The circus is coming! The circus is coming!

Vermont-based Bread and Puppet Theater is presenting its iconic puppet circus at Fort Allen Park here in Portland, Maine.

Fifty-two years ago Bread & Puppet Theater performed Our Domestic Resurrection Circus for the first time at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. Since then, this capacious and provocative title has served as the basis of annual spectacles that generations of audiences have come to rely on for satire and celebration in the face of intolerable circumstances. This year, B&P will take up the tradition again, albeit with a timely subtitle: The Apocalypse Defiance Circus.

The show, says Schumann, is “in response to our totally unresurrected capitalist situation, not only the hundreds of thousands of unnecessarily sacrificed pandemic victims but our culture’s unwillingness to recognize Mother Earth’s revolt against our civilization. Since we earthlings do not live up to our earthling obligations, we need resurrection circuses to yell against our own stupidity.”

A portion of proceeds from this event will support Artopolis, a multidisciplinary socially-engaged theater project based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, founded by Bread and Puppeteer, Franklin Louis-Jean, who will be part of the touring company that will play The Apocalypse Defiance Circus.

After the show Bread & Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and Bread & Puppet’s “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread & Puppet Press – will be for sale.

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Saturday, September 10 at 4:00 PM, 75 minutes

Free outdoor performance at Fort Allen Park on Portland’s Eastern Promenade (49 Eastern Promenade). Cash donations are encouraged!

Please bring a chair or blanket to sit on, sunscreen, and water.

ARTIST BIO

The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and hand puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were rents, rats, police, and other problems of the neighborhood. More complex theater pieces followed, in which sculpture, music, dance, and language were equal partners. The puppets grew bigger and bigger. Annual presentations for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day often included children and adults from the community as participants. Many performances were done in the street. During the Vietnam War, Bread and puppet staged block-long processions and pageants involving hundreds of people.

In 1974 Bread and Puppet moved to a farm in Glover in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The 140-year-old hay barn was transformed into a museum for veteran puppets. Our Domestic Resurrection Circus, a two-day outdoor festival of puppetry shows, was presented annually through 1998.

The company makes its income from touring new and old productions both on the American continent and abroad, and from sales of Bread and Puppet Press’ posters and publications. The traveling puppet shows range from tightly composed theater pieces presented by members of the company to extensive outdoor pageants which require the participation of many volunteers.

ABOUT ARTOPOLIS

WELCOME TO ARTOPOLIS! Artopolis, the city of arts, was established on November 18th, 2019, on the Place Jérémie in Port-au-Prince. Their first performance gathered socially engaged artists in several fields of visual arts.

The name, "Artopolis," is derived from "Art" (arts, artist, artisan, artworks) and "Polis" (Greek for "city). Artopolis aims to be a site for collaboration between artists from diverse disciplines -- sculpture, painting, dance, music, and literature -- anyone inspired by the muse has their place in Artopolis.

Their vision: to transform society by the power of art, by the might of artists and creators.

They see the artist as a vector of change. The artist engages through their work, the artist is a builder. It is by way of their work that we will achieve the society we dream of.

In this way, Artopolis gathers children in "Arto-Juniors," adults in "Arto-Seniors," all working toward the same objective. In Artopolis, we believe that the artist cannot accomplish any mission alone. This is why they encourage the production of collective works. As said in Haitian Kreyol, "Atis kore atis" (Artist supports artist).

Artopolis meets regularly for workshops at the IERAH (Institute of Studies and African Research) and also works at Collège Jacques Stephen Alexis and the Parc Rony Colin in Croix des Bouquets where they have been performing La danse des étoiles (The dance of the stars).

Artopolis and the Haitian sculptor, Frédéric Jean, a.k.a. Wabba Up King, displayed on March 13th, 2020, the works entitled Libérer les morts (Free the dead) at the IERAH college.

Artopolis is currently developing new projects in the Carrefour and Petit Goave districts of Port-au-Prince, as well as in Jacmel in the south-west, and Thomonde in the Central Plateau.

Art is our wealth, Haiti is a wealthy land, and Artopolis is helping lead the way toward an artistic and cultural revolution.

SLIDING SCALE POLICY

No one will be turned away for lack of funds; contact MSA at 207-879-4629 or info@mayostreetarts.org for information on our sliding scale admission policy.

COVID-19 POLICY

Audience members, staff, and volunteers will be asked to mask while not actively eating, or drinking.

Mayo Street Arts is committed to the safety of everyone at our events and will adhere to all Federal & Maine CDC guidelines on the day of the event. As we anticipate mid-season changes to our COVID-19 policy, please click here to visit our website and view the most current information.

CANCELATION POLICY

Mayo Street Arts has a no refund policy for all reservations. In the event that MSA is forced to cancel an event due to weather, illness, etc., refunds will be offered via the Ticket Tailor platform.