Bread And Puppet Is One Of The Strangest Places You Can Go In Vermont

The oddly named Bread and Puppet Theatre in Vermont is just that – odd. It’s a place where art meets performance meets bread. It sounds like a bizarre combination, but it works. This company has gained notoriety for its political puppetry along with the homemade bread handed out to audience members.

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Bread and Puppet became known for its political puppetry along with the bread served to audience members during performances. In 1970, the theater company was moved to Vermont, first to Goddard College then later to an old dairy farm in Glover where it is still in operation today.

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Masks and puppets are handmade, mostly by Peter himself, with some help from the community, using clay and paper mache. They may represent anything from fairytale or Biblical characters, politicians or bureaucrats to nuclear war, slumlords and other unsavory subjects.

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Performances usually include at least one giant puppet that must be operated by puppeteers with rods to support the head and move the arms. Actors in these plays normally wear large handmade masks and sometimes gigantic paper mache hands. Everything seems larger than life in one of these productions!

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Whether or not you can attend one of their politically-charged performances, a visit to the Bread and Puppet Theater Museum is a must! Marvel at all the strange, bizarre, macabre handmade puppets which may either fill you with wonder or fright.

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Retired masks and puppets of all sizes can be viewed by visitors. Get an up-close-and-personal look at these political puppets. Some reach heights of up to 20-feet tall.

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Dramatic scenes from past shows are reimagined throughout the museum, which has expanded to both floors of the barn. Puppets, as well as masks, cover almost every square inch of the place—including the ceiling.

For an experience like no other, visit Bread and Puppet. Peruse the museum, take in a performance, and stay for the bread. Peter Schumann himself bakes the dark sourdough rye in a clay oven on the property, and, I don’t know about you, but that is incentive enough to go!