Bread and Puppet Theater is an American political puppet company founded by Peter SchumannPeter Schumann is the German-born artist who founded Bread a... in 1963, known for giant papier-mâché figures, processions and a deliberate commitment to cheap materials.
The name is literal
Schumann baked sourdough rye and served it free to audiences at performances, on the principle that art and bread are both basic necessities rather than luxuries. The practice continues.
Where it started and went
The company began on New York’s Lower East Side, performing in streets and at demonstrations during the 1960s, and later relocated to rural Vermont, where it is still based on a farm.
The construction philosophy is the useful part
Bread and Puppet builds enormous figures — several metres tall, carried by walkers or worked on poles — from papier-mâché, cardboard, cloth, scrap timber and whatever else is available. Nothing is precious and nothing is expensive. The scale does the work that detail would do indoors.
Cheap Art
The company’s associated manifesto argues explicitly against art as a commodity, and it sells prints and publications for very little on principle. Whatever you make of the politics, the material argument is directly relevant: you do not need expensive supplies to make work that moves people.
The museum
, housed in a converted barn on the Vermont farm, holds decades of accumulated puppets and masks and is among the more extraordinary collections of its kind anywhere.
Why it belongs in this glossary
It is the strongest available counterargument to the idea that puppetry means foamFoam is the structural material most soft puppets are built ... More, fleeceFleece is the knit fabric used as the outer skin on most mod... More and a television budget.