AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR - Bread & Puppet Theater Film Screening

AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR: The First Documentary About Peter Schumann and the Bread & Puppet Theater In Over 20 Years

Vermont Film Tour - A Benefit Fundraiser for the Bread and Puppet Film Project 

Presented by Plainfield Arts, Turning Tide Films and Straight Arrow Productions,

Sunday, July 12 from 3-6pm

$15 in advance • $20 at the door

Plainfield Town Hall Opera House

Gather in community for this 3-part film screening event. See AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR (Dir. by Robbie Leppzer), The Meadows Green (Dir. by DeeDee Halleck & George Griffin), and join in a lively panel discussion and conversation; "Bread & Puppet's Plainfield Years"

Purchase Tickets Here

This event is part of a larger weekend-long celebration in Plainfield. Click here for more information.

Program Highlights:

• Donny Osman - Program M.C.,  Janna Osman - Panel Moderator

• Films:  "An Artist Responds to War" (2026 - 45 minutes, Robbie Leppzer, Dir.) and "The Meadows Green" (1974 - 25 minutes, Dee Dee Halleck, Dir.)

• $15 in advance • $20 at the door (tickets)

• Program MC - Donny Osman

• Live Music and Performance by Bread & Puppet 

• Screening of AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR (45 minutes, 2026)

• Post Screening Q&A with Filmmaker Robbie Leppzer

• Screening of a 4K digitally remastered THE MEADOWS GREEN (Directed by DeeDee Halleck and George Griffin, 23 minutes, 1974), which chronicled a 1974 Bread & Puppet performance at Goddard College.

• Panel Discussion and Audience Conversation - "Bread & Puppet's Plainfield Years" (1970-1974) with Avram Pratt, Helen Rabin and Paul Zaloom, moderated by Janna Osman.

• A benefit fundraiser for the non-profit Bread & Puppet Film Project to help us complete a feature-length film about Bread & Puppet that will be completed in 2027.  For more info, click here.

AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR:

Join filmmaker Robbie Leppzer for the Plainfield Opera House screening of AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR, a vibrant portrait of Peter Schumann, the visionary founder of the Bread & Puppet Theater, whose six decades of radical political performance have been forged from a single, searing childhood question: how do we as humans respond to the madness of war and violence?

Born in Nazi Germany and shaped by the brutal reality of war via the aerial bombardments he experienced as a child, Schumann channeled this trauma into one of the most iconic and boundary-breaking theater companies in the world. Bread & Puppet came of age in the Vietnam War street protests of 1960s New York, and grew into its full form on a 250-acre Vermont farm in the 1970s, where the landscape itself became a stage that draws tens of thousands to its epic, large-scale spectacles.

Decades later, as international norms collapse and atrocities unfold in Gaza in plain sight, Schumann — now 91 and still working with fierce urgency — finds his life's central question more pressing than ever. Drawing on originally shot footage and a remarkable archive spanning more than 40 years, the film offers an intimate window into the man, his art, and his unbroken faith that creativity can stand against the brutality of power.

In an age desperate for hopeful figures of cultural resistance, AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR is a testament to the radical, enduring idea that art is not a retreat from the world — it is a way of fighting for it.

Following the screening of AN ARTIST RESPONDS TO WAR, which runs 45 minutes, there will be a discussion panel with filmmaker Robbie Leppzer, director of Turning Tide Films, and members of the Plainfield community who will share their recollections of working with Bread & Puppet over the years.

Also happening on July 12:

10 a.m. - Guided Tour of the former Goddard campus by Goddard Archivist David Halé.

Noon - Music Service at the Grace United Methodist Church (Montpelier Community Acapella Gospel Choir)

11 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Peter Schumann's paintings and other art, The Granary Community Center

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Oral Histories, on the Grace Church lawn

11 a.m. to 2 p.m. - Plainfield 1970s Exhibits (B&P, Goddard College) on the Grace Church lawn

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