Mime and Pantomime in the 20th Century

Explore mime and pantomime through two Puerto Rico taped examples, contrasting laundromat action with the Hero and Pierrette scene where gestures, drawing, and a flower express love without words.

Highlight Lotte Goslar's improvisational mime and clown parodies with ensemble work, engaging audiences through playful pantomime, line dance, and intermission performances at mime festivals.

Explore Mamako: the sea within the study of mime and pantomime in the 20th century, as presented in the mime and pantomime in the 20th century course.

This lecture uses mime to reveal modern Japan and Tokyo's crowded life, highlighting air pollution, population pressures, and a pusher forcing passengers onto trains arriving every three minutes.

Explore kabuki as movement, dance, and mime, highlighting the discipline and physical expertise embodied by Shozo Sato at a mime festival, and its esoteric ties to Japanese culture.

Explore Shields and Yarnell's 1970s mime, with mechanicals, robots, and mannequins, and the encounter mime inspired by confrontational mime, as seen in Federico and Feliciana, the Flying Fleas in Brazil.

Explore a derivative of the Mummenschanz mask play, the larval mime piece Into the Light by the Joshua Squad, merging full-body masks with music and mime.

Examine the Italian commedia dell'arte tradition and Carlo Mazzone-Clementi’s impact on mime, mask work, and the School of Physical Theatre, highlighting improvised performance, clowning, and acrobatics.

Explore Jewel Walker's influence on mime and movement, tracing his Decroux training and roles as professor and director at Carnegie Mellon, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, and the University of Delaware.

Julie and Thomas Pushkas hosted us in budapest, where Julie appears on stage and screen, and Thomas, a theatre director, uses mime and physical theatre—hallmarks of eastern european theatre.

Visits our program as a guest; James Donlon, formerly professor of mime and movement at the University of California, Santa Barbara, now consulting on physical movement for the film industry.

Explore performance in mime as it moves beyond technique and history to present various performance forms, showcase practitioners, and reveal current techniques used by groups worldwide.

Etienne Decroux argues for concrete mime over mere explanation, tracing 'the passing of men on the earth' from anarchy through religion, war, drought, and love to humanity.

Explore Jacques Lecoq’s Paris mime pedagogy, guiding a two-year journey from life-based training to professional theatre, where students craft masks and costumes and explore space and gesture.

Explore the five components of gesture: focus, reach, take, accent, and release, as a foundational grammar that clarifies how each element contributes to expressive movement in mime and pantomime.

Explore the focus element of gesture by examining how attention through sight and senses brings objects into consciousness, illustrated with the cup example.

Reach is the second component of gesture, meaning to approach, focus, or command attention by looking at the object and then reaching for it or toward a person.

Explore the take component of gesture, establishing objects and people in space through reaching and signaling. See how a cup or a friend is established in space with a wave.

Identify the five gesture components: focus, reach, take, accent, and release, and learn why releasing an object completes the gesture and prevents an unsatisfying, incomplete performance.

Explore space and matter manipulation in mime, defining an object's function through surface features and handling, from cup and ball to stretching into a bat.

Explore mime and pantomime through engaging discussions and arts and crafts activities. A sequel program may extend into performance techniques beyond mime and pantomime, inviting you to try new things.