In the early 90s Peter Schumann and his Bread and Puppet players visited my town. They put on an eerie outdoor pageant filled with puppets, music, and stilt walkers. The venue was perfect, Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia Rotunda and Lawn on a very misty afternoon. The play addressed the plight of native peoples and wildlife in Canada who were threatened by loss of habitat by government hydroelectric projects. A score of actors were dressed in handmade puppet costumes as caribou, Inuit, and characters of good and evil. The pageant parade, begun with a huge stiltwalking character playing a mournful fiddle and coming down the Rotunda's steps, processed across the Lawn and gathered at the university's old and hitherto often ignored amphitheater. Here Schumann had built an oven from dry stacked masonry to bake bread. As audience and players sat in the decrepit outdoor amphiteater in the fog and rain we passed fresh warm bread and bowls of aioli to share.
I have been reading about and following Peter Schumann's life ever since. He and his troupe are truly modern saints. You can learn more about Bread and Puppet in the many articles, books, and videos that have been produced about them. Visit their website at www.breadandpuppet.org. They gathered the troupe and traveled to Lincoln Center in New York City for a performance last month. This photo of puppet costumes in their museum is borrowed from their website gallery with apologies.
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