Mime
What is a Mime?
A mime artist is someone who acts out a story through body motions, without use of speech.
The performance of pantomime originates at its earliest in ancient Greece; the name is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus, although performances were not necessarily silent. In Medieval Europe, an early form of mime such as mummer plays (a type of play performed in the area of Great
Britain in medieval times, often by costumed travelling actors) and later dumbshows (shows where the actors acted without speaking) evolved. In early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau (a mime artist who was famous in France in the early 1800’s) made famous the mime we have come to know in modern times — the silent figure in whiteface.

Marcel Marceau- A Famous Mime Artist.
Arsine Dupin studied under Marcel Marceau, a famous mime from France.
Marcel Marceau, whose name was actually Marcel Mangel, was born in
Strausberg, France in 1923. When he was 16, France became involved in the
Second World War. Because his family was Jewish, and his father was a kosher butcher, they fled the city. But his father was arrested by the Gestapo, and he died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. Marcel and his brother adopted the name Marceau to hide their
Jewish origins. Marcel and his brother Alain joined the French foreign resistance, and saved many children from the concentration camps. He spoke very good English, and worked as a liaison officer with General Patton’s army. After attending a much acclaimed acting school in France, Marcel became an actor. He was cast as a mime in a movie, and did such a great job, that his career as a mime was firmly established, and he became known as a master at the “art of silence”. In 1949, following his receipt of the renowned Deburau Prize
(established as a memorial to the 19th century mime master
Jean-Gaspard Deburau) for his second mimodrama, Death before Dawn, Marceau founded Compagnie de Mime
Marcel Marceau - the only company of pantomime in the world at the time.