Essay/Term paper: Pantomime

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Miscellaneous

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