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Two Weeks with Bread & Puppet Theater: Part II 12/12/2003 3:04:45 PM
November 11 & 12: More Rehearsals Eddie, one of the eight members of Bread & Puppet's touring company, is standing in front of the auditorium in a kneeling position. He quickly shifts, rotating into another position and asks if anyone can do it. I'm one of a number of people who can. Then Eddie does an arabesque and asks if anyone can do it as well. I can. Eddie rises to his feet and announces that he's found the dancers for the production. We go into one of the other rooms on the floor, one that is used for a day care center during the working hours.
We have two dances to learn. One is the dragon dance for which there are five of us. The dragon puppet is much like the ritual dragons lions used in Chinese festivals. Eddie plays the head and teaches us the moves: right heel, turn in, toe, turn out, heel, step, cross down, then repeat with the left foot. The other dragon dancers are girls ranging from high school to college age. I decide that there is no way my feet are going to grip the floor as needed in my now worn down Doc Martens and resort to my usual barefoot performance mode. I end up dispensing with shoes for the rest of the show.
The next dance we learn is for chairs and wings, it is the one for which Eddie auditioned us. We are joined by another member of the touring company, Strawberry, who keeps the the beat with sticks. There are now ten of us. In this one, we wear cardboard cutouts of chairs on our heads and place ourselves in formation, taking the initial kneeling position, stomping, dragging our back leg, and then turning around while always keeping the front of our "chairs" to the audience. When we rise to our feet, a red bird serenades us with a banjo while helpers come on stage and give us cardboard wings. At that point we go through a sequence that culminates in the arabesques and in which we exit by freely flying about.
Soon I discover that these dances are part of a ten minute "Circus of the Possibilitarians" which is an opener for the "Oratorio of the Possibilitarians" that we are to perform in the evenings.
By the third evening of rehearsals the show begins to come together I can see a definite shape. I begin to see how the "Circus of the Possibilitarians" and the "Oratorio of the Possibilitarians" fit together, and I learn to follow the order of the acts as listed on signs posted all over the backstage area. I learn about stowing my props and costumes in consistent places throughout in order to aid me in costume changes between acts.
The next day is opening night. We agree to meet early so that we can do a walk through without costumes, puppets and props.
