What Bread and Puppet Theater does

Bread and Puppet Theater is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit political puppet theater founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann and based in Glover, Vermont, in the state's Northeast Kingdom. It operates as one of the oldest continually active puppet theaters in the United States, producing touring circus-style performances, smaller-scale talks and "unforgetting" services, printed posters and broadsides through its Bread and Puppet Press imprint (founded 1984), and an on-site museum of sculptural puppets at its farm.

The organization's revenue model is built on earned income rather than institutional grants: ticket sales for live performances, fees from multi-week apprenticeships (including a dedicated printshop apprenticeship), sales of Bread and Puppet Press prints and publications, individual donations, and fees from touring engagements. It explicitly eschews government, corporate, and foundation funding, which the organization frames as preserving artistic and economic autonomy. Touring productions play at a long tail of small and mid-sized venues across US cities, with a multi-decade presenting relationship with Theater for the New City in New York among the most established.

The underlying "technology" is a craft-based production stack: hand-carved and papier-mâché puppets, two-dimensional printed posters, an on-site farm that serves as a rehearsal, performance, and museum space, and a volunteer- and apprentice-driven labor model. Staffing of 51-100 reflects largely artist-in-residence, apprentice, and volunteer participation rather than salaried administrative headcount.

Name

Bread and Puppet Theater

Legal name

Bread and Puppet Theater

Website

https://breadandpuppet.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1963

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Bread and Puppet Theater is a Vermont-based nonprofit political puppet theater founded in 1963 that produces touring live performances, printed posters, and museum exhibitions, funded by ticket sales, apprenticeships, press sales, and individual donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Performing Arts

NAICS

Theater Companies and Dinner Theaters (71111), Performing Arts Companies (7111), Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries (713)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Puppetry & Marionette Theatre (MPAGABAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Circus & Physical Theatre (MPAGABAL), Theater, Musicals & Performing Arts (THAJAFAB), Circus, Magic & Variety Shows (THAJAFAH), Comedy Shows & Spoken-Word Events (THAJAFAC)

Keywords

• Puppet theater performances
• Outdoor circus pageants
• Political puppetry
• Art publishing prints
• Museum exhibitions

Headquarters

HQ city

Glover

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Performance/Touring Fees: Income from touring new and old productions on the American continent and abroad. The traveling puppet shows range from tightly composed theater pieces by company members to extensive outdoor pageants requiring volunteer participation.
2. Bread and Puppet Press Sales: Sales of posters, publications, books, postcards, pamphlets, and banners from the Bread and Puppet Press. Also includes popular annual calendars started in 1988.
3. Donations and Fundraising: Relies on donations through General Operating Fund and Sustainability Fund. One of the most enduring legacies is its economic autonomy, receiving no direct government, corporate or foundation funding.
4. Ticket Sales: Revenue from ticket sales for circus performances, Friday night shows, and other theatrical events. General admission is $15 with no one turned away for lack of funds.
5. Apprenticeship Program Fees: $550 per week for theater apprenticeships, with fee reductions available. Also offers printshop apprenticeships and solstice gathering programs.
6. Museum Donations: Suggested museum donation of $15 for guided tours, with sliding scale options ($0-$35) and free admission for children under 5 and Glover residents.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Bread and Puppet Theater produces live political puppet theater performances, including rod-puppet and hand puppet shows, large-scale outdoor circus and pageant productions (e.g., The Upside Down World Circus), Friday night indoor shows (e.g., Morality Demonology), anti-empire talks, and touring productions. The company also operates the Bread and Puppet Press, which sells posters, publications, calendars, and 'Cheap Art' merchandise, and runs a museum of oversized puppets and masks. Revenue is generated through performance fees, ticket sales, merchandise sales, donations, and apprenticeship fees.

Product overview

Bread and Puppet Theater is a single unified offering—political puppet theater—rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core product is live puppet performances, which include summer circus and pageant shows (The Upside Down World Circus, Morality Demonology Friday night shows), fall touring productions, museum exhibitions, and the Bread and Puppet Press merchandise arm. Supporting programs include theater and printshop apprenticeship programs, community volunteering opportunities, and the Summer Solstice Gathering. The company generates income through performance fees, press sales, and donations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Bread and Puppet Press: The publishing arm of the theater that produces posters, publications, books, calendars, and 'Cheap Art' materials. Website at breadandpuppetpress.org.
• Cheap Art

