Breaking BREAD

A chronology of the creative exploits of BREAD Arts Collective at NACL.

They first appeared for a week in 2017, mounting their rock'n'roll hommage á Brecht, Rise and Fall, a visceral stew of sublime debauchery, poetic licentiousness, bodily fluids, and leftist indignation. They were a group of scrappy, talented, young punks on a mission to bring some momentary, frail beauty into being, while confronting depravity and an overwhelming sense of loss in the great garbage heap at the end of the rainbow.

2018

Some of them came back the following summer to help with a festival and present some new experiments, in which they cut themselves a new world out of cardboard, accepted a collect call from their childhood, and made us weep oil from our dinosaur eyes.

2022

BREAD member Lyndsey Anderson joins the staff of NACL and the "slices" come roaring back as lions. A tiger. A flying Dutchman. Everything is prey. More bodily fluids... ROAR! is the name of the outré play, inspired by the Tippi Hedren cult film with the same name, written and directed by company member Lindsey Hope Pearlman.

2024

Anderson becomes possessed by Anne Sexton. Apparently, Anne's therapist had once told her "God is in your typewriter." Lyndsey took that to heart, started poking around in her own Smith-Corona and then called in the team to dash off another one: Sex. Booze. Cigarettes... Sexton. Plath. Vonnegut... [Bell rings. Carriage returns.]

If you're lucky you can catch God Is In Your Typewriter at Cloud City in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — January 9-10, 2026. Get Tickets.

2025

For our Fall '25 Hybrid Performance Event, BREAD was up for a challenge. At NACL we currently produce two community-focused Hybrid Performance Events (HyPE) each year. They are envisioned as artist-engineered social events in which multiple disciplines or modes of performance and entertainment collide in a festive atmosphere with immersive experiences and opportunities for audience participation.

NACL: How about a murder mystery?

BREAD: Why not. A murder mystery?

NACL: Yes, AND a DANCE contest.

We asked for it... BREAD delivered. The most elaborate HyPE to date, BREAD's Murder on the Dance Floor was a fully scripted performance designed to engage audience members as dance contestants as well as jurists in this mashup of whodunnit and dance hall swagger.

Oh, what a night! We wish you all could have been there. In lieu of that, Lyndsey has cut together, for those of you who missed it, this little sizzler, offering a taste of BREAD and their collaboratively created original, interactive extravaganza, Murder On the Dance Floor: Disco Inferno. Enjoy!

We consider ourselves fortunate to count the generous and indefatigable artists of BREAD Arts Collective among our creative family. You can learn more about them at their website: breadartscollective.com