Welcome to Greenwood! Greenwood: The Musical springs from the imagination of director and writer Ira Karp, a teenager with Down syndrome. “Greenwood” is the name of a farm on top of a hill, and it tells the story of its colorful inhabitants: Lucy and Edmund of Narnia; their secretary, Rockface; pregnant farm helper Rosemary and her husband, John Piper; ambulance driver Balthazar; Nurse Fifi; and Dr. Scrubb. Cows are milked, cheese is made, babies are born, holidays are celebrated, ambulances rescue people, and celebrities pop in for visits. It’s a musical soap opera that’s both mundane and magical—all told in Ira’s quirky, exuberant voice, with song and dance numbers inspired by nursery rhymes, Bread and Puppet shows, Broadway musicals, traditional folk songs, and pop hits.
Tickets: TSL Members $20 / Students $15 / General $25
About Ira Karp
Ira Karp is a performer, writer, director, and high school senior from Greensboro, Vermont. He grew up on a sheep and apple farm and spends as much time as possible each summer at the Bread and Puppet Theater, which his grandfather, Peter Schumann, directs. At Bread and Puppet, Ira has performed as a flag waver, announcer, accordion player, Humanity, Ophelia, and drummer. In 2023 and 2024, he was a semi-finalist in the Vermont Poetry Out Loud contest. Ira loves cooking, The Wizard of Oz, pizza, school, pop radio, and spending time with his friends. He plans to become an EMT and a baker when he grows up. Ira directed his first circus, The Total This and That Sheep and Apple Lovey Circus, in 2018 at age 11.
Since then, Ira has written and directed several other works: The Honey Let’s Go Home Circus (2022), which Performed at: Studio Route 29 (Frenchtown, NJ), Bread and Puppet Theater, The Highland Center for the Arts, Cate Hill Orchard, Hazen Union High School, The Vermont Self Advocates Gala (Montpelier, VT); as well as The Jit (2023), performed at, Cate Hill Orchard, Bread and Puppet Theater, and The Wizard of Oz (2024) Performed at, Bread and Puppet Theater.
About Mind/Life Theater Productions
We are carpenters, activists, nurses, filmmakers, musicians, farmers, dancers, healers, folklorists, teachers, artists, and museum directors. Between the six of us, we collectively have 150 years of puppeteering experience at the Bread and Puppet Theater. Our many endeavors include The Museum of Everyday Life, The Boxcutters Collective, Bread and Salt School of Folk Magic and Ritual, Mountain Magnet Therapy, and more. We come together to work with Ira and to learn from his joyous and free artistry—because we love doing it.
