Puppet Underground is pleased as punch to host...

Bread and Puppet Theater: The Dirt Cheap Money Circus and Cabaret!

WHEN:

The Cabaret is Thursday, April 15th at 7pm

The Circus is Friday, April 16th at 7pm AND
Saturday, April 17th at 3pm

WHERE:

All shows at St. Stephen's Church (how we love them!)
1525 Newton St NW

COST:

$5-$15 Sliding Scale Suggested Donation

The Dirt Cheap Money Cabaret

The latest edition of Bread and Puppet Theater’s cabaret series, the Dirt Cheap Money Cabaret, features the Jolly Battle between Mountaintop Removal Protesters and Mountaintop Machinery; an ancient take on bananas, a President, and a Chair; and much more, all interspersed with commentary from Karl Marx. The Even Cheaper Accordion and String ensemble will provide soothing sounds for winter-weary nerves.

The Dirt Cheap Money Circus

The Dirt Cheap Money Circus features the billionaire bonus celebration dance, the logic of the US Healthcare System, the history of humanity and the removal of a mountaintop, interspersed with appearances by Karl Marx, who confronts the 2009 economic situation with his existential thoughts about money and our relationship to it. And much more. As always, this year’s circus performs to a live band.

Some of the circus acts are politically puzzling to adults, but accompanying kids can usually explain them. After each performance there will be an opportunity to savor the troupe's famous sourdough rye bread, smeared with garlic aioli, and to purchase the theater's Cheap Art.

About The Bread and Puppet Theater

Bread & Puppet has performed social justice theater with giant puppets for 45 years since forming on the streets of New York City in the 1960s. Their earliest work was on the subjects of war, rats, garbage collection and rent strikes. They pioneered the use of giant puppets in street protests against the Vietnam War. Bread & Puppet is internationally honored and performs each year on their farm in rural Vermont throughout July and August. In the off season, they tour domestically and internationally. So come see them while they're here!

Questions? Contact Puppet Underground at PuppetUndergroundDC@gmail.com

Puppets In The Cold!

On the eve of this impending snowpocalypse, in this chilliest of months, Puppet Underground invites you to mark your calendars as we proudly brrrrrrrrrrrring you an international collection of puppeteers at:

The Chilly Day Cabaret!

WHEN: Saturday, February 20^th at 7pm

WHERE: St. Stephen’s Church (Auditorium)
1525 Newton St NW

COST: $5-$10 Sliding Scale

(And bring your own bowl!)

“The Tale of the Hungry Mouths: A Soup Opera” by The Brothers Harrell

A soup opera served warm. A candlelight observance on six stages. Hailing from the rich tradition of southern puppet families, the Bros. Harrell dish up an evening of ultra low-tech neo-contemporary mixed-media performance art. Bring your own bowl.

“The Suitcase of Life” by Papermoon Puppet Theatre

Papermoon comes to us from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a group experimenting with puppetry through international and multi-cultural collaborations. "The Suitcase of Life" is an interactive puppet play exploring selling the unsellable…

And one more surprise guest artist!

Keep cozy!

Melissa, Ximena, Anna, Janelle and Lily
of Puppet Underground

A Mount Pleasant Puppetry Posada! Dec 19th!

Oh, it's been so long, DC! But never fear! Your local puppet collective is here! With the holidays fast approaching, we would never dream of leaving you without the appropriate political puppetry spin necessary to make it through!

So! Without further ado, we proudly ask you to SAVE THE DATE for...

[Dum! Da Da Dum! Da Da DUM!]

A Mount Pleasant Puppetry Posada!

WHEN: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19TH
The Puppetry Posada starts at 7PM (Promptly!)
The After-Party starts at 9:30PM

WHERE: THE POSADA: Meet at La Casa Community of Christ
(3166 Mt Pleasant Street NW)

THE AFTER-PARTY: 3168 17th St NW (behind the Bestway)

COST: $5-$10 Suggested Donation (No one turned away)

RSVP: Please let us know that you're coming! Email your RSVP to: PuppetUndergroundDC@gmail.com


What is a Posada?
Las Posadas are a 9-day (December 16th to 24th) Catholic celebration, that recount Mary and Joseph's search for a shelter in which to give birth. In the same spirit as caroling, folks go to a different neighbor's house on each of the 9 days, and sing to ask for shelter. The neighbors open their homes and offer food and drinks, and the 9 days often end with more festivities.

And a Puppetry Posada?
Inspired by the community spirit of this celebration, our Puppet Posada will be a more secular one-night version where, accompanied by musicians, we travel to several different Mount Pleasant homes for performances drawing from a mix of holiday and non-religious traditions. At each house participants will be treated to snacks or hot drinks and the evening will culminate in a party at the final stop!

What you'll see!
We'll have an exciting set of puppet and other shows for you, including excerpts from a legendary Mt. Pleasant-based Hannukah show, a Yiddish folk tale, a cantastoria, and more!

So come on out in your warmest layers next month and join Mount Pleasant community members to roam the neighborhood and party with us puppeteers!

We'll see you in December!

