- Our infotainment TV programming focuses on the sensational-the
titillating -and superficial nothingness. The result being; a population
insulated and isolated from the great gifts-talents-and contributions of
people. Yes Virginia-people are great, good, kind and creative.
-
 On a bright August day this past summer;
I decided to remove myself from the hate mongers-moral policemen-militant
religious-and programmed propaganda; to the mountains of Vermont-a few
hours drive. Everything (my biased opinion) about New England (outside
its decaying mill towns) is awesome and majestic. I am sure many across
the country can attest to time warps they pass through. As you leave the
chaos and smog of cities; the blaring newscasts of murder and forever war;
and travel out over country and rural roads, all that passes away.
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- I am enthralled with country roads, small towns, porches,
country diners, children's laughter at play, county fairs, back water carnivals,
clouds hugging the mountains, rainbow draped grass with puppet folks dancing
amongst those banqueting on sourdough bread dipped in an herb/olive oil
sauce. This one can find in the mountains of New England. Others find it
in costal fishing villages, isolated farming regions, miles of waving corn
fields, majestic mountain ranges, or desert blooms.
-
- Man was not meant to war-to destroy-to desecrate-to rob-or
use his talents and genius on annihilation of one another. This is why
the millions across the earth march-sing-drum-and protest. They cry the
Peace of fresh turned earth, villagers dancing after the harvest, a barn
dance, early morning milking, a child's school play, a newborn's cry, grandmothers
in aprons, new mown hay, the solitude of a marsh, fireflies in the night,
murmurs from twilight gatherings on porches, picnics in the forest, rushing
streams, clothes blowing in summer's breezes, and the clapping of the trees
in celebratory brotherhood.
-
- Little wonder that man is confused, bewildered, and silently
or vocally angry. The flesh and the spirit war with one another consciously
or unconsciously. The flesh (at least socially) cries for war, conquest,
surgical bombing, drilling, plundering, crusades, and the annihilating
of the "other". Haunted gray men shuffle past shuttered, rusted
mills, across the nation. Auctions of family farms go unheralded. Fishing
boats rot in silent ports. The song of the land has become militant, harsh,
accusatory, vengeful, and judgmental. The priest and ministers (exceptions
noted) preach gospels and sermons of division and bitterness. Christ in
metal utility churches and opulent pulpits damn those outside the church
or city gates. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"
is lost in the melee of hate. Christ in Ninja attire clubs, gasses, and
cages all those who would dare question. Christ is now the Queen of Hearts
shouting, "Sentence first-verdict later-off with their heads".
-
 Ah-but where men may be
silenced the puppets are not. Peter Schuman (a rare man who followed his
vision) says that Puppet Theater is "anarchic and untamable by nature".
Its history is subversive, its stage is the street (or on a distant Vermont
farm). Peter in his voice to the world; has created a prophetic, political
and religious theatre for our time. The grave, evocative puppet figures
are the main performers. They speak of the injustices, social stigma, and
the crisis in the world (past and present). Peter, a German born dancer,
musician, and sculptor, has kept his theater poor, anarchic and non-commercial.
If you can find your way (some things are worth the search) you will find
all is free-from the sourdough bread he bakes in clay ovens, to the theater
in open fields, or in the massive barn filled with puppets.
-
- And so this man has taken the gifts, talents, and passion
of his life and founded Domestic Resurrection Circus. Peter envisioned
a rebirth of the tradition of carnivals and festivals. He has toured the
world with his message. One of his specialties is adapting Christian liturgies
to current political circumstance. Today's political victims are substituted
for Jesus (the crucifixion goes on and we see it not), funeral marches
for rotten ideas, and fiddle sermons. During demonstrations against the
World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and the Republican Convention,
puppeteers have been arrested and abused by the police and had their puppets
confiscated and destroyed. So much for freedom's voice!
-
- Peter's genius sees his puppetry "ordered by a strange
ambition to provide the world with an unfragmented and uncontrollably (the
puppets are oversized) large picture of itself, a picture which praises
and attacks at the same time, a theatrum mundi, which includes the desire
of the world to be what it can be."
-
- Wandering around the farm that day in August; arriving
hours before the performance, I thought of how fragile this all was in
a world at war; where freedom of expression is outlawed; where even puppets
have become terrorists! I thought of all the interns who come from all
over the world to this place to learn the art of puppetry-and work the
farm. Would a world at war permit this? Globalization and nature themes
have been big issues over the past several years. The skit for globalization
has eight gross looking guys that are two times life sized that represent
the G-8. They march in dressed in suits, smoke cigars and pat each other
on the back. Then sheep puppets with soldier uniforms underneath come in
with their guns raised to the G-8. After they show their uniforms and salute,
the G-8 men tell them to bow, and they drop down and become sheep again.
