Bread and Puppet Theater

The Bread & Puppet Theater operates under what they call the “Why Cheap Art” Manifesto.[8] This a principle that states art should be accessible to the public, not “a privilege of museums & the rich.”[8] The theater is quoted as claiming: "art is not a business."[9] Bread & Puppet productions are free or paid for by donation, and related art is for sale "for very little money."[10]

The theater operates on a “shoestring" budget.[10] This means that staff are historically paid as low as $35 a week (in 1977) and that many items used in the production of the theater, including clothing and raw puppet materials, are obtained second hand or by donation.[11][12] The theater typically has been known to generate the funds necessary for production by going on tour.[11] Although government grants are available to the theater, Schumann rejects the "absurdity" of grants for protest, insisting the lack of aid "leaves him freer to experiment."[11] This attitude towards business led Schumann to disband the communal company of the theater in 1973 out of concern that the theater was coming too close to a "pattern of the professional theater."[11] Disbanding the company gave Schumann "uncompromising control" over production.[11]

"Cheap art" is said to be a core principle of the theater, and is reflected both in its ethics and in its aesthetics. Ethically, the theater is described as anticapitalist and generally is regarded as having a "hippie" viewpoint,[13] Aesthetically, the theater is often described as "slapdash" or "unsightly," as well as modest and "distinctively homemade."[12][11]

An hour long play that critiqued the ongoing war in Vietnam. It was dedicated to American protesters who died after setting fire to themselves and depicted life for Vietnamese villagers during the war.[17]

A Kyōgen that critiqued President Nixon's pardoning of soldiers involved in the My Lai Massacre.[18]

Described by Larry Gordon, at the time the general manager of the company, as a "partially metaphoric [and] partially literal" rendering, Stations of the Cross was a contemporary interpretation of the New Testament story of Jesus' suffering on the way to his eventual crucifixion. Gordon provided the music direction for the production, the first time Sacred Harp music was performed at Bread and Puppet.[19][20] Elka Schumann stated that the production was also a metaphor for the Cuban Missile Crisis.[21]

A show that incorporated musical instruments and puppetry into a retelling of the story of St. Joan. This work also had a revival in 1999.[22] Taiwan is the first Asian country to show the new version of Joan of Arc in 2009.

A collaboration between Bread and Puppet Theatre and the 425 Environmental Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan. The play focused on current pollution issues in Taiwan through references to traditional Chinese mythology. In particular, the show depicted the goddess Nüwa and called attention to the pollution of the Tamsui River in its first performances. Later performances focused on different geographical features affected by pollution depending on where the show took place. For example, the work focused on the Love River when it was shown in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Overall, the effectiveness of this collaboration was called into question because many of the members of the 425 Environmental Theatre engaged in environmentally harmful practices (such as smoking) and a part of the show involved burning a puppet which created a considerable amount of black smoke. Still, the work received praise from critics for its relevant social messages.[23]

Performed alongside the revival of Joan of Arc. It was a slow paced play that depicted an old woman's last day on Earth using singers and actors.[22]

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."

Publications from the Bread & Puppet Press include:

• Cheap Art Manifestos
  • 10 Purposes of Cheap Art
  • Importance of Cheap Art
  • Why Cheap Art?
• Comics
  • 40 How Tos
  • Courage
  • Life and Death of Charolette Solomon
  • Off to Lubberland
  • Planet Kasper Volume I
  • We Grass [24]

Bread & Puppet volunteers were among the seventy-nine people arrested at a warehouse in Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican National Convention. The Associated Press reported the scene of the "SWAT-style" raid was broadcast live by news helicopters. Years later, the AP explained 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 did not 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."[25]

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 did not 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 was the pretext for starting the war which 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.[25] Many of the parade's macabre elements were suspended that year by its director Jeanne Fleming. It was not known until October 25 whether it would even take place.

Linda Elbow commented, "We certainly weren't saying 'Hooray for the terrorists.' We were saying, 'Look what you're doing to the people of Afghanistan.'"[25] 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 did not make it clear how the decision was made, or who made it; the incident was included as secondary background material in a piece publicizing an upcoming Bread and Puppet show. Fleming, who was not interviewed by Bacalzo (but is quoted as if she was), says that Bread and Puppet was not "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.[25]