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Two Weeks with Bread & Puppet Theater, Part XII 1/12/2004 6:38:38 PM
The "Victory Over Everything Circus" matinee.
In addition to the evening show of “Oratorio of the Possibilitarians,” we also performed a weekend matinee called "The Victory Over Everything Circus" for an all ages audience. Peter explains that the Circus is honor of America's great victory. Over what exactly America has been victorious, he is unclear. Like the Possibilitarian Circus, there is a fast succession of skits and stunts, but unlike the ten to fifteen minute Possibilitarian Circus, the Victory Over Everything circus is a full hour and its demands on the performers is relentless. Rarely does anyone have more than a five minute breather to prepare for the next act-- if they have time at all. In the process of changing from one costume to another, or locating whatever props I need for the next scene, I see very little.
During much of the Circus we wear victory hats as well as our Bread & Puppet whites. These are cardboard head bands with a cross bar over the dome of the head similar in design though simpler in construction than the hats we wear in the chairs and wings sequence in the Possibilitarian Circus. Their only elaboration is the black sign with white lettering that reads "VICTORY." There are far more victory hats then heads to wear them and they come in all sizes. Like the more elaborate chair hats, there are often names of some of the performers who have used them in the previous productions. One name that attracts my attention is "Zaloom"-- it's none other than that of Paul Zaloom, better known to the general audience as the host of the wacky science program "Beakman's World." I used to watch Beakman's World back in the early 1990s when I was in grad school, so I am greatly tempted to try his hat on for size. My head is big but Zaloom's head is gigantic. This leads to many jokes one day about being intimidated by the size of his cranium....
We open by marching from the lobby through the back of the auditorium and down the center aisle. "Ba ba bababa bababa ba ba woo hoo!" we chant as we come through. I find myself paired with Hortense Geraldo, a doctoral student who as part of her research into arts organizations sits on the board of directors of a number of companies in town, or so I found out after I mentioned that I saw her name on so many letterheads. She is amazed that anyone reads the names on the letterheads.
We march onto the stage and through a cardboard arch were we stand at attention behind Strawberry, costumed in pantaloons, a ten gallon hat, a giant cardboard mustache and a sash that reads "Mayor." Dhe takes center and makes a speech about our young soldiers, their new uniforms, their sweethearts and all the other buzzwords that politicians harp on about when they are trying to be uniters and not dividers. We join her in announcing "The 2003 Victory Over Everything Circus!" before marching off stage through the rear curtain.
The next act is an extended skit about the collapse of the Man in the Mountain in New Hampshire. In the rehearsals I begin as a puppeteer behind one of the clouds that emerge onto the stage behind Isaac but it is quickly decided that there we had too many performers and not enough cloud and bird puppets so I am moved to later in the skit and thus never learn what happens in the first half. During the show we wait in the wings for the second half to begin as we get dressed as tourists with horse head masks, Strawberry runs frantically to join us, removing her Mayoral costume as Tom and I hold her tour guide jacket and giant cardboard pith helmet out for her. Strawberry has the unenviable role of having the lead role in several skits in succession in the circus and needs an extensive costume change each time.
We come on stage in a cardboard tour bus. Strawberry speaks to us in a foreign language which causes Hortense to break out in laughter in rehearsals. Strawberry laughs and is surprised to be understood and makes some reference to speaking Bengali though I believe she is from the Philippines. Perhaps I am mishearing and she said Tagalog. We admire the Old Man in The Mountain with "oohs" and "ahs" until we realize that there is no Old Man and it becomes a slapstick segment of angry tourists chasing Strawberry's tour guide around the auditorium until she takes a pratfall and we carry her off the stage.
Half the time I am fast enough to change out of my tourist costume and be on the stage for the next scene which is about the recent FCC controversy. I am one of many puppeteers playing an a giant paper mache ear. When I am not on the stage, I am not missed in the crowd but I particularly enjoy this role and like to think that I add something to the scene. The local media marching band is played by a bunch of cardboard cutouts of trombones and tubas. I move my paper mache ear in controlled trajectories, sometimes rectilinear, and sometimes arcs, each time coming to a sudden end and then changing direction in rhythm to the band. We are interrupted in our enjoyment by big corporate media who have their own song. But as in reality, we prevail and preserve our local community media.