-
- A satire tells of a powerful nation that destroys its
friend-the rest of the world in a jealous rage after finding him alone
with the bombshell. Peter says, "The arts are about areas that people
can't even control in themselves about things that are a little deeper-seeded
than newspaper opinions and such. The arts have a way of getting to people
in their disturbing way that is more into their gut that isn't so easily
brushed off." At one protest, Bread and Puppet participants walked
through the streets of Burlington, Vermont in black robes, wearing masks
and carrying limp rag dolls in their arms. Others guided a giant puppet
with painted blood on his hands. In a politically incorrect monitored world
with labels of "fringe-extremists-naysayers-unpatriotic-and sinners"
puppets can say what people cannot or will not (at least until recently).
-
- The crowd this summer day was much sparser than I remembered
from a few years past when a friend introduced me to this magical land.
Back in the summer of '99 the place was packed with numerous shows taking
place. I was remembering the white haired man playing the fiddle in the
barn-the loft doors were open behind him; the people listening in contemplative
silence. Downstairs, I shall never forget the exuberant joyful dance of
a stocky middle-age man, which touched the spirit, making all things new.
This is how man is meant to live.
-
- This Aug day of '04, in a world at war (far outside the
peace of the farm); I walked through the cathedral of pines. This sits
above the large natural amphitheater where the main show is put on. I was
all alone walking through this place; which has numerous little shelters
(not gravestones) that are erected in remembrance of those whom have died.
Each one-as you ducked through the doorways; held some special significance
of the person's life. They ranged from age 6 up to old age. Fresh flowers
were placed in crock pots-and buckets, throughout the floor of pine needles-splashed
with beams of sunlight.
-
- Walking through the fields and woods; with gurgling brooks,
one comes upon numerous surprises. Old busses painted up-posters with messages-and
a huge clay oven where Peter bakes his bread. This summer show had Wal-Mart
stomping into town with huge booted feet trampling out all local entrepreneurs.
The nearby town's children were all dressed in feathered chick costumes
dancing about in their bare feet. Greed and war were characterized in different
skits; as the puppeteer band played various tunes appropriate for the message
at hand. Peter was here and there and everywhere directing and taking part.
One would never guess him to be the creator and genius; as he was about
the most menial of tasks.
-
- I watched from the staging area as Mr. Schumann climbed
the ladder to the top of a bus; so that he could get into his stilted effigy
costume of Uncle Sam-always the grand finale of any show. It's an amazing
performance and never ceases to thrill one. Trumpets blaring out he comes-lording
it above all. Watching him this day I was brought to remembrance of a poem
that had a minister going up to his church steeple each day to pray and
be closer to God (or so he thought). Then one day as he (the preacher)
cried aloud as to the presence of God-a whisper was heard, "I am down
here amongst my people". Peter in his Uncle Sam costume (in a secular
sense) depicted to me how removed the government is from the people-merely
shouting down orders from some lofty-detached-removed height.
-
 Sadly, today our schools
teach by rote and testing-testing-testing. The arts, the magic of music,
poetry and creativity are long stifled. People no longer (except in removed
circles) create their own pageantry. Everything is ordered from births-to
marriages to graveside. There's a 'proper' process and procedure for all.
Christmas is now a materialistic collage of shopping-grotesque elves-and
aluminum trees in sterile-climate controlled malls. No more neighbors on
downtown empty echoing streets or theater in the park. I was remembering
a Christmas past in a small removed town in Pennsylvania when my boys were
small. A group of families would gather; and each one had to present their
own Christmas play. I wrote a skit called, "People are like packages
beneath a Christmas Tree". The theme of this piece was- sometimes
the most plain of packages hold the most prized of treasures-when at last
my two year old son came out wrapped in plain brown paper, bound up in
string. Today its Christmas videos-games-and the rare nativity scene, shielded
with Plexiglas! Peter envisioned people creating their own entertainment-not
programmed.
-
- Lastly, Peter's message to us all is, that we should
break bread with one another. Peter grew up in what is now Poland. His
mother made hearty sourdough bread and he liked to help her with it. Now
he's constantly baking it; and many have copied his method of clay ovens
and are making living selling bread. "Bread is necessary for substance",
Schumman says. "Bread is the physical nourishment and the performances
are intellectual nourishment. You have to chew on both of them. It's not
wonder bread. When you share bread, you share a relationship. It's not
commercial; it's for friendship and a shared experience."
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- In a world of fear-venom-judgment-hatred-bias-prejudice;
imagine that Peace and War might one day dance together in distant wildflower
pastures and break bread with one another! This is the cry of the multitudes
and the true meaning of Communion. Puppets arise-your time has come.
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