Peter Schumann (born 11 June 1934) is the co-founder and director of the Bread & Puppet Theater. Born in

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, he was a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

dancer Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...

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before moving to the

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in 1961. In 1963 he founded Bread & Puppet in

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, and in 1970 moved to the

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, eventually settling in

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, where the company still performs. Schumann's best known work is the Domestic Resurrection Circus, performed annually by the Bread and Puppet Theater until 1998. He was married to theater co-founder Elka Schumann until her passing in August 2021.

The Bread and Puppet Theater

Peter Schumann and his wife Elka co-founded the Bread and Puppet Theater in 1963 in

. The theater is named for its combination of puppetry shows with free freshly baked bread, generally served with a dipping sauce. The company is known, according to ''

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'' for "anarchic, noncommercial, participatory and politically charged approach to art." Among the notable Bread and Puppet Theater shows directed by Schumann are "Nativity 1992", described by ''

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'' as "an exemplar of performance folk art", and "The Divine Reality Comedy". He also participated in the Angry Arts week in January 1967.

The Domestic Resurrection Circus

After Bread & Puppet's first decade in

, Schumann decided to take an offer from

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, to become the college's first theater-in-residence. After a few years, Schumann composed his first Domestic Resurrection Circus. Blending vaudeville comedy with political commentary, as well as the company's trademark giant puppets, the Circus became a tradition each summer. After Schumann moved to

, in 1973, the Circuses continued. The Domestic Resurrection Circus's last year was 1998, when over 30,000 people attended. Since then, a smaller circus is performed every weekend during the summer.

Palestine exhibits

In 2007 Schumann premiered "Independence Paintings: Inspired by Four Stories" in

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and

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.Picard, Ken. (September 19, 2007
Over the Wall
'' Seven Days''. Retrieved 13 May 2008. The series was inspired by ten days Schumann spent in the Occupied Territories of

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, as well as

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to n ...

's 'The Wall', a graphic account of the birth, development, and destruction of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

, the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the Jewish

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. The series proved controversial, with critics labeling Schumann's works as "anti-Zionist", "anti-Semitic" and "soft-core Holocaust denial", accusations Schumann denied, stating that "I'm not saying that what's happening in Palestine is the same as what happened in Warsaw ... but it's certainly a reminder." While Schumann later acknowledged that he "may have unnecessarily hurt some people's feelings" with the series, he returned in 2008 to the theme of the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...

in his subsequent art series, "The University of Majd: The Story of a Palestinian Youth", which addresses a case of false imprisonment in Israel.

Published works

*''Puppen und Masken. Das Bread and Puppet Theater'', Fischer, Frankfurt am Main/Germany, 1973. *''The old art of puppetry in the new world order'', 1993. *''Bread: A lecture to art students at SUNY/Purchase, New York''. 1987, reprint 1994. *''Bread & Puppet''. Green Man, 1996.

External links

Gallery of a Peter Schumann workshop at the 2007 Scenofest
from Scenography
Bread & Puppet website

References