Bread and Puppet Theater facts for kids
Puppets on display in the Bread & Puppet Museum
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| Formation | 1962–1963 |
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| Type | Theatre group |
| Purpose | Political Puppetry |
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Artistic director(s)
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Peter Schumann |
The Bread and Puppet Theater (often called Bread & Puppet) is a special kind of puppet theater. It uses puppets to share ideas about politics and society. This group has been active since the 1960s and is based in Glover, Vermont. It was started by Elka and Peter Schumann, who is still the artistic director.
The name "Bread & Puppet" comes from two main ideas. First, they often share fresh bread with garlic sauce (aïoli) for free with the audience after their shows. This helps create a feeling of community. Second, they believe art should be as important and basic to life as bread. Some people also think the name reminds them of old sayings like "bread and circuses" or "Bread and Roses", but the theater itself doesn't usually mention these.
The Bread and Puppet Theater often takes part in parades, like Independence Day celebrations in Cabot, Vermont. They use many large puppets, including a funny Uncle Sam puppet on stilts.
History
Peter and Elka Schumann started The Bread & Puppet Theater in 1963 in New York City. They were very active during the Vietnam War, taking part in protests against the war in New York City. Their huge puppets, often 10 to 15 feet tall, were a common sight at these demonstrations. A reviewer from Time magazine even said in 1971 that their shows were "as contemporary as tomorrow's bombing raid."
Schumann was inspired by a puppet show from Sicily. In turn, Bread & Puppet inspired other groups, like People & Puppets Incorporated, which also used large puppets to show political ideas. In 1970, the Theater moved to Vermont, first to Goddard College in Plainfield, and then to a farm in Glover. This farm is still their home today. It has animals, places for shows, a print shop, a store, and a big museum. The museum displays over 40 years of their work. The theater has won awards from groups like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Puppeteers of America.
In 1984 and 1985, they toured colleges with a play called The Door. This play told the story of the terrible events that happened to Guatemalan and El Salvadorian Indigenous people. It also showed the struggles of refugees trying to escape to the North. The play used very few spoken words, making its points "with great simplicity and beauty."
Until 1998, Bread & Puppet held a big yearly event called Our Domestic Resurrection Circus at their farm in Glover. In the 1990s, tens of thousands of people would come to this festival. They would camp on nearby farms. The event became too big to manage. In 1998, a person died in an accident during a fight while camping for the festival. Because of this, Peter Schumann decided to stop the big festival.
Since then, the theater offers smaller shows every summer weekend. They also travel around New York and New England, and sometimes tour other parts of the U.S. and other countries. The theater has a program where young people can learn to help create and perform in the shows. In New York City, Bread & Puppet performs at Theater for the New City every year during the holiday season.
"Cheap Art" and Theater Funding
The Bread & Puppet Theater follows a rule they call the “Why Cheap Art” Manifesto. This idea says that art should be available to everyone, not just for museums and rich people. The theater believes that "art is not a business." Their shows are often free or ask for a small donation. They also sell related art for "very little money."
The theater runs on a very small budget, which they call a “shoestring" budget. This means that people working for them have historically been paid very little. Many things used to make the shows, like clothes and puppet materials, are found second-hand or given as donations. The theater usually gets money for its shows by going on tour.
Even though the government offers grants, Schumann often says no to them. He thinks that not taking money for protests "leaves him freer to experiment." This way of thinking about money led Schumann to stop the theater's main company in 1973. He was worried it was becoming too much like a "professional theater." By doing this, Schumann had "uncompromising control" over his shows.
"Cheap art" is a main idea for the theater. It shows in their beliefs and how their art looks. They are against capitalism and are often seen as having a "hippie" viewpoint. Their art is sometimes described as "slapdash" or "unsightly," but also as simple and "distinctively homemade."
Causes
The Bread & Puppet Theater supports many causes, including:
- Being against warfare.
- Being against signing up for the military draft.
- Being against the World Trade Organization.
- Supporting the shutdown of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
- Supporting the Sandinista National Liberation Front revolution in Nicaragua (1979–1990).
- The Zapatista Uprising of 1994.
- The MOVE Organization.
