Abstract

This thesis examines the sourdough rye bread baked by Peter Schumann and members of the
Bread and Puppet Theater as an object of art historical analysis that is equally important to the
theater’s papier-mâché puppets. In addition, I explore the multisensory and collaborative bread-
baking process on the Bread and Puppet Farm, and the bread-sharing processes at protests
attended by members of the theater and after Bread and Puppet productions as socially engaged
art events. Bread has been a part of Bread and Puppet’s work since the theater’s inception in
1963 and continues to encourage the formation of community to this day. To demonstrate my
argument, I analyze the bread’s sensory qualities, place the bread within the field of material
performance to consider how it can be considered a puppet in its own right, and draw from the
fieldwork I performed with the theater to analyze how baking and sharing the bread is successful
socially engaged art within the larger context of the theater’s artistic and political work.