Mime Handbook

A Handbook for Mime Corporel

9789463720489

196 pages

Amsterdam University Press

Hardback $59.99

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Overview

The Mime Handbook covers the theory of mime corporel (Corporeal Mime) and explains the technique through dozens of clearly illustrated exercises. It provides an overview of the work and life of Etienne Decroux (1889-1991), founder of the ‘mime corporel’ and father of modern mime. Building onto Decroux’s mime corporel, additional concepts are introduced on the use of space in physical theater and the creation of mime performances.

Mime corporel is a physical theater technique that has revolutionized the physical expression for actors, dancers, and mime players. The philosophy of Etienne Decroux has permanently influenced approaches to performance, the use of space and the study of movement composition in the theater.

The Mime Handbook is intended for anyone who creates, studies, or teaches physical theater. Directors, actors, dancers, mime players, and performance artists will discover fundamental ideas and techniques that will enrich their work.

You can download page 88 of the book here.

Author Bio

Amos de Haas (Amsterdam, 1965) has extensive and international experience in studying, performing and training mime corporel in the theater. He was a student at the Mime School in Amsterdam and subsequently trained in Paris in the early 1990s with Decroux’s last assistants, Steven Wasson and Corinne Soum. Amos de Haas worked with the Frits Vogels at Grif Theater for eight years, taught at the Antwerp Mime Studio and the Mime School in Amsterdam. Currently, he is a teacher at the Moving Academy Performing Arts. Frits Vogels (Bloemendaal, 1933) came into contact with Etienne Decroux’s mime corporel in the 1960s, through his work with Jan Bronk and Wil Spoor. He is the founding father of site-specific physical theater in the Netherlands and the Mime School in Amsterdam. He is internationally renowned as artistic director of ‘Bewth’ and ‘Grif Theater’. In 1994, he won the Dutch mime lifetime achievement award and is still active today as president of the advisory board of MAPA (Moving Academy for Performing Arts).