BY CLAYTON PATTERSON | Founded in 1986, City Lore specializes in documenting and collecting information, as well as presenting talks and hosting art shows related to urban folklore and history. Realizing a long-held dream, the organization opened its gallery, in the East Village at 56 E. First St., in April 2014.
Last month, at the gallery, Molly Garfinkel presented Peter Schumann, founder of the radical Bread and Puppet Theater.
Born in 1934, German/Polish immigrant Schumann started the Bread and Puppet Theater on the Lower East Side in 1963. Growing up in Germany during the Depression and WW II, food was scarce. A heavy dark-sourdough rye bread was a main food staple. Rye grows well in poor soil and is a hardy grain that endures the kind of weather and hardships that would kill most grains.
Schumann became a sculptor with an interest in theater, and moved to America in 1961.
However, he was somewhat disappointed by how static sculpture is, which eventually led to his interest in large puppets, or moveable sculpture. These sculptural puppets are made of papier-mâché, plus found and donated materials. They are hollow inside and fit over a person, and can be as tall as 20 feet. The people’s actions inside of them created the movement.
A part of Schumann’s philosophy is connecting the puppet, dancer, acting, words and sculpture, fulfilling the sensations of the outer body, as well as eating bread, which engages the stomach, which connects the whole physical being into one. They would give out the heavy rye bread at their shows — hence, the Bread and Puppet Theater. They still give out bread.
Most of the performances are meant to be done outside, on city streets or in country open spaces.
Similar to their friends The Living Theater, the idea was to incorporate the audience, especially children, into the show. The pieces also often have a political message, such as touching on issues affecting the poor or the working class, and some of their largest performances were held when Americans were protesting against the Vietnam War.
Bread and Puppet survives by touring nationally and internationally and selling posters and publications, adding in free street shows. It is among the oldest self-supporting nonprofit theater companies in America.
