The School of Modern Mime

Teaching Philosophy

The vision of our program is stated in our title, which is: To provide our participants with a curriculum that spans the breadth of the Modern Art of Mime.

Our interest is not to teach the style of a singular creator or artist; in fact, our goal is completely the opposite. Our vision, is to meld together all of the essential elements from all of the key innovators of modern mime into one solid and clear curriculum.

The School’s curriculum is uniquely constructed around the teaching of Mime Choreography Structures created by Goldston over the past 30 plus years. These structures enable the participant to understand elements of mime in a singular fashion, and later combine them according to their particular vision and style of work they intend to pursue.

Our working relationship with our students will be long term. As it was with the original Goldston School for Mimes, the School for Modern Mime will function as a school of thought and develop the artistry of its’ participants throughout the year. It will serve the professional artist by providing artistic direction, provide the beginner student with a solid base of training along side of participants who are already deep within the art, as well as serve as a center point for mime collaboration for company projects.

This summer school workshops will be lead by Gregg Goldston, Bartlomiej Ostapczuk and Gyöngyi Biro

Class Descriptions

The following classes are coordinated throughout the day, and week in order to best provide the participants with the essential information needed to choreograph and perform evening Lab assignments on a daily basis.

QUALITY OF MOVEMENT/ PLASTYKA CIAŁA (Polish Term):

Designed to pronounce the student’s strength, stretch, balance, and lyricism. This class will focus on the elements from classic part of Polisch pantomime training called Plastyka Cia that are needed for the art of mime. The class will function as a warm-up and technique class.

DECROUX TECHNIQUE:

This class concentrates upon the work created by Etienne Decroux known as Triple-Design, Plum Line, and Counter-Weight. This will follow the “”Plastyka CiaÅ‚a”” and is a highly technical class that develops the separation of body parts and physical musicality.

TOMASZEWSKI TECHNIQUE:

This class emphasizes the stylistic elements created by Henryk Tomaszewski known as Group Composition, Contrapuntal movement, Creating of a Character. This class is designed to develop physicality, strength, and rhythm.

MARCEAU TECHNIQUE:

This class emphasizes the illusionary and acting techniques created by Marcel Marceau known as Marches, Character stances, Elliptic and Metamorphose, as well as stage projection and physical suspension.

ILLUSIONARY TECHNIQUE:

A class dedicated to the Illusionary techniques needed to create the invisible world through the creation and manipulations of objects, environments, as well as the techniques of compressing time and space are covered in this class.

MODERN MIME ACTING:

This class presents the Modern Mime acting method developed by Gregg Goldston. This four-pose phrase system enables the performer to present a clear train of thought to the audience. The Phrasing categories: Monologue, Dialogue, and Announcement are then utilized in etudes and improvisations to develop realism and clarity of intent.

PHYSICAL COMEDY:

Focusing on the Comic-Beat, this class let’s the students work their comedic acting skills through a variety of solo and group scenarios. Utilizing the four-pose phrase system, the students cover the action-reaction, surprise, and relationship methods of classic comedy.

FACULTY ASSISTED REHEARSAL:

On days when the students are given more complex assignments, extra rehearsal time is offered with the faculty on hand to help with the construction and development of the student’s work.

LABORATORY CLASS:

The Evening Laboratory class is the heart of the curriculum system as the daily class schedule throughout Two-Week program is geared towards the assignments given for Lab. The School’s curriculum revolves around four choreographic writing structures. These structures enable the mime artist to write works within each structure and then combine them as needed for any particular idea or concept being pursued. Gregg Goldston developed these writing structures and assignments over the past several decades at the School for Mimes and the Goldston New York studio. These structures are as follows and can be applied to both Solo and Group Choreography:

One-character plays, Multi-Character plays, Placeless-Plots and Metamorphosis.