Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Mime is the Word!!

When most people hear the word mime, they think of silent street performers with pasty white faces and tight-fitting clown costumes, pretending to be stuck in an invisible box or pulling an unseen rope.  But theres much more to it than that!

The skills that make up a classical mimes bag of tricks can be of tremendous use to any actor who may be called upon in a play to tell a story through gestures, or more likely, to trick an audience into seeing something that isnt there.

Anyone who has played charades knows that clear, simple movements and gestures convey much more information than wild thrashings and gesticulations.  You can use mime to create images in an audiences mind, or even tell an entire story.

For example, imagine you are in a play, and your character has to come onstage as if walking in from a rainstorm.  Even though you and your costume are completely dry, you can shrug out of your coat, shake imaginary water droplets from it, dry your face with a handkerchief and then use it to mop up the puddle by the door.  All this is done in mime, because there never was any real water.  But if done well, the audience would swear that there was.

Onstage, Ive opened doors that werent really there, flipped a light switch that was painted onto a flat, been struck by a (thankfully) imaginary bullet, consumed non-existent coffee from imaginary cups and eaten an air steak, all in plays that are considered representational or realistic. There are many exaplies of mime in Bye Bye Birdie. 

The three most important rules to remember about using pantomime effectively onstage are:  simplicity, consistency, and the bump.”  First, keep it simple.  Complicated movements are confusing.  Dont muddy the air with meaningless movements.  Also, finish one movement before going on to the next.  Then be consistent.  Once an imaginary object is established, make sure that it remains there until moved.  If you set a cup down in one place, be sure to pick it up again in the same spot.  Otherwise the audience will think there are two cups on the table.  Ive seen shows using imaginary doors where the doorknob magically moves up and down, depending on the height of the actors.  Finally, theres the bump.  When you pick up a real cup, your fingers simply wrap around it.  But with a mimed cup, you have to very slightly exaggerate the grasp, the lift, the setting down and the release.  Dont overdo the exaggeration, but think of it as a series of visual punctuation marks.  This helps the audience recognize the moment of contact, the beginning of movement, the end of movement and the letting go.

Every actor can benefit from some training in pantomime, and when youre practicing mime, youll never hear them complain!  Remember, mimes the word!

Break a Leg,

Mr. F

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