.PUPPET THEATRE of LAS CRUCES PEACE VIGIL
David M. Boje, Ph.D.
November 7, 2002
We are a Peace Activist Puppetry Troupe. We are making and displaying puppets for peace in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the Puppet Making Workshop (click here for details). We do this to attract the media of Las Cruces which has virtually ignored the weekly Peace Vigils held in front of the Federal Building for the past two months. Grand size puppets draw media and spectator attention (Iraq War about America killing for oil reserves, in case you are unaware). Who can resist taking a photo moment with a colorful super-human-sized puppet? Puppet Theatre can melt the hard hearts of the War mongers by seducing them with moments of joy and political reflection. Puppets can speak in a country that refuses to hear the voiceless who resist the War Machine. Puppet characters of carnivalesque street theatre can voice resistance during a time when our civil liberties are curtailed by restrictions on four amendments to the U.S. Constitution by the so-called "Patriot Act." Please Sign our Petition for Peace and Civil Liberties we intend to deliver to Las Cruces City Council (click here).
Puppet Theatre is a Carnival of Resistance to the Corporate and State controlled Spectacle of the War Machine (click here for info on Spectacle; Click here for info on Carnival). The Carnival of Resistance is the Voice of the People to Speak-Out against oppression of the Spectacle. The Spectacle is the media-driven War Machine that demonizes despots like Saddam Hussein or Bin Laden in order for Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. to strike fear into the hearts and minds of the American People, then turn $1.1 trillion in Iraq oil contracts over to the US/UK oil industrial complex. Demonization means the focus is on corporate-media creating fear of the evil leader, so that the savior leader, W. Bush, can rally the people to War and continue the genocide of 750,000 Iraqi children (in case you are unaware, this is to destabilize the Middle East so regime change can reissue the oil contracts to Bush family loyalists). Spectacle has been opposed by the Carnival resistance since the dawn of war.
We live in what Guy Debord (1969) calls the Society of the Spectacle. Spectacle is being resisted by the People of Peace of the City of Las Cruces in our acts of carnivalesque puppet theatre. We speak out against the majority who are driven by media-produced fear to stop thinking critically about the War Machine.
There is a long tradition of Puppet Theatre. In the tradition of Bread and Puppet Theatre, we present a Public Participation Uprising: The Insurrection Mass with Funeral March for the Oil War: A Special Mass for Peace in the Middle East.
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Photo 1: Bread and Puppet Theatre - Founded in 1963 by sculptor and puppeteer Peter Schumann; Domestic Resurrection Circus (Photo by Ronald T. Simon) - Fair Use Notice
The Mass and Pageantry generates discussion by the religious community of Las Cruces. Fundamentalists object to goddesses, synagogues object to the term "mass." The Quakers stop their silence. The New Age folks see the universe is at odds. The aim is provocative, a call to awaken the sleeping churches and synagogues to pray, meditate and reflect upon a nation headed to war with hands raised with three fingers of the "W." Like Berlin in the 1930s, Las Cruses' religious community is unusually silent about the War Machine. Here are 10 acts for the awakening:
(1) People of Las Cruces fashion paper maché Gods and Goddesses of Peace and Gods of War such as President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
(2) There is a rehearsal of the puppet characters at the Wednesday Peace Vigil on Church Street in Las Cruces each Wednesday from 4 to 6 PM in front of the Federal Building
(3) Opening Prayer for Peace is interrupted by the War Machine
(4) Peace Hymn of the Day regains the stage
(5) A silent Image Theatre scene of Peace breaks out among the puppets
(6) Drums of war beat as peace is overcome by the War Machine puppets
(7) The people awake from the hypnotic madness of the War Machine and send War back to Hell
(8) A Pageantry March of the Puppets conveys an Epitaph of Peace from the Federal Building to the steps of Las Cruces City Hall
(9) Silent puppets of peace deliver a Peace Resolution to the City Council of Las Cruces
(10) An Olive Branch of Peace is delivered to City Hall as candles are lite for the Peace Vigil.
Photo 2: Bread and Puppet Street Theatre Puppet March - Columbus:
The New World Order
(Photo: David W. Fura) - Fair
Use Notice
There are times such as Saturday at the downtown Las Cruces open mall, where a parade could be performed. A procession of 100 puppeteers with super-larger-than-life size puppets parading down the mall would be a photo opportunity, a chance to give silent voice to our carnival of resistance.
(1) The first Story Board scene, is set of over-sized masks that are 3 feet by 4 feet size, with black robes covering the puppeteers.
(2) Second troupe of puppeteers presents a scene of Peace.
(3) Third troupe of puppeteers surrounds the Peace troupe and bombards them with missiles and bombs.
(4) Fourth troupe is a funeral procession for the war dead sons of daughters of Las Cruces soldiers.
(5) Fifth troupe is a funeral procession of little coffins for 750,000 children dead from 12 years of U.S. sanctions.
(6) Sixth troupe is the awakening of the American public from the media spectacle of the War Machine.
(7) Final story board troupe performs a War crimes trial.
Himsa means violence. We are not about this. Ahimsa means non-violence. This is what PeaceAware advocates. Should the Police of the City of Las Cruces arrest any puppeteers and confiscate their puppets, PeaceAware asks that you engage in non-violence (Ahimsa) in word and deed. Arresting puppets has happened in the past. In Philadelphia at the 2000 Republican Convention, police arrested puppets and those how helped to build them. Police entered Spiral Q Puppet Theatre studio, arrested the puppet makers and took their puppets to jail (source). Puppets are also being banned for being weapons of mass-maché construction, by some cities across America. Why ban puppets? The reason for the ban is that puppets are photogenic and disrupt the message of the War Machine sustained in corporate-controlled media (See Artists for Peace & Justice). Even photo journalists of the Sun-News could not resist photographing the Las Cruces Peace Vigil troupe dressed in Halloween costumes, but the owners decided against publication of the colorful photos. Most cities have no ordinances against puppets or street theatre. Side walks are zones of free speech. The Mayor of Taos, New Mexico, went so far as to declare the entire city as a "Free Speech Zone" (read story).
What to do if you are arrested in a peace demonstration, march or street theatre event:
Do not loose your cool; the point is to be peaceful and let the War Machine act out its violence against the people.
Do not go limp, officers untrained in such matters may use your immobility as an excuse to break your fingers and arms.
Go along quietly. You were civil and disobedient (or maybe did nothing at all), but your arrest is your peaceful statement.
Call your mom.
Pray and meditate for Peace
Keep a journal or diary of the event.
Next see Puppet Making Workshop