Bread & Puppet: The Upside Down World Circus

“Is it or is it not?
Am I asleep or am I awake?
Am I a cockroach or am I a me?
Possibilitarians! We must demonstrate humanity’s upside-down situation in the face of the government’s depraved falsehoods. Luxury silence and despair must be replaced by revolt orchestras that radically oppose the radically wrong system.
It is time to unforget the revolution-in-progress and aim for the evermore on the universe’s shore.”

The one and only Bread & Puppet Circus is back to confront our upside-down situation! With stilt dancers, paper maché beasts of all sizes, and a riotous brass band, The Upside Down World Circus is an urgent spectacle of protest and celebration.

After each show Bread & Puppet will serve its famous sourdough rye bread with aioli, and “Cheap Art” – books, posters, postcards, pamphlets and banners from the Bread & Puppet Press – will be for sale.

Following the performance, we will present a special screening of Bread & Puppet films from the organization's archive and the collection of The Film-Makers' Cooperative.

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4:00 pm Doors open

4:30 pm Performance

7:30 pm Screening

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Bread & Puppet Theater

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The Bread & Puppet Theater is a political puppet theater founded in 1963 by Peter & Elka Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Now based in Glover, VT, the company regularly tours the country and world with tightly composed theater pieces as well as sprawling outdoor pageants. The internationally celebrated company champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art filled with music, dance, and slapstick elements. Believing that theater is a basic necessity like bread, the company frequently brings its work to the streets for those who may not otherwise go to the theater. Its shows are political and spectacular, with puppets often on stilts, wearing huge masks with expressive faces, singing, dancing, and playing music. 

Bread and Puppet is recognized throughout the world and has won distinction at international theater festivals in Italy, Poland, Colombia, and Yugoslavia, beginning with their break-out performances at the 1968 Nancy Festival in France. Notable awards include the Erasmus Prize of Amsterdam, 4 Obies, the Puppeteers of America's President Award, and the Vermont Governor's Award. Bread and Puppet is constantly active, performing at its farm in Glover, VT, and in local churches, schools and parades. It regularly tours Europe, Canada, and the United States and has recently visited El Salvador, Haiti, Russia, and Korea.

Bread & Puppet continues making new work and is one of the oldest, nonprofit, self-supporting theatrical companies in the country.

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