Madtown Liberty Players

Cast photo! From left: Jimmy (asparagus), Lizzie (pineapple), Alma (corn), Gail, Billy (broccoli), Ruby (broccoli), David, Jess, Roger, Laurie, Kel, Flora (yam), Sue, Ted, Sorrel (mutant tomato), Sashie (tomato). Many thanks to the Vegetable Defenders for performing with Madtown Liberty Players in the debut of "Tomato Mutato"! Check back soon for more pictures! Meanwhile here's a larger version of the cast photo!

Madtown Liberty Players will open this summer with 3 short works in rotation on the Capitol Lawn during the Farmers Market on Sat June 21, from 10 AM - 12 noon.

• Last Dance of the Polar Bears: An eco-disaster waltz!
• Important Message: When George Bush wiretaps the Founding Fathers... WWJD? What Would Jefferson Do?
• Stones: Reflections on the carnage of war.

Future Capitol Lawn performances are scheduled for...
Sat July 19
Sat Aug 16
Sat Sep 13
Sat Oct 4

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED!

Saturday March 15 @ 3 PM (gather at 2:30)

Procession of Mourners
to mark
5 years since the US invasion of Iraq

Madtown Liberty Players have created 13 Mourner figures with full costumes and
papier mache faces to represent the victims of 5 years of U.S. warfare and
occupation upon Iraq. See practice photos:

http://madlibplayers.org/img/mourners.html

*** WE NEED 6-7 VOLUNTEERS WILLING TO WEAR A MOURNER COSTUME! ***

On Saturday, Mar 15 we will meet at the State St corner of the Capitol at 2:30
PM, get into costume, practice basic movement and gestures, then at 3:00
process slowly down State Street and back. We'll have a drum and we will
periodically cry out together in anguish. Some figures will carry babies.
We have practiced this and it is pretty overwhelming. We'll be done by 4 PM.

*** It's EASY to participate! We'll show you how to move. While many actions
on the Left engage the head; this one wholly engages the heart. If that's
for you, please *** email or phone now *** so we can be confident that all
our beautiful figures will be populated on Saturday!

Contact now:

Ted McManus
kinbote@charter.net
241-0259

On March 9, Madtown Liberty Players collaborated with Students for a Free Tibet to create 11 giant puppets for the Tibetan Return March in Chicago on Mar 10. Click for workshop photos.

Sat Sep 15, 10 AM - 12 noon on the Capitol lawn: Four short acts in rotation:

• Last Dance of the Polar Bears
• 3 Ways To Cook A Chicken
• Important Message
• Flushed Away!

Sun Sep 16, 11 AM: Giant puppets in the Willy Street Parade!

Thur Sep 27, 5 PM at UW College Library: 10' tall Liberty will raise her torch as a reading lamp for the ACLU's Banned Books Week!

Saturday August 11
10 AM - 12 Noon
Capitol Lawn
Free!

MADTOWN LIBERTY PLAYERS
present
political street theater
on the
Capitol lawn!

4 short pieces in rotation:

- IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson are illegally
wiretapped by the President! (YouTube video)

- FLUSHED AWAY: The President is flushing our money, our sons and daughters,
and our civil liberties down a Giant Toilet to pursue his war in Iraq.
Citizens, grab your plungers!

- DANCE OF THE POLAR BEARS: An eco-disaster waltz!

- 3 WAYS TO COOK A CHICKEN: Recipes for our warming planet. Bawwwk!

Polar Bears, threatened with extinction by global warming, will stage a
"Die-In" at Madison Gas and Electric's Blount Street generating facility on
Saturday, April 21.

The Polar Bear Die-In will be the finale of this year's Earth Day Action
that begins with a rally at Noon on the State Street steps of the Capitol.
The brief rally will be followed by a march to MG&E where Madtown Liberty
Players will stage the Die In to dramatize the plight of polar bears,
indigenous peoples and the entire planet.

The rally will promote specific, concrete proposals in support of the
following general demands: "No More Dirty Coal", "Cap Wisconsin CO2
Emissions" and "Renewable Energy Now". At Capitol rally, organizers will
call on rally participants to actively support the Miller-Black Bill capping
statewide CO2 levels at 1990 levels. At MG&E, we will announce the
formation of a Citizen's Commission on Dirty Coal to develop further work on
stopping the use of dirty coal in our community.

The evidence of human caused global warming is overwhelming and there is no
longer any real debate about the underlying science. Burning coal and other
fossil fuels releases CO2 that is warming the atmosphere. A warmer
atmosphere has resulted in less sea ice in the Artic. Polar bears use the
ice as a way to hunt for seals that are a cornerstone of their diet.
Without adequate ice cover, polar bears starve or drown trying to swim out
to find ice on which to hunt.

Bread & Puppet Theater invented the use of giant puppets in political street protests -- at least in North America -- during the Vietnam War, and they are still touring and performing and teaching and resisting injustice today.

Their performances offer much that is beautiful, and thoughtful, and sometimes puzzling. They also generally offer fresh sourdough rye bread with aioli. Like their art, the bread requires chewing.

=== Madison schedule! ===

THUR MAR 29: "How To Turn Distress Into Success: A Parable of War and its Making," Barrymore Theater, 2090 Atwood Ave, 7:30 PM, $9. go go go! [Note: time corrected to 7:30 PM!]

Now based in Glover, Vermont, Bread & Puppet last visited Madison 8 years ago in 1999. They are world famous and important to the history of American theater, puppetry, sculpture and activism.

Stefan Brecht, son of Bertolt Brecht, wrote a 1500-page, 2-volume history of their work ("The Bread and Puppet Theatre," Methuen/Routledge, 1988, out of print). Currently in print is Rehearsing With Gods, a gorgeous photographic history of their colossal puppets and imagery.

Do. Not. Miss! And bring your friends!

Madtown Liberty Players, with a plenitude of Friends and percussion from radical drum group Mad Rad Beats, perform Flushed Away! for the teeming crowd at the 17 Mar 2007 rally to mark four years of war and atrocity upon Iraq. Here's the video! [3/21 Update: Now replaced by a steadier video!]

(If the embedded video above doesn't work, follow this link.)

Who made this show happen? A multitudinous throng: Sarah, Matt, Karin, Kel, John, Dave, Stefanie, Joette, Roger, Betsey, Conrad, James, Mary, Buck, House Holder #4 (hey, who held House #4?), Jennifer, Stacy and Mad Rad Beats, Scout, Shawn, Kevin, Jess, Sorrel, Kathy and Ted!

[The original video with Blair Witch-style camera shake and some closeups is still available here.]