On a working farm in Vermont, one of the longest-running radical theater companies in the world continues to make art rooted in protest, community, and daily life. Founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann in New York City, Bread and Puppet Theater uses towering handmade puppets, street processions, and outdoor pageants to speak on war, inequality, and resistance. From the start, Schumann baked sourdough bread and gave it away free to audiences, insisting that art, like bread, is a basic human need.

The company built its identity around low-cost, community-made spectacle. During the Vietnam War, it staged block-long street processions involving hundreds of people. After moving to Vermont in the 1970s, it launched the annual Our Domestic Resurrection Circus, a two-day outdoor festival drawing tens of thousands of volunteers and visitors to its farm. The theater has consistently refused corporate funding, surviving instead on ticket sales, publications, and community support.

For organizers, Bread and Puppet offers a living model of how art can be woven into movement work without becoming a luxury or a spectacle for elites. It shows that large-scale, visually powerful actions can be built by ordinary people with simple materials, open hands, and a shared political vision.

Many informal recordings of the theatre can be found on Youtube, and watched free, such as those linked below.