Pantomime

This paper is about pantomime, about it's origin, it's people, how it has evolved, and

how wonderful it is.

Pantomime is a dramatic performance in which a story is told or a theme developed

through expressive bodily or facial movement. The origin of pantomime can be traced

back to classical farce and the Italian Commedia Dell'arte. Not all pantomime is silent.

The completely silent performance of pantomime was invented in Rome. Pantomime is

sometimes used to worship. Mime is a short way of saying pantomime and also means

someone who performs pantomime. A mime, if performing on the streets, will have a hat

that is passed around for spectators to put money in.

When doing pantomime, it should be noted that the imaginative performance skills are

illusion and illustration. Also, you should "cultivate an understanding of the role that the

body plays in suggesting an idea, an impression, a sensation, or a character."

Pantomime can be done solo, or in a group of any size. Before performing, a mime must

do warm-up and relaxation exercises. Miming takes mental and physical strength.

Perfect coordination of all parts of the body is essential for expressive movement and

graceful poise in pantomime. A good mime must be very flexible. You must be fluid at

changing posture to create a character. Facial expression changes everything while

performing pantomime. You must be very relaxed when doing pantomime.

People speak different languages, but most gestures mean the same thing. Animals,

insects especially, have probably done pantomime before humans were even alive. For

example, bees do pantomime when telling others where nectar is, and peacocks use

pantomime to impress a mate.

Prehistoric man was next, after animals, to do pantomime. Prehistoric men would do

pantomime to try to influence nature to let them get a kill while hunting. Before

language, prehistoric men told about a hunt with pantomime. Prehistoric men would use

pantomime to tell the history of the tribe.

A clown named Grock became a very successful mime. He started as an acrobatic

clown at a very young age. Grock became famous because he succeeded in the circus

and in the music hall.

After years of successfully performing in circuses, he tried his clown routine in a

theater in Berlin. Grock began to move away from broad comedy in the Grimaldi

tradition, and towards Debureu's type of performance. In his first performance in a

theater, the audience did not respond. Grock realized that the type of performance

required for the theater is different than that required by the circus.

Grock began to use a clown as a pantomime character whose actions comment on life.

Grock went on to become one of the greatest performers of the variety stage. Grock

used music to portray man's struggle with fate, just like Beethoven, but in a different

way. Before Grock would play violin, he would throw the bow up in the air and try to

catch it, but miss. Then he would retreat behind a screen to practice and the audience

could see the bow flying above the screen. He returned to face the audience and

missed again. He became so flustered that he threw the bow in the air and caught it

without even knowing it!

When Grock sat down on the piano bench to play piano and found that it was too far

from the piano, he would struggle to push the piano closer to the bench! Like all good

comedy, this reflected man's struggle to tame nature.

The circus was saved from too much clown tradition in the 1940's by a man named

Emmett Kelly. The costumes were getting too elaborate. The usual clown costume

descended from the vari-colored costume of the Roman mimes. Originally, it was

intended to symbolize rags, like the clown was an impractical guy who didn't get along

in the real world. A long evolutionary process ended up with vari-colored, but elaborate

costumes. The costumes reached some sort of peak when the Harlequin costumes of

the English pantomime had as many as fifty-thousand sequins on them. Emmett Kelly

brought back the original idea and wore a tramps costume of actual rags. The usual

clown make-up is a bright colored pattern which serves as a trademark for each clown.

Kelly wore make-up to match his raged costume. He invented his own intimate style of

pantomime in, but almost independent of, the circus. Kelly would beg peanuts from kids

in the audience and then break the shells with a huge hammer, completely! shattering

the peanut, and then search stupidly for the meat among the debris.

Clowns of the modern circus are called "Joeys" after Joseph Grimaldi. In the modern

American circus, there are many able clowns including Lou Jacobs, Paul Wenzel, Otto

Griebling, Paul Jung, and Freddie Freeman, but they are almost overwhelmed by the

sheer size of the circus.

Modern circus clowns depend on acrobats, costumes, and mechanical stunts to

perform, but a mime just has gestures. The technique of the circus clown is limited by

the conditions under which he performs, therefore, there is a tendency for any

successful idea to be repeated so much that it becomes a tradition. Most of the

clowning is done in what is called a clown promenade, or walkaround, in which the

clowns circle the arena while performing so that each spectator might see a complete

performance. Each clown performs something different. It is difficult to think of gags to

perform while walking in a parade. One could carry a heart that lights up like a neon

sign when he sees a pretty girl, another could drive a really small sportscar, or one may

wear a trick costume which enables him to change from an old lady to a midget, and

back again. One clown may run away from a stuffed tiger that is attached to him by a

thin wire.

As you can probably see, pantomime has changed over the years and there have been

ups and downs during the change. There were also some performers who saved, or

played a big part in the history of pantomime.

Bibliography

Campbell, Patricia J. Passing The Hat: Street Performers in America, New York City,

Delacorte Press, 1952

Evans, Cheryl and Smith, Lucy Acting & Theater, Tulsa, EDC Publishing

Hunt, Douglas and Kari, Pantomime: The Silent Theater, New York City, Atheneum,

Kipnis, Claude, The Mime Book, New York City, Harper and Row publishers, 1974

May, Robin, Looking at Theater, New York City, Marshal Cavendish Corporation, 1989

"Mime and Pantomime" Academic American Encyclopedia, 1982 ed., vol. M-13, p. 434

Mordden, Ethan, The Fireside Companion to Theater, New York City, Simon and

Schuster Inc., 1988

Ratliff, Gerald Lee, The Theater Student: Speech and Drama Club Activities, New York

City, Richards Rosen Press, Inc., 1982

Stolzenberg, Mark, Exploring Mime, New York City, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 1979