Anna, Melissa, Ximena, Lily and Janelle
of Puppet Underground

Co-Sponsored by Hear Mount Pleasant

(All shows are family friendly. Unfortunately the houses we will be visiting are not wheelchair accessible.)

District of Cabaret! June 5th!

Do you ever miss the days when you would get your local news from singing Renaissance minstrels instead of CNN?

Do you ever watch old Marx Brothers movies and think, "They don't make 'em like that anymore"?

Do you ever wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, wondering when Puppet Underground will stop serving spaghetti?

If you answered "Yes" or "No" or "Maybe" to any of those questions, then you're in luck!! Because Puppet Underground proudly presents our very first...


DISTRICT of CABARET!
A cabaret all about DC with all DC artists!

WHEN: Friday, June 5th at 7pm
(Doors open at 6:30pm! Show starts promptly at 7!)

WHERE: St. Stephen's Church (in the auditorium)
1525 Newton St NW

SUGGESTED DONATION: $5 - $10 sliding scale
Proceeds benefit Visions to Peace; details below.


What you'll see!
Puppet Underground is honored to bring together so many fabulous DC performers including Quique Aviles, Anu Yadav and more!

We will have excerpts from Classlines, a new multi-media theatre project exploring issues of class in the DC Metro Area.

We also welcome ONE DC's (Organizing Neighborhood Equity DC) "Weaving Shared Visions", a digital storytelling project exploring multi-ethnic organizing.

Also expect to see poetry, a puppet melodrama about an old DC scandal, and a real, live accordianist!

See you then!

Janelle, Melissa, Anna, Ximena, Lily
of Puppet Underground

Money from this cabaret will be benefiting Visions to Peace, a youth leadership development and movement-building project located in Washington, D.C. Visions to Peace uses arts, media, and education to build and strengthen youth-led community action and organizing for safety and peace. You can find out more about them at: www.visionispower.org

Spaghetti Dinner Variety Show: May 9th!

Puppet Underground proudly presents our THIRD (can you believe it??)...

SPAGHETTI DINNER VARIETY SHOW!
Benefiting Teatro Indigena de la Sierra Tarahumara

When: Saturday, May 9th at 7pm
Where: St Stephen's Church (In the Auditorium)
1525 Newton St NW

Suggested Donation: $5-$10 Sliding Scale

What is a Spaghetti Dinner?
A Spaghetti Dinner is a variety evening combining pasta, performance and music. It is a venue for performing artists to show excerpts of new work or shorter pieces. It is essentially a works-in-progress cabaret and it welcomes performing art of various mediums from puppetry to dance to music! And we always serve a meal of vegetarian spaghetti. (Though it's hard to anticipate how much pasta to make, so arrive early to get enough food!)

Spaghetti Dinners were founded in 1978 by toy theater company Great Small Works (New York City) for neighobrhood residents and theater artists. We are happy to continue the tradition here in DC!

Supporting Teatro Indigena de la Sierra Tarahumara
This particular Spaghetti Dinner will be raising money for Teatro Indigena, an indigenous puppetry group located in Chihuahua, Mexico. Teatro Indigena works with indigenous youth throughout the state of Chihuahua, travelling from rural towns to urban cities. They create puppet shows with participating youth that comment on social and political conditions, on topics ranging from sustainable agricultural practices to international immigration policy. Recently their funding was entirely cut and they are struggling to find new financial resources to continue their work.

If you can't make this Spaghetti Dinner, but would like to donate to Teatro Indigena, contact Ximena at: luz.sonora@gmail.com

The Line Up:
We will have a shadow puppet show, poetry, animation by Teatro Indigena, Cuban hip hop and more! More lineup details will be announced soon!

Cheap Art:
Local artists will have their art for sale! And it'll be cheap, in true dedication to the Cheap Art movement. Look forward to bottle cap earrings, patches, block prints and more!


So come on out and help us show Teatro Indigena some love!

Melissa, Ximena, Janelle, Lily, Anna
of Puppet Underground

Bread and Puppet Returns to DC

WHEN: SATURDAY, APRIL 4TH at 7pm and again at 9pm! (Two showings in one night!)

WHERE: At St. Stephen's Church, Auditorium: 1525 Newton St NW

Suggested Donation: $5-$10 Sliding Scale (No one turned away)

THE BREAD & PUPPET THEATER returns to DC as The Lubberland National Dance Company in “27 Dirt-Cheap Dances,” a topical play for these trying times of economic crisis. Bread & Puppet’s itinerant Lubberlanders will enact problem-solving dances for our problems, collateral damage dances for victims, victory dances for victories, wedding dances for hostile populations and their rulers, funeral dances in response to the most recent wars of Lubberland, and total peace and harmony dances with no meaning whatsoever. Karl Marx makes a cameo appearance to duke it out with Uncle Money, and yeah, there will be giant puppets, the notorious Cheap Art Store, and maybe even some sourdough bread after the show.

We need volunteers to be in the show!! Both performers and musicians!

The rehearsal for the show will be on Saturday afternoon, April 4th from 2:30-6:30pm in St. Stephen's auditorium, followed by the two performances. (Anyone can participate! No dance, theater or music experience necessary!)

Volunteers should RSVP to PuppetUndergroundDC@gmail.com

See you soon!