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Another Two Weeks with Bread & Puppet Theater: Part I 12/24/2004 8:10:47 PM
So begins my journal about the two weeks I spent with Bread & Puppet in November of 2004. For those interested in my previous experiences, read the series of blog entries begining with December 12, 2003.
Feedback is welcome. Thank you for reading.
Ian Thal
thal.gis.net Last year I wrote an extensive journal of my time as a volunteer performer with Bread & Puppet when the company spent a two week residency in the YMCA auditorium in Cambridge. I had expected it to be no more than a few pages like most entries I have made of some of the gigs I've performed. However, once I began writing, I had discovered that the experience had left such an impact that it quickly expanded into well over forty pages of printed material. This year, John Bell, a former member of Bread & Puppet and a professor of theatre history, and Mary Curtin, another former company member and producer of Bread & Puppet events in the Boston area had both encouraged me to keep another journal. However, I was somewhat reticent as last year's journal was extemporaneous and this year's document would be premeditated. Howerver I quickly began to see the narrative ravel as I kept the idea of a blog in the back of my mind.
Finally at the first cast party, I approached Peter Schumann, the director of Bread & Puppet, and asked him if what I had done last year was okay. Schumann reached around to pat me on the left shoulder blade and chuckled, "Oh, the writing is important work, when you and I are older and everyone else here is the same age, there must be some record so we can remember what it was we did" he then clinked his wine glass to my bottle of seltzer.
