In 1963, dancer and sculptor Peter Schumann, together with his wife Elka, founded the Bread & Puppet theatre. Since then, the company has gone on to become one of the most influential performance groups in the world with a very recognizable style and a generous, community-minded attitude.
For over four decades now, Bread & Puppet has connected itself to the natural environment and the local residents of the rural community in and around Glover in northern Vermont. Across the road there from the company’s farm, it stages very popular annual festivals in which thousands of people actively participate. Peter Schumann is the driving force behind all Bread & Puppet’s activities. From the earliest beginnings, he has always baked his own sour dough bread, offering it to audiences worldwide as a symbol of the essential importance of art in our human existence. Especially for the opening of ICAF-6, on the 26th of March Peter and a group of local volunteers will construct an ad hoc bread oven made of used bricks on the outdoor terrace of Zuidplein Theatre. At the end of the afternoon, he will light the oven and – together with you – will bake and break bread right at the time when the ICAF Barrio Comparsa [street parade] reaches Zuidplein. The first bread piece will be the signal for the official opening of our festival.