Using mime to convey meaning and narrative

The following article is comprised of an extract from Beyond the Script Take 3: Drama in the English and literacy classroom by