By removing language in performance, The Mime Company opens a doorway to the imagination and to nonverbal communication, and makes possible a profound emotional connection in silence. We apply this approach through activities in the classroom to engage students, educators and professionals in the intimacy of communication that is possible when we take away words.

It starts with an experience in the theater…

In presenting a performance by The Mime Company, educators can engage students at all levels in a meaningful experience with this classical, nonverbal art. Classroom workshops then provide an educational framework for students to create, cooperate and perform in the powerful and universal language of silence.

• Workshops and artist-in-residence programs for elementary & high school students activate students’ imaginations, open their awareness to physical communication, and reinforce academic standards and arts goals
• Master classes for actors at the university & graduate levels focus on creating dynamic physical performance and strengthening the actor’s instrument through mime and movement
• Professional development seminars for educators provide tools to enhance student learning through mime and drama in the classroom

Integrating Arts into Curriculum

The Mime Company also creates unique programs to support traditional academic and performing arts curricula. Past programs include activating first grade literacy and writing through mime and drama, and enhancing performance skills in young musicians with workshops in creating drama through gesture. Click here for more descriptions of recent residencies.

Alphabet Slideshow Click here for a slideshow of The Mime Company in action!!

For more information on educational programming, contact:
Amanda Brown
Phone: 773-989-7938
Email: amanda@themimecompany.com

Funding Support

Up to 60% of the cost of a Mime Company artist-in-residence program can be provided by the Illinois Arts Council’s Arts-in-Education Residency program. Click here for The Mime Company’s AIE roster page and here for the AIE program guidelines.

Recent Residencies

The Mime Company operates in residence at many schools and other educational institutions to provide arts enrichment to students of all ages. The company offers introductory mime workshops that act as a companion to a performance, as well as long-term residencies taking students through the process of creating and performing their own original work in mime.

The Mime Company also develops specialized programs using the art of mime to address specific educational and community-building goals. Residencies conducted since 2005 include:

• Creating a shared mime experience between English-speaking, Spanish-speaking and African refugee kindergarteners and their families at New Field Primary School (Rogers Park neighborhood, Chicago)
• Introducing mime to middle school students during Saturday School to support KIPP Ascend Charter School’s goal of “climbing the mountain to college” ( Austin neighborhood, Chicago)
• Directing a one-act play in mime created by middle school students at North Shore Country Day School ( Winnetka, IL)
• Adapting Greek Myths into mime plays to support the 6th grade World Cultures curriculum at Otis Elementary School ( West Town neighborhood, Chicago)
• Enriching the study of music performance through workshops in mime at the Colorado Suzuki Institute ( Snowmass, CO)
• Reinforcing English, Spanish and Italian language through mime workshops at Otis Elementary School ( West Town neighborhood, Chicago)
• Creating mime stories with the Elaine Settler Players, a drama group for adults with developmental disabilities ( Evanston, IL)
• Reinforcing Literacy & Writing through mime activities for 1 st grade students at New Field Primary School (Rogers Park neighborhood, Chicago)