The internationally known Bread and Puppet Theater is holding a workshop at the University of Central Arkansas this week, culminating with a performance on campus April 8.
There will be a public lecture about the project at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 7 at 7:30 p.m. in McCastlain 143.
The outdoor performance will be free and open to the public beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 8 on the Student Center Lawn. The rain location will be in Ida Waldran Auditorium.
The politically charged theater, started by director Peter Schumann in the early 1960s in New York City, is based in Glover, Vt. and has toured both domestically and internationally. One of the theater’s founding principles is that art should be as basic to life as bread. Art, like food, nourishes all.
“One of the wonderful things about Bread and Puppet and performing with Bread and Puppet is that you don’t need any experience performing, doing puppetry, dancing or playing instruments,” Holly Laws, assistant professor of art, said. “They want art to be accessible to everyone. Everyone should have art in their life.”
Schumann founded Bread and Puppet originally as a political theater that was very involved in current events, most notably, the Vietnam War. The theater and its giant puppets were regular participants in peace marches in New York.
Four of Schumann’s puppeteers will head a workshop with UCA students to develop and build an original performance.
“This is huge,” Laws said. “They’ve performed all over the world and they’ve never been to Arkansas. This is their Arkansas debut.”
For further information, contact Laws at hlaws@uca.edu or at (501) 450-5778.