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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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