By Ashley Monckton
Activists across Ottawa could soon be using puppets to voice their concerns after the highly-acclaimed Bread and Puppet Theatre visits for the first time.
The theatre is one of the oldest non-profit, self-supporting theatrical companies in the United States.
In each performance, simple puppets made from cardboard deliver powerful messages about social, political and environmental issues.
Maureen Shea, a dance artist and founder of Ottawa’s Grasshoppa Dance Exchange, did a summer internship with the theatre in 1999. Since then, she has returned each year to Bread and Puppet for tours and workshops.
Shea says the theatre’s simple imagery affects people in a very basic way.
“It touches a part of everybody,” she says.
The theatre’s trip to Ottawa has been a dream come true for Shea, who says she has been trying for years to get Bread and Puppet to perform here.
Peter Schumann, founder and director of the theatre, started Bread and Puppet in the 1960s. Linda Elbow, a retired puppeteer, says Schumann’s puppets first paraded in the streets of New York protesting soaring rent prices and the Vietnam war.
But Shea says it has been even more exciting to see people volunteering with the shows.
“It has been about bridging and building community here just by the very fact of the theatre coming,” she says.
The visit also brought a lot of Ottawa’s activist community together.
Organizations like the Peace and Environment Resource Centre in the Glebe have invested a lot of time and money to bring the theatre to Ottawa.
“We’re very excited to have [the theatre] come,” says Jo Wood, the Bread and Puppet project co-ordinator at the centre. “It’s a unique opportunity to see a merger of the need for social justice and fun.”.
Many people have stepped in to help with the performances without knowing what it is they will experience. But Shea says everything in the show will come together to deliver the theatre Bread and Puppet is best known for — simple but powerful.
“We really believe in taking it to the streets,” says Elbow, who is also the theatre’s booking manager. “We go to the where the people are.”
The name “Bread and Puppet” comes from the fresh bread that is served after each show. Schumann bakes sourdough rye bread for every performance.
“Theatre should nourish you the same way bread does,” says Elbow. She says there is also a link between the simplicity of bread and the theatre’s performances.
Schumann will not be joining the theatre group for the trip but will send his bread to Ottawa for the audience members. It will come from Glover, Vt. where Schumann has several bread ovens on the Bread and Puppet farm where the theatre is based.
Since each of the theatre’s performances involves people from the community, Shea says Ottawa’s shows will be unique. The theatre will also hold a workshop where participants can create their own performances complete with puppets.
Elbow says they rarely do workshops while touring.
But Shea thought a workshop would give the theatre’s visit a lasting effect. “I’m hoping it will inspire people to act,” she says. “Perhaps planting some change in this city.”
Each performance includes two satirical shows where absurd stories deliver a meaningful message: “How to Turn Distress into Success” and the silly parody “World on Fire.”
“Bread and Puppet is fun and hopeful, yet they have a strong message inside,” says Wood.
Bread and Puppet will perform April 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bronson Centre Theatre, 211 Bronson Ave. On April 22 at 7:30 p.m., the performance will be held at Carleton University’s Alumni Theatre.
Tickets are $15 ($10 low income) in advance or $20 ($15 low income) at the door.