bread and puppet

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The Bread and Puppet Theater (often known simply as Bread & Puppet) is a politically

radicalpuppet theater, active since the 1960s, currently based inGlover, Vermont. Its founder

and director isPeter Schumann.

The name Bread & Puppet derives from the theater's practice of sharing its own fresh bread,

served for free withaioli, with the audience of each performance as a means of creatingcommunity, and from its central principle that art should be as basic to life as bread. Some

have heard echoes of the Roman phrase "bread and circuses" or the labor slogan "Bread and

Roses" in the theater's name as well, though these are not often mentioned in Bread &

Puppet's own explanations of its name.

The Bread and Puppet Theater participates in parades including Fourth of July celebrations,

notably inCabot, Vermont, with many effigies including a satirical Uncle Sam on stilts.

History

The Theater was founded in 19621963 in New York City. It was active during theVietnam

Warinanti-warprotests, primarily in New York. It is often remembered as a central part of

the political spectacle of the time, as its enormous puppets (often ten to fifteen feet tall) were

a fixture of many demonstrations. In 1970 the Theater moved toVermont, first toGoddard

CollegeinPlainfield, and then to afarminGloverwhere it still resides. The farm is home to a

cow, several pigs, puppeteers and chickens, as well as indoor and outdoor performance

spaces, a printshop, store and large museum showcasing over four decades of the company's

work. The Bread & Puppet Theater has receivedNational Endowment for the Artsgrants and

numerous awards from thePuppeteers of Americaand other organizations.

Our Domestic Resurrection Circus - Mid 1980s

Until 1998 the Bread & Puppet hosted its annualPageantandCircus(in full, Our Domestic

Resurrection Circus), in and around a naturalamphitheateron its Glover grounds. In the

1990s the festival became very large, drawing crowds in the tens of thousands of people who

camped on nearby farmers' land over the summer week long of the pageant. The event

became unmanageably large and less and less concerned with the theater's performance. In

1998 a man was accidentally killed in a fight while camping overnight for the festival, and

director Peter Schumann subsequently canceled the festival.[1]Since then the theater hasinstead offered smaller weekend performances all summer long, and traveled aroundNew
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YorkandNew England, with occasional tours around the U.S. and abroad. The theater runs a

program where apprentices help produce and act in performances.[2]

In New York City, Bread

& Puppet annually performs atTheater for the New Cityduring the holiday season.

[edit] Causes

Specific causes over the years have been:

Anti-war. To shut downVermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant[3] Support forDaniel Ortega'sSandinistasafter a junta had taken over Nicaragua in 1979 TheZapatistaUprising of 1994 TheMOVEOrganization Opposition to registering for thedraft[4] Opposition to theWorld Trade Organization[5]

[edit] Conflicts

This unreferenced section requirescitationsto ensureverifiability.

[edit] 2000 Republican National Convention

Bread & Puppet volunteers were among the 79 people arrested at a warehouse inPhiladelphia

during the 2000Republican National Convention. The Associated Press reported that the

scene of the "SWAT-style" raid was broadcast live by news helicopters. Years later, the AP

explained that there "was tense talk (later proved unfounded) of terrorist plots being hatched

in the "puppetista" headquarters, of bomb building and anarchist-fueled mayhem." Its report

did not include the police's side of the story.

"A couple of our folks were down there, helping to build puppets", said Linda Elbow,

company manager for Bread & Puppet. "The cops went into the studio...arrested people, and

took the puppets. So, now, puppets are criminals."

[edit] 2001 Halloween Parade

The Bread & Puppet Theater is a regular participant inNew York's Village Halloween

Parade, noted for its use of giant puppets. In 2001, Bread & Puppet did not march in the

parade. The Theater's plans that year included a presentation protesting the war in

Afghanistan. The Halloween parade was to occur fifty days after and 1.5 miles away from the

September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. It was this attack which precipitated

the war Bread & Puppet Theater was protesting, and the company's "anti-war stance"

reportedly "...already placed it at odds with some New Yorkers", according to Dan Bacalzo of

TheaterMania.com. Many of the parade's macabre elements were suspended that year by its

directorJeanne Fleming. It was not known until October 25 whether it would even take place.

Elbow commented, "We certainly weren't saying 'Hooray for the terrorists.' We were saying,'Look what you're doing to the people of Afghanistan.'" An unattributed quote in Bacalzo's
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report"What you're bringing, we don't want" suggests it was the group's selection of

material that was unwelcome, not the group itself. The report did not make it clear how the

decision was made, or who made it; the incident was included as secondary background

material in a piece publicizing on upcoming B&P show. Fleming, who was not interviewed

by Bacalzo (but is quoted as if he was), says that Bread and Puppet was not "disinvited",

adding that it was she who first invited the company to march in the parade when she tookover as organizer.

In December 2001 the Theater returned to New York with The Insurrection Mass with

Funeral March for a Rotten Idea: A Special Mass for the Aftermath of the Events of

September 11th. It was presented at Theater for the New City, and billed as "a nonreligious

service in the presence of several papier-mch gods." The "Insurrection Masses" are a

common format for the Bread & Puppet Theater, as are such "Funerals", though the "rotten"

ideas change.

[edit] Bread & Puppet PressIn addition to the theater, some of the Bread & Puppet puppeteers operate the Bread &

Puppet Press, directed by Elka Schumann, who is Peter Schumann's wife (and granddaughter

ofScott Nearing). The press produces posters, cards and books on the Theater's themes as

well as other forms of "cheap art." The broadsheet Why Cheap Art? Manifesto is among the

press's best-known products.

[edit] Critics' comments

Notable writers and performers have participated in the theater, includingchildren's theaterperformerPaul Zaloomand writerGrace Paley.

Other writers to have praised Bread & Puppet include historianHoward Zinn, who praises its

"magic, beauty, and power", and poet andNPRcommentatorAndrei Codrescu, who wrote:

"The Bread & Puppet Theater has been so long a part of America's conscious struggle for our

better selves, that it has become, paradoxically, a fixture of our subconscious."

[edit] Reference in popular media

The Bread & Puppet Theater is visually referenced in the 2007 filmAcross the Universe,directed byJulie Taymor. Schumann was approached by the film's producers and asked if he
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would make puppets for the film. He told them to build the puppets themselves.[6]

Notable

characters replicated for the movie include Uncle Fatso, Washer Women, White Ladies, and

the many armed Mother head. The Bread & Puppet Circus Band is also visually referenced in

the costumes of the circus band during "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", the only notable

difference in costume being that the band in the movie wears white and black, rather than the

traditional red and black of the Bread & Puppet Circus Band. The Bread & Puppet Theater isnoted in the film credits.

[7]
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