Products and services

• The Upside Down World Circus A summer outdoor circus featuring stilt dancers, paper-mâché beasts, and a brass band, combining spectacle, protest, and celebration. Performed Sundays in July-August on the Bread & Puppet Farm.
• Morality Demonology An indoor Friday night puppet show presented in the Paper-Mâché Cathedral, featuring oversized puppets battling 'morality demons' as political commentary.
• The Art of Struggle: Anti-Empire Talks A series of talks in the Paper-Mâché Cathedral featuring writers, economists, scholars, and organizers confronting U.S. empire, capitalism, war, and resistance.
• Unforgetting Services A dirt-cheap oratorio held Thursdays at the Anti-Modern Art Museum, featuring oratorio with junk instruments, fiddle sermon, poetry readings, and bedsheet paintings to 'unforget' the horrors of U.S. empire's wars.
• Fall Circus Tour Annual fall touring circus bringing 'The Upside Down World Circus' to cities and towns across the American continent, with venues ranging from schools to community centers to theaters.
• Bread and Puppet Museum A massive collection of puppets, masks, paintings, and graphics housed in a 150-year-old barn, featuring six decades of B&P show making with especially large figures on the second floor.
• Museum Tours Guided tours of the Bread & Puppet Museum offered Fridays at 6pm, Saturdays & Sundays at 1pm during summer season, led by puppeteers.
• Bread and Puppet Press The publishing arm producing posters, books, pamphlets, banners, and 'Cheap Art' for sale, generating income alongside touring performances.
• Theater Apprenticeship Program Immersive communal living and working experience where apprentices participate in show production, including movement, puppet manipulation, music, printmaking, and paper-mâché. Offered in multiple sessions: Late May (2 weeks), July (4 weeks), August (4 weeks), and September/October (2 weeks).
• Printshop Apprenticeship Two-week immersion in printshop and press work, covering graphic image creation, masonite carving, printing on cloth and paper, and poster painting. Dates: June 2-15, July 21-August 3, September 8-21.
• Oh You Sun! Summer Solstice Gathering A three-day outdoor ritual and participatory pageant-making workshop including camping, bonfires, puppet theater, singing, and communal living, held June 18-21, 2026.
• Political Leaf Peeping Annual celebration of autumn foliage with cantastorias, hand puppet adventures, fiddle tunes, cranky shows, shape note songs, and puppet shows, held in late September/early October.
• Peter Schumann's Works Exhibitions Traveling exhibitions of Peter Schumann's artworks curated by Alexis Smith, presenting works in various venues to remain visible, accessible, and in conversation with the public.

Quantifiable outcome

• One of the oldest continuously operating political theater companies in the United States
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• Theater for the New CitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOver 40-year partnership with this iconic East Village venue for annual NYC residency performances. Bread & Puppet returns annually in December with circus and show performances.
• 2640 Space (Baltimore)majorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPresenting venue for Fall 2026 tour performances in Baltimore, MD, hosting multiple shows September 24-26.
• The Old Stone House (Brooklyn)majorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPresenting venue for Fall 2026 Brooklyn performance on September 18.
• Goddard CollegeminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerArtist residency that led to the company's relocation to Vermont in 1970.
• The Cambridge Arts CouncilmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPresenting Cambridge Common performance for Fall 2026 tour on September 6.
• The Stowe Center for Literary ActivismmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCo-presenting Hartford, CT performance with First Presbyterian Church of Hartford on September 15.
• Bread & Roses Heritage FestivalmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPresenting Lawrence Heritage State Park performance on Labor Day (September 7) as part of the Fall 2026 tour.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club: Legendary NYC experimental theater nonprofit founded in 1961 supporting avant-garde and politically engaged performance. Compares as a larger incumbent in NYC experimental/political theater with overlapping presenting venue function relative to Bread and Puppet's NYC residency performances.
• Mabou Mines: New York City-based experimental theater company founded in 1970, producing innovative and often politically engaged works. Shares NYC experimental theater roots and political theater lineage with Bread and Puppet, though operates with broader theatrical forms beyond puppetry.
• Center for Puppetry Arts: Atlanta-based nonprofit and largest US organization dedicated to puppetry, operating a museum, performance series, education programs, and touring. Operates at significantly larger scale and broader programmatic scope but shares the puppet-focused mission and touring performance model.
• St. Ann's Warehouse: Brooklyn-based nonprofit performance venue presenting experimental theater, puppetry, and international work. Compares as a larger incumbent NYC venue that presents comparable avant-garde and puppet-adjacent programming, relevant as a partner venue in Bread and Puppet's NYC ecosystem.
• The Living Theatre: NYC-based avant-garde political theater company founded in 1947 with anarchist roots and experimental performance tradition. Comparable political theater mission, longevity, and NYC experimental lineage, though with broader theatrical forms and different touring infrastructure.

Others

• Dixon Place: NYC nonprofit performance incubator presenting experimental theater, puppetry, and emerging artists. Functions as an enabling/presenting venue within the same NYC experimental performance ecosystem where Bread and Puppet maintains its annual residency tradition.

Direct peers

• Open Eye Theater: Minneapolis-based nonprofit puppet theater producing original works for adult and family audiences. Comparable small-scale puppet theater model with touring performances and education programs targeting similar grassroots audiences.
• Sandglass Theater: Vermont-based nonprofit puppet theater company producing original works combining puppets, music, and visual storytelling. Operates from Putney, VT with touring programs and educational offerings—closely comparable geographic base, scale, and puppet-centric mission to Bread and Puppet Theater.
• Double Edge Theatre: Ashfield, MA-based ensemble creating large-scale outdoor pageants, circus, and physical theater productions with strong community participation. Comparable outdoor pageant tradition, rural New England farm location, and ensemble-driven artistic model parallel Bread and Puppet's approach.

Regional players

• Vermont Performance Lab: Vermont-based nonprofit supporting contemporary performance and dance through residencies and presenting. Operates in the same Vermont regional ecosystem as Bread and Puppet and engages similar rural touring/audience-development challenges.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/breadandpuppet
• Instagraminstagram.com/breadandpuppet/?hl=en
• Xx.com/breadpuppet
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bread-and-puppet-theater

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bread and Puppet Theater