{"id":22296,"date":"2022-11-17T22:32:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T03:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=22296"},"modified":"2022-11-17T22:44:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T03:44:05","slug":"bread-puppet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2022\/11\/17\/bread-puppet-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Decades Of Bread And Puppet At Salem State"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d<\/a> showcases five decades of masks, giant puppets and books relating to performances and protests from the legendary Vermont experimental and activist theater at Salem State University\u2019s Winfisky Gallery and in the atrium of the Massachusetts school\u2019s Frederick E. Berry Library from Oct. 24 to Nov. 18, 2022<\/p>\n

The theater was founded by Peter and Elka Schuman in New York in 1963, and based in Vermont since the 1970s. Peter Schumann, who remains active in the theater, designed many of the masks, puppets and woodcuts here. Elka died in 2021.<\/p>\n

Curated by longtime Bread and Puppet performer Clare Dolan (who\u2019s also the founder of the Museum of Everyday Life), the Salem State exhibition features red demon masks and woodcuts from \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell.\u201d The 1971 show reimagined a Japanese Now play about a birdcatcher seeking pardon from the king of hell for killing birds in the wake of President Richard Nixon\u2019s pardon of Lt. William Calley for his role in the 1968 My Lay massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

Tableaus also represent 1972\u2019s \u201cThe Revenge of the Law,\u201d about the murderous government suppression of the prisoner uprising inside Attica State Prison in upstate New York in 1971, and 2017\u2019s \u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show,\u201d 2017, about trying to say goodbye to America\u2019s culture of gun violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Our Name and With Our Money\u201d banners were used in protests in the 1980s against U.S. government support for the Nicaragua Contras\u2019 efforts to overthrow the Sandinista government. A giant blue puppet was used in Bread and Puppet\u2019s 2021 version of Aeschylus ancient play \u201cThe Persians\u201d about war between Persia and Athens. \u201cIraqi Women\u201d masks and corpse puppets were created for 1991 street protests against the Iraq War, and used again during the Afghanistan War that began in 2001 and the Iraq War that began in 2003.<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2022 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Iraqi<\/a>
Iraqi woman mask in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Costumes<\/a>
Costumes and painted stage curtain from the 1972 show \u201cThe Revenge of the Law” in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A revival of the 1972 show \u201cThe Revenge of the Law” performed in New York in November 2017. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Puppets,<\/a>
Puppets, costumes and woodcut stage curtains from the 2017 performance \u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show” performed in Glover, Vermont, August 2017. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show” performed in Glover, Vermont, August 2017. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show” performed in Glover, Vermont, August 2017. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater\u2019s \u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show” at Spontaneous Celebrations in Boston, April 21, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bread<\/a>
Bread and Puppet Theater\u2019s \u201cThe Basic Bye-bye Show” at Spontaneous Celebrations in Boston, April 21, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Puppets,<\/a>
Puppets, costumes and woodcut banners from the 1971 performance \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"King<\/a>
King of Hell puppet from the 1971 performance \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Demon<\/a>
Demon costume from the 1971 performance \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Woodcut<\/a>
Woodcut banner from the 1971 performance \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Woodcut<\/a>
Woodcut banner from the 1971 performance \u201cThe Birdcatcher in Hell\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Puppets<\/a>
Puppets and banners from the 2021 performance \u201cThe Persians\u201d in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Iraqi<\/a>
Iraqi women masks in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Grain<\/a>
Grain mask in the exhibition \u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d at Salem State University, November 2022. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBread and Puppet Theater: Art and Activism in Five Acts\u201d showcases five decades of masks, giant puppets and books relating to performances and protests from the legendary Vermont experimental and activist theater at Salem State University\u2019s Winfisky Gallery and in the atrium of the Massachusetts school\u2019s Frederick E. Berry Library from Oct. 24 to Nov. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,110],"tags":[13,881,506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22296"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22320,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22296\/revisions\/22320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}