In the U.S., Elka Schumann, co-founder of the Bread and Puppet theater company, has died at the age of 85

Burlington, August 3 (RHC)-- In the U.S., Elka Schumann, co-founder of the Bread and Puppet theater company, has died at the age of 85.  Elka was born in the Soviet Union in 1935 and taken to the United States in 1941. 

She and her husband Peter Schumann began the Bread and Puppet Theater company in 1963.  Their first productions ranged from puppet shows for children to pieces protesting poor housing conditions.  The group later moved to the U.S. state of Vermont.  Its processions involving monstrous puppets, some about 20 feet high, became a fixture of protests against the Vietnam War. 

The Bread and Puppet theater also milled its own flour and baked its own bread, sharing it with audience members.  

A long-time fighter for peace and justice, Elka Schumann died Sunday, surrounded by her five children and her partner Peter.