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Updated 2/11/2022

Bread and Puppet Theater

  • V

    VT

Institution/Business Type: Performing Group

Bread & Puppet Theater is an internationally celebrated company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art filled with music, dance and slapstick. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard. Founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City's Lower East Side, the theater has been based in the North East Kingdom of Vermont since the early 1970s.

Bread and Puppet presents a wide array of offerings from its homebase in Glover, VT. The Bread and Puppet Museum, one of the largest collections of puppets in the world, can be viewed in two stories of an 1863 dairy barn, open for self-guided tours year round. The Bread and Puppet Press, also on site, produces posters, banners, postcards, booklets and other "cheap art" created by director Peter Schumann and composed and realized by printshop director, Lila Winstead. Throughout the summer months, Bread and Puppet puts on a variety of shows: an outdoor puppet circus with a live brass band, a roving puppet pageant featuring the beautiful North East Kingdom landscape, and indoor puppet shows performed in the paper maché cathedral. Bread and Puppet can also be seen at parades, festivals, protests and marches, where it invites local community members to join. The theater offers a variety of educational programs including apprenticeships, residencies and workshops to artists, bakers, farmers and activists from all over the country and the world. 

For many of the fall and winter months, Bread and Puppet tours nationally and internationally, bringing political puppet shows, workshops, cheap art, exhibits, street performance and bread and aioli to communities near and far. 

For director Peter Schumann, art "has to be cheap and available to everybody." It feeds the soul, while bread feeds the stomach -- both are necessary to human life. After every show, Bread and Puppet serves its famous, generations-old sourdough bread, baked in wood-fired ovens and served with garlic aioli.

Find Me

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Independent

Year Founded:

1963

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Nonprofit - Independent

Year Founded:

1963

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Theater - Puppet

Additional Disciplines:

  • Visual/Crafts - Printmaking

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Community Arts
  • Exhibitions
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Public Art Projects (In Free, Public Spaces)
  • Residency - In School
  • Residency - Production / Development
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 150

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • Families
  • General Public
  • Immigrant Populations
  • School Groups
  • Teens

Languages Available:

  • Spanish

Geographic Reach:

  • Town / City
  • County
  • State
  • Multi-State Region
  • National
  • International

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Awards

Awards:

  • Obie AwardErasmus Award from AmsterdamVermont GovernorÂ’s Award for Excellence in the ArtsPuppeteers of America Award

Awards

Awards:

  • Obie AwardErasmus Award from AmsterdamVermont GovernorÂ’s Award for Excellence in the ArtsPuppeteers of America Award

Artist Info

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults

Subject Areas:

  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Visual/Crafts

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults

Subject Areas:

  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Visual/Crafts

Touring Artist

NEST Eligible Artist

Technical Requirements:

  • We rarely use amplified sound. We need lights for inside performances. We some times need a suspension system for inside shows. For residencies, we need work space with walls and floor available for working and painting, ample table space and chairs.

Fee Range:

$1,200 - $50,000

State of Residence:

Vermont

Minimum Number of Performers:

4

Maximum Number of Performers:

20