piping hot. The pork was rather dry and had been left on a little long. Again the Georgians seem to like their food on the well done side. Nevertheless the beef was delicious soaked up with some Georgian crusty bread and a very tasty green salad which was huge.

We loved the place. Soaked up the atmosphere. Most tables were now occupied and it was very very relaxed. Nice to see a bit of local life on day 1

[davytheshark]

Highlights from my Theatre Christmas Party White Elephant

• An industrial size box of French bread loaves

�� A picture of Josh Hutcherson in a “Live, Laugh, Love” frame

• Three framed pictures of our theatre teacher

• Two identical squirrel puppets

• Liberty Chica

• A framed picture of a senior boy along with tissues

• A grilled cheese press

• A plunger with googly eyes

• A spicy romance novel (also with tissues)

• Two lighters with a Bingo plushie

PLEASE HELP IM DYING OF LAUGHTER

[goblinpumpkin]

Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life

by Kenneth Gross

“This element of transformation in puppet theatre, as Chaplin’s scene suggests, is tied in turn to a kind of poverty, or an act of impoverishment. It is a poor theatre, for all its riches. You bring out that puppet ballerina in the absence of a real one; you starve yourself for a moment of the nourishment of bread.”

Note:

I’ve been slowly making my way through this book on and off this year. And have really enjoyed pausing and reflecting on my own processes as i work on various puppetry projects. Perhaps this can be a place where I can share ideas, inspirations in the realm of puppetry and art.

contact:

cardboarddepartment@gmail.com

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Peter Schumann and Bread and Puppet Theater are so much a part of my own work in theatre. They were 'in residence' several times when I was in college. I saw them perform again when I lived in NYC and saw them again, performing on the streets of downtown Atlanta. I took my mother and two young siblings who were visiting. They were and are like nothing else in the theatre world. The conviction and precision of their performance is riveting. What a life Peter Schumann has had, living his own very powerful vision. Like Peter Brook, his message of theater and performance wasn't so much about "putting on a show" but about living out of your own inner convictions and expressing that inner soul-self with exact artistry.

[greatandholypangolin]

story time! (Disclaimer- I doubt any of you will find it interesting, I just need the information out in writing before I forget it)

so I’ve had a history of feeling faint now and then and having to sit down since I was around 10, usually if I hadn’t eaten enough or had a lot of adrenaline, which is easy enough to do as an autistic child who goes into fight or flight at least twice a week and doesn’t like the sensation of eating.

but anyway I’m in a youth theatre group and we’re doing Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, where Aslan the lion is one of those puppets with 2 people inside of him, a bit like a pantomime puppet, except there are also 2 people on each side of his head who puppet the head and speak for him. I’m the front half inside of Aslan.

The day before we had our main meal as a lunch at around 2 o clock, then no one was hungry at dinner time so we didn’t have anything. Then, the day of the event, I’d woken up late, so skipped breakfast to save time, then at school they had chocolate bread which is the best thing in school but also costs the same as a full lunch, so I obviously decided to use my lunch money on that instead of nutrients. Then evening came and we were in rehearsals until 8:30, so I had some haribos to keep me going.

the moment I got into rehearsal I felt a bit weak and shaky and I just knew it wasn’t going to be fun. As we were waiting in the wings with Aslan, I was totally zoned out to conserve energy and distract myself. Then we did half of our scene, and when we got to the front of the stage our director stopped us and started talking about how some characters were positioned and whatever. It was at this point that I started mumbling ‘I need to get out’. I was feeling really hot and heavy and I had a pressure on my ears that was muffling everything and I was struggling to stay upright. I said it a bit louder and one of the head puppeteers heard me and said ‘the scenes over soon, don’t worry’ so I repeated ‘I really need to get out.’ I could see no colours from then on, everything was grainy shades of grey. And he asked the director, who started asking who was free for the next few scenes and about the right height. At this point I started flopping from the waist up. I think that was the point where I lost all hearing, and I was close to losing vision too. I didn’t consider that I might actually pass out, but I knew that I had to sit down. I remember the faint sensation of someone grabbing me, (I was later told it was my friend trying to undo the clips that were holding me in the puppet) but it felt like those little glimpses of dreams that stay behind right after you wake up, all dark and fuzzy and just sensation.

I woke up on the floor, with one of the supervisor’s arms underneath me. He dove out of his chair to catch me, along with a few of Aslan’s guards who were nearby, and my aforementioned friend who was still trying to unclip me. The first thing I said was ‘oh, I thought that was a dream’ because it all gets a little dreamy once hearing gets muffled. Then I tried to sit up and was told that I shouldn’t move by my director. It was really annoying at the time, but I get it. Eventually I was sat up and given some water, and I explained that I’m just a lil blood sugar fiend who hasn’t been taking her iron supplements. I felt really sweaty and hot, and it was confirmed that I was boiling, as well as being deathly pale. I was walked outside, even though I probably could have walked it myself, and given a Diet Coke. My stepdad was actually in the building rehearsing for a band, so he was summoned and stood there awkwardly asking if I needed a ride home or if I was ok to continue. I was ok to continue, but they didn’t let me back in Aslan. Lots of people were worried, my cousin in particular had to be sat outside with me because she just froze when I crumpled. Apparently I fell very elegantly.

when I got home I got told off by my mother for not eating enough. I wish I could get right in her face and tell her that it wasn’t like I felt a little faint and sat down for a while, I fucking collapsed. I had to be caught and dragged out of the puppet and I could have fucking injured myself, this is a time for sympathy not blaming.

[yourfirstnamealoud]

gut like, puke kinda reaction to this Bread and Puppet Theatre post card. Like, all the hippy peace and love stuff is just so uselessly thin and that's plain here. The labor that goes into farming coffee beans is brutal and the pay is so little. Like coffee is framed as this simple luxury, but like, if the conditions for its production were at all humane it'd be a normal out-of-reach-for-most-of-us luxury

[msogavt]

Small shoes and a piano

Pieces in the woods on the grounds of the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Glover.

[exploringstyle]

Large Scale Puppetry - Installation and Post #7

Large Scale Puppetry is a theatre style that utilizes life-sized (or larger) puppets in order to enhance theatrical storytelling. Companies such as Bread and Puppet and Spiral Q utilize this theatre style heavily. Sometimes these puppets can enhance activism elements of the theatrical storytelling, and send politically charged messages through their ingenuity and childlike creativity. My installation is a large scale strawberry puppet on a trash can caster, wearing my clothes. This puppet represents me, as a theatre artist, in puppet form. I feel that my personal style can easily be compared to the ingenuity and creativity that large-scale puppetry inhabits.