The Mime Artist: A background
Since the main character of our animation is a Mime Artist, we decided that it would be nescessary to do a little research into the background of Mime, its history, purposes and development, in order to be able to properly pad out his character.
"A Mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or performance art."
Mime artists can be traced back to Ancient Greece, where the first mime is recorded as Telestes int he play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus. However this character was not really classed as comedic as such. The first recorded truly comic mime was developed by Bathullus of Alexandria. The Mime at the time was distinguished from other dramas by its absence of masks (common at the time) and by the presence of female as well as male performers.
With the rise of the motion picture, came a new opportunity to use mime. As early movies had no sounds, the amount of speech had to be kept to an absolute minimum as inter-titles had to be used rather than sound. This meant that mimes played a huge part in movies prior to the release of talkies. Silent movie comedians such as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, rose to fame and had a massive influence on mime as an art form moving forward.
More recently mime has become popular as a form of street theatre and busking. Traditionally these performers wear tight black and white clothing with white makeup, however this seems to be becoming less popular.
"A Mime artist is a person who uses mime as a theatrical medium or performance art."
History
Originally mime artists were called Mummers in the English tradition.Mime artists can be traced back to Ancient Greece, where the first mime is recorded as Telestes int he play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus. However this character was not really classed as comedic as such. The first recorded truly comic mime was developed by Bathullus of Alexandria. The Mime at the time was distinguished from other dramas by its absence of masks (common at the time) and by the presence of female as well as male performers.
With the rise of the motion picture, came a new opportunity to use mime. As early movies had no sounds, the amount of speech had to be kept to an absolute minimum as inter-titles had to be used rather than sound. This meant that mimes played a huge part in movies prior to the release of talkies. Silent movie comedians such as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, rose to fame and had a massive influence on mime as an art form moving forward.
More recently mime has become popular as a form of street theatre and busking. Traditionally these performers wear tight black and white clothing with white makeup, however this seems to be becoming less popular.
Re-known Mime artists:
- Dick Van Dyke
- Buster Keaton
- Harold Lloyd
- Charlie Chaplin
- Rowan Atkinson
- Jean-Gaspard Debureau
- Lindsay Kemp
- Stan Laurel
- Steam Powered Giraffe
Visual references
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