Everything about The Bread And Puppet Theater totally explained
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 theater's practice of sharing its own fresh bread, served for free with a strong garlic
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 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 in
Cabot, Vermont, with many effigies including a satirical Uncle Sam on stilts.
History
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 organizations.
Until
1998 the Bread & Puppet hosted its annual
Pageant and
Circus (in full,
Our Domestic Resurrection 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 weekend 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 cancelled 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. In
New York City, Bread & Puppet annually performs at
Theater for the New City during the holiday season.
Causes
Specific causes over the years have been:
Conflicts
2000 Republican National Convention
Bread & Puppet volunteers were among the 79 people arrested at a warehouse in
Philadelphia during the
2000 Republican 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 didn't 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."
2001 Halloween Parade
The Bread & Puppet Theater is a regular participant in
New York's Village Halloween Parade, noted for its use of giant puppets. In 2001, Bread & Puppet didn't 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 retired that year by its director
Jeanne Fleming. It wasn't 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 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 didn't 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 wasn't interviewed by Bacalzo (but is quoted as if he did), says that Bread and Puppet wasn't "disinvited," adding that it was she who first invited the company to march in the parade when she took over 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-mâché gods." The "Insurrection Masses" are a common format for the Bread & Puppet Theater, as are such "Funerals," though the "rotten" ideas change.
Bread & Puppet Press
In 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 of
Scott 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.
Praise for the theater
Notable writers and performers have participated in the theater, including children's performer
Paul Zaloom and writer
Grace Paley.
Other writers to have praised Bread & Puppet include historian
Howard Zinn, who praises its "magic, beauty, and power," and poet and
NPR commentator
Andrei 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." Codrescu also praised "the genius of Peter Schumann, the prodigious Puppet-God."
Footnotes
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bread And Puppet Theater'.
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