Bread & Puppet Theater

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. Performance will take place in the Emery Community Arts Center, Thursday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m., doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: $10-$25 suggested donation with no one turned away for lack of funds; free for UMF students. Advance tickets available beginning Aug. 4th at Up Front & Pleasant Gourmet (cash only). Up Front & Pleasant Gourmet is located at 157 Front St. in Farmington, ME; Open Tues.-Fri: 10am-5pm, and 1st & 3rd Sat. of each month from 10am-2pm. 

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.

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.