Bread and Puppet Theater: 50 Years of Art and Resistance
The Bread and Puppet Theater, one of the United States' most beloved theater companies, is celebrating its 50th anniversary of using monstrous puppets to protest the "horror that happens" on the international stage. "Democracy Now!" spoke with Peter Schumann, the theater's founder, for a full hour Thursday.
The Bread and Puppet Theater, one of the United States’ most beloved theater companies, is celebrating its 50th anniversary of using monstrous puppets to protest the “horror that happens” on the international stage. “Democracy Now!” spoke with Peter Schumann, the theater’s founder, for a full hour Thursday.
“We don’t have playwrights in the theater,” Schumann said. “Our playwright is the daily news, is this — all this horror that happens. And it’s not so much that we want to do it, but we continuously get obliged to do it, because the goddamn media don’t say it. They are — they live by omission, rather than by reporting.”
“It” includes such urgent political issues as nuclear weapons, war and mass domestic surveillance, Schumann says. Nearing his 80th birthday, the thespian discusses the setting of his birth in Nazi Germany ruled by “The Shatterer,” why he refuses to retire and how America squanders the potential of its elderly population.
“They don’t have enough to do,” Schumann says of the “olds.” “Society doesn’t have any place for them. And I don’t get it. Why? I mean, when I see them, I think of my mother-in-law and other older women who I met in my life, especially women. That they were so unemployed, so unused by society, is beyond my comprehension. They are so powerful. They are so able to do things. And they—and society doesn’t find a way of bowing to that concentrated power and employing it. It doesn’t do it. It discards them. It leaves them out.”
“Look in older society. There are many societies where older people have automatically a role as being older people with more experience. This doesn’t exist in this society. This is a society of youngsters and of pushy middle-aged characters, and the rest is not so welcome. The kids are not welcome, and the olds are not welcome.”
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
‘Democracy Now!’:
Wait, before you go…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
Support Truthdig
Arts & Culture
Visual investigations at the intersection of climate change and global migration.
Though diversity is a driving ethos of this year's event in Los Angeles, the art world is still deeply invested in sidelining people of color.
Artists who tell the truth are the mortal enemies of despots, who seek to distort the past, the present and the future.
Artists, activists and museum staff launched protests after learning that chemicals made by Warren Kanders’ company were used on migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The tangible effects of political concerns, ranging from mass displacement to climate change, are unavoidable at the 58th Venice Biennale.
"Then They Came For Me," a traveling exhibit, reminds viewers how easily history can repeat itself.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.