BODY MAGIC

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Graphic mime is a style where the performer becomes the object she/he wants to create instead of creating an illusionary object. I don’t mime the chair, I become the chair. This is a wonderful introductory workshop for students to the world of mime and theatre arts itself.  

The demand here is not on physical skill, but your imagination and a specific way of "thinking" with your body. The workshop is geared toward group work and time limits, developing communication skills such as, cooperation, problem solving, and the give and take of ideas. 

The workshop begins with a small physical and vocal warm up. Graphics uses sound to enhance the visual image. (It is also important to dispel the myth of silence in mime. Only certain styles and performers use silence.) 

Each person gets a feeling for the style by creating a door with their bodies. They then give the door an attitude and voice.  Graphics is the style of cartoon.  The objects can talk and have emotions. 

The group work begins with becoming an object or machine in the kitchen. The whole group co-operatively becomes a giant representation of the object. Each group has one minute to complete two to three objects in total. 

The workshop then expands, (along with the creation time), to creating entire rooms with real people in them and then expanding the environment larger to include entire locations. "A fairground". "The main street of a small town, etc." It is the attitude and energy of the graphic images that give life to the scene. This gives the student insight into creating the "emotional" atmosphere of a scene or sketch.  Although most pieces will be comic, Graphics can be used in a dramatic context as well.  I performed in a piece dealing with the after affects of rape.  After being raped a woman begins to see her attacker all through her house.  The person who played the rapist also played the objects and furniture in the house.

Multiple classes can be spent fine tuning the technique and expanding the environments or we can combine this style with the Illusion style or the Pantomime Blanche style.  In a week long session this would culminate in a performance that the students present to each other on the last day.

Things to remember

Graphics is a living cartoon and therefore must be larger than life.

These living cartoons, like their animated counterparts rely on sound effects to give them full impact.

The object can be played neutral, giving the focus to the real characters in the sketch or it can have a personality which then gives it the focus.

The sound effects can be made live or timed to a recorded effect.

Graphics can be used in a dramatic form to represent dream sequences or hallucinations.

The transitions from object to object must be made in a manner that does not detract from the flow of the sketch.

Any real character in the sketch must be played extra big to match the cartoon effect.

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