THE PAPER BAG PLAYERS in
“ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI!”
Dates set for 2008 Summer tour

A Runaway Meatball, A Magical Box, A Heroic Plumber Hit the Road!

The OBIE-award winning PAPER BAG PLAYERS will perform their show, “ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI,” a very funny, very musical, very audience-participatory hour of theater for children ages 4 – 9, this summer in New York City and vicinity at the following locations:

In “ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI” the audience helps a dashing plumber in his breathtaking battle with a most extra-ordinary leak; learns to never, never, NEVER put the kitty in the bathtub; and takes a trip to the moon and back again with a runaway meatball on a sneeze-propelled rocket ship! 

The ensemble includes Paper Bag favorites: Ted Brackett, Kevin Richard Woodall and Laura Canty-Samuel.  They combine the skills of actor, singer, dancer, acrobat and clown playing everything from the aforementioned meatball, to a very crafty paper-bag leak, to a 12-foot tall cardboard family.  Moreover, they each possess a friendliness that helps involve every member of the young audience in the fun.

And the music!  Whether it’s a ragtime beat, the tickle of the slide whistle or the tap of a tin can, every moment of the show is enhanced with melody.  John Stone, resident composer, is there to play it live--he’s a show in himself!

THE PAPER BAG PLAYERS, under the artistic direction of Judith Martin, have spoken directly to their young audiences for 49 years.  Making a friend, doing your homework, going shopping with your parents are subjects that have formed the basis of their original plays.  Starting with the familiar “the Bags” let their imaginations take off.  A family vacation across the country turns into a search for a giant (paper) hamburger and a little girl having trouble with a school quiz is helped by a friendly mathematically inclined (cardboard) alligator. 

This combination of the ordinary and the fantastic is the foundation of “the Bags” approach to theater.  An approach fully supported by the material they use for their sets, props, costumes.  Paper bags, cardboard boxes, old clothes you might find in an attic trunk or ordinary household items: mops, pots, pans, wooden spoons--items children themselves play with—are the raw materials of their unique theatrical world.

For nearly five decades they have set the standard for quality in children’s entertainment.  THE PAPER BAG PLAYERS in “ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI” carry on this tradition---delightfully.  It’s a show no one will want to miss!

The Paper Bag Players Archives Donated to
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Exhibition of Theater Items Opens May 5th

The Paper Bag Players are packing up their SCRAPS, CUT–UPS, PINEAPPLE SOUP, and HOT FEET,  as well as their scripts, original scores, programs, posters, photographs, calendars, contracts, and letters, and heading to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, to become a part of the Billy Rose Theatre Division’s collections. 

The “bags” of history from this influential theater for children join the Library’s archives of several other theaters that emerged from the same experimental performing arts movement of the 1960s. Scholars and the general public will discover how this small company had its first performances at the innovative  Living Theater; how, over its 50 years, it has performed not only in New York City but across the United States and in England, Scotland, Wales, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan; how The Paper Bag Players has introduced over 5 million children to the magic of live theater; and how it has introduced such theatrical innovations as shows that take their inspiration from their audiences’  daily lives; props and costumes made of paper bags, cardboard and found objects; audience involvement in the action; and painting the stage.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is marking this acquisition with the exhibition THE PAPER BAG PLAYERS: 50 YEARS OFTHEATER ART. Drawn from the archival material, the exhibition makes The Paper Bag Players history actual.  The exhibition will be on view in the Library’s first floor Plaza Lobby Gallery and continue in the second floor Steinberg Room from Monday, May 5 through Saturday, August 2, 2008. Featured among the cast of characters on display are a dinosaur, a corrugated cardboard brother and sister, and a very large tabby cat.  There will also be examples of The Paper Bag Players collaboration with other artists, including Red Groom’s phantasmagorical sculpture of “The Paper Bag Players on Parade to Henry Street Settlement.” The exhibition gives a good sense of this company that has delighted generations of children with theater that is friendly, simple and straightforward and been consistently innovative at the same time

Kathy Mele, President of The Paper Bag Players Board, is thrilled that the company’s archives will be housed in New York City--the city that has so generously supported The Paper Bag Players. “The work of The Paper Bag Players captures the energy and exuberance of New York,” she remarked. “It is happily appropriate that its archive should be housed at The New York Public Library.”

Karen Nickeson, Assistant Curator of the Billy Rose Theatre Division, adds, “I really don’t know of any theater that does the same thing as The Paper Bag Players. It melds scenic art, music, drama, comedy and poetry in such a way that both children and adults are moved by its artistry. The collection will be available to students of theater, of course, but I can also imagine fans who grew up with this company wanting to look up their favorite show or performer.  The acquisition of The Paper Bag Players archives suits the current goals of the Library by documenting a half century of family theater and a creative process of engaging inventiveness."

Judith Liss, Managing Director of The Paper Bag Players is honored. “To be part of such an impressive archive—an archive where several theater artists we know and have worked with are also housed—is a real privilege.” 

The Paper Bag Players: 50 Years of Theater Art is on display from May 5, 2008 through August 2, 2008 in the Plaza Lobby and Steinberg Room Gallery of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; Monday and Thursday from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 212-592-7730 or visit www.nypl.org.

About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world’s most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts –whether professional or amateur– the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book