Bread and Puppet Theater is a group that grew famous in the 60s for their protest art and for their giant spectacles with thousands of participants in the hills of Vermont. Before each performance, Bread and Puppet serves home-baked sourdough bread and aioli. The founder, Peter Schumman, says that his mother made him this type of bread and that the bread is a way to pass on that love to the audience. There’s also the idea that humans need spiritual nourishment and physical nourishment. Bread and Puppet aims to provide both. Such is the idea behind the labor union anthem, Bread and Roses, which may have contributed to the group’s name–the song contains the lyric, “hearts starve as well as bodies/give us bread but give us roses.” How might serving food create a more intimate relationship with an audience? On the other hand, how might it create a more consumerist relationship (Brecht, for example, warned against “culinary theater”)?
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