Works
Performances
Fire (1965)
This was an hour-long play that spoke out against the war in Vietnam. It was dedicated to American protesters who died after setting themselves on fire. The play showed what life was like for Vietnamese villagers during the war.
Birdcatcher in Hell (1971)
This play was a Kyōgen (a type of Japanese comedy). It criticized President Nixon for forgiving soldiers involved in the My Lai Massacre.
Stations of the Cross (1972)
This show was a modern version of the New Testament story of Jesus's suffering before his crucifixion. It used music from Sacred Harp for the first time in a Bread and Puppet show. Elka Schumann said the play was also a way to talk about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Joan of Arc (1979)
This show used music and puppets to tell the story of St. Joan. It was performed again in 1999. In 2009, Taiwan was the first country in Asia to show the new version of Joan of Arc.
Mending the Sky/Bu Tian (1994)
This was a show created with the 425 Environmental Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan. The play focused on pollution problems in Taiwan. It used ideas from traditional Chinese mythology, like the goddess Nüwa. The show talked about the pollution of the Tamsui River in its first performances. Later, it changed to focus on other polluted rivers depending on where it was performed. Some critics liked its important social messages.
Bread Baker's Cantata (1999)
This play was performed along with the updated Joan of Arc show. It was a slow play that showed an old woman's last day on Earth using singers and actors.
Books and Publications
Besides the theater, some of the Bread & Puppet puppeteers also run the Bread & Puppet Press. This press is led by Elka Schumann, Peter Schumann's wife. The press makes posters, cards, and books about the Theater's ideas, as well as other kinds of "cheap art."
Some publications from the Bread & Puppet Press include:
- Cheap Art Manifestos
- 10 Purposes of Cheap Art
- Importance of Cheap Art
- Why Cheap Art?
- Comics
- 40 How Tos
- Courage
- Life and Death of Charolette Solomon
- Off to Lubberland
- Planet Kasper Volume I
- We Grass
Notable Contributors
Some well-known writers and performers who have worked with the theater include:
- Children's theater performer Paul Zaloom.
- Writer Grace Paley.
Conflicts
2000 Republican National Convention
Some Bread & Puppet volunteers were among 79 people arrested at a warehouse in Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican National Convention. News helicopters showed the police raid live. Years later, it was said that there was talk (which turned out to be false) about dangerous plans being made at the "puppetista" headquarters.
Linda Elbow, the company manager for Bread & Puppet, said, "A couple of our folks were down there, helping to build puppets. The cops went into the studio...arrested people, and took the puppets. So, now, puppets are criminals."
2001 Halloween Parade
The Bread & Puppet Theater often takes part in New York's Village Halloween Parade. They are known for their giant puppets. In 2001, Bread & Puppet did not march in the parade. Their plan that year was to protest the War in Afghanistan. The Halloween parade was happening just 50 days after the attack on the World Trade Center. This attack was why the war started, and the company's "anti-war stance" was not popular with some New Yorkers.
Linda Elbow said, "We certainly weren't saying 'Hooray for the terrorists.' We were saying, 'Look what you're doing to the people of Afghanistan.'" It seems the group's message was not welcome that year.
In December 2001, the Theater returned to New York with a show called The Insurrection Mass with Funeral March for a Rotten Idea: A Special Mass for the Aftermath of the Events of September 11th. It was performed at Theater for the New City.
Critics' comments
Many writers have praised Bread & Puppet. Historian Howard Zinn said it had "magic, beauty, and power." Poet and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu wrote that the theater has been a part of America's efforts for a better society for so long that it has become a "fixture of our subconscious."
The theater's protests against the Vietnam War and its message of peace usually received good television coverage. Keith Lampe, writing in WIN magazine, praised Peter Schumann's "concern for movement," "sound," and "appearance" in the theater's 1966 anti-war demonstration.
In 2015, Gia Kourlas reviewed the theater’s show “The Seditious Conspiracy Theater Presents: A Monument to the Puerto Rican Political Prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera.” She described the show as "patchy," sometimes "more cute than pointed," and seemed to be "preaching to the converted."
See also
In Spanish: Bread and Puppet Theatre para niños
- Cantastoria
- In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
- Paperhand Puppet Intervention
