2016-106-E Arts - The ArtsCenter - Fall 2015 Arts Grant Agreement

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DocuSign Envelope ID: D830FDE7-7735-4C4D-946F-99B358D08638 Orange County Arts Commission Fall 2015 Arts Program Grant ( 3 Cantastoria Workshop with Bread and Puppet Theater volunteerism, along with the merged incomes of performance fees and donations to pay its own way. This model is in itself an art form, not only of puppetry and theater making, but also a lived philosophy of art and activism. Bread and Puppet's impact on the greater world of experimental theater is acknowledged by scholars, and evidenced by the hundreds of unique theater companies now in existence that cite Bread and Puppet as an influence, in countries from Nicaragua to Italy, Korea to France, Peru to Poland, and of course the U.S. It is difficult to conceptualize what this past fifty years of work represents: how many thousands of hours of paper-mache, sewing and painting; hundreds of thousands of hours of puppet rehearsal and performance; the countless band rehearsals, meetings, training sessions for volunteers; millions of miles traveled by the many, many Bread and Puppet company members across fifty years. On May 1 2016 Bread and Puppet Theater will offer a workshop for interested community members in the art of Cantastoria, a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images. These images can be painted, printed or drawn on any sort of material. One of the oldest performance forms known to humanity, Cantastoria is called 'bankelsang' in Germany, 'etoki' in Japan, and 'cantastoria' in Italy. The form originated in India more than two thousand years ago. Bread and Puppet uses this simple form of storytelling and performance to convey many different messages: from children's stories with simple morals of justice and goodness to tales of protest and even casualty counts. In this workshop participants observe a Bread and Puppet cantastoria and then jump into performing in the chorus of another. If time allows, participants may even get to work on the creation of their own cantastoria. The Vermont based Bread & Puppet Theater is a politically charged group that encourages community participation and advocates a "cheap art" philosophy of inclusion in art and performances along with a literal manifestation of the bread by having fresh baked bread shared at each performance. In keeping with this philosophy, Bread and Puppet advocates for free or low-fee workshops so that all who want to participate in their workshops can regardless of means. A generous grant from the Orange County Arts Commission of$1500 will allow The ArtsCenter to provide this workshop for free to interested community members.