Bread and Puppet Theater present two plays at Theater For The New City's Johnson Theatre

It's 35 years since Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theater first performed at Theater for the New City, and the acclaimed ensemble will return to TNC from 30 Nov to 17 Dec 2006 with two new works, one for adults and one for children.

For the grownups, it'll be The Battle of the Terrorists and the Horrorists. This show contains excerpts from the Mayan Council Book, "The Popol Vuh." It features several no-no-no dances, including the "Civilians-Are-Not-The-Target-But-The-Civilians-Are-The-Target" dance, the "Air-Sea-And-Trees-Casualty" dance, the "Why-Do-They-Hate-Us-What-Have-We-Done-To-Them" dance; and one Yes-Dance, the "Sweeping-Away-Of-The-Miserable-Government" dance.

For kids of all ages, it is Everything Is Fine Circus, featuring Pinky, the Federal Emergency Elephant, The Rotten Idea Theater Company, The Axis of Beagle and more.

Both shows will be performed by the Bread & Puppet Company and a large number of local volunteers, who will also be part of The Brass and String Bands and The Choral Singers and Screamers.

The theater will be decorated with the unique Bread and Puppet collection of powerful black-line posters, banners, masks, curtains, programs and set-props.

Once again, all pieces will be created by Schumann with input from the company. Both plays will be accompanied by a brass band, singing and miscellaneous gongs and horns. Schumann will sculpt and paint all of the major masks and puppets.

Bread and Puppet, founded in 1962 on the Lower East Side, is now an internationally recognized company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper mach� and cardboard; a brass band for accompaniment, and anti-elitist dance. Most are morality plays--about how people act toward each other--whose prototype is "Everyman." Their overall theme is universal peace.

Bread and Puppet productions use music, dance and slapstick. Their puppets of all kinds and sizes, masks, sculptural costumes, paintings, buildings and landscapes seemingly breathe with Schumann's distinctive visual style of dance, expressionism, dark humor and low-culture simplicity.