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The Bread and Puppet Theater (often known simply as Bread & Puppet) is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, currently based in Glover, Vermont. Its founder and director is Peter Schumann.
The name Bread & Puppet derives from the theatre's practice of sharing its own fresh bread, served for free with aioli, with the audience of each performance as a means of creating community, 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 theatre'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 in Cabot, Vermont, with many effigies including a satirical Uncle Sam on stilts. The Theater was founded in 1962–1963 in New York City. It was active during the Vietnam War in anti-war protests, 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 to Vermont, first to Goddard College in Plainfield, and then to a farm in Glover where 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 received National Endowment for the Arts grants and numerous awards from the Puppeteers of America and other organisations. Until 1998 the Bread & Puppet hosted its annual Pageant and Circus , in and around a natural amphitheater on 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 theatre'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.
Since then the theater has instead offered smaller weekend performances all summer long, and traveled around New York and New England, with occasional tours around the U.S. and abroad. The theater runs a program where apprentices help produce and act in performances. In New York City, Bread & Puppet annually performs at Theater for the New City during the holiday season.
Bread and Puppet Theater
753 Heights Rd
Glover, Vt 05839
802-525-3031
Here are few videos reflect some of their work ...