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Bread and Puppet Circus: subversive, gorgeous "cheap art"

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Huge puppets with a lot to say about modern life.

I first encountered the Bread and Puppet folks because I was singing Sacred Harp music with members of the Word of Mouth Chorus, also based in Vermont; the two groups were somewhat enmeshed. I was entranced by the swaying, ghostly figures - far more, I must say, than I was entranced by their revolutionary bent. I still find the pageantry of sober, iconic puppets very appealing and thought I'd give a hat-tip to the group that, I believe, started the odd and wonderful movement now called the puppet underground.

They generally hold summer workshops so you can join the troupe temporarily if you like. See their website, below.

Bread and Puppet's "Why Cheap Art?" manifesto

The only problem is, cheap art leaves artists to starve...

What is Bread and Puppet?

In the picture: some of their retired puppets from the museum in Glover, Vermont

From Wikipedia: "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."

DVD: "Ah! The Hopeful Pageantry of Bread and Puppet"

Film by Dee Dee Halleck and Tamar Schumann, drawn from over 200 hours of footage shot at the Bread and Puppet Domestic Resurrection Circus from 1990-1998.

Neither a straight documentary nor an "educational" rendition of theater history, Ah! is more like a Bread and Puppet film, one that captures the spirit and essence of this influential theater group.

Order Ah! from AK Press.

"Rehearsing with Gods" at Amazon

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History of Bread and Puppet

From Wikipedia.

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.

The theater offers weekend performances all summer long, and travels 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.

A very eccentric little mail-order catalog from Bread and Puppet...

Download their mail-order catalog, their graphic sense is really quite spectacular in a retro way which I adore:

Bread and Puppet Mail Order Catalog 2009

Links relating to Bread and Puppet, and puppet-making

Peter Schumann: Puppets, Bread and Art
By Andrew Ryder, for a graduate course in puppetry history and theory.
The Puppetry Home Page
The Puppetry Home Page is dedicated to international puppetry and lists puppetry information and resources. Hugely helpful!
Nick Barone Puppets
Nick Barone Puppets provides puppet shows and professionally built puppets and puppet videos. Also includes puppet building information, drawn from articles I've written over the years. There is also a list of puppetry books etc.
Bread and Puppet: Cheap Art and Political Theater in Vermont
The group's website.
History of Radical Puppetry
Puppets are immediate and authentic. Hewn from scraps of cloth, paper and duct tape, they are the quintessential tricksters--court jesters without the court, able to cross boundaries of both opinion and propriety, enabling us to critique society and government with handmade beauty and wit...
HANDSPRING PUPPET COMPANY - cutting edge Puppet Theatre
HANDSPRING PUPPET COMPANY is based in South Africa and continues to explore the boundaries of adult PUPPET THEATRE within an African context.

This lens is part of Chapel Hill Fiddler's Puppets & Masks CollectionPunch and Judy • How to Make your Own Punch & Judy Dolls • Casting a plaster mold to make a paper mache head • Punch & Judy show: the other characters • Bread and Puppet Circus • How to Make a Handmade Parade • Adult Puppet Theater • Make a La Llorona paper mache mask • Scary Masks from Afar • How to make a giant puppet and an El Tigre head • The giant head masks of Jane Filer • Make a space alien head from papier mache • Creep masks for Halloween inspiration • See all the puppet lenses at once • The scary recycled puppets of artist Michel Nedjar

What do you think?

  • castlequeen51 Apr 16, 2012 @ 4:42 pm | delete
    I LOVE all the puppetry on htese lenses! Makes me want to make some again:)
  • Evelyn_Saenz Aug 17, 2009 @ 8:05 am | delete
    Art should be as common as bread, produced by everyone and shared with all. This is a theme you find throughout Vermont culture. Thank you for sharing the Bread and Puppet Theatre.

    Lensrolled to Come Visit Vermont.
  • kimmanleyort Aug 12, 2009 @ 7:30 pm | delete
    Very interesting! 5*
  • 0ctavias0fferings Aug 11, 2009 @ 3:36 am | delete
    Excellent lens, 5* and a lensroll or three to my puppet lenses.
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Bread and Puppet show, summer 2009: The Dirt Cheap Money Circus

This photo is by Mary Alice Amidon

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ChapelHillFiddler

Musician in Chapel Hill with two bands: Mappamundi, a world music - klezmer - swing band, and the Pratie Heads, a Celtic - British Isles - early music... more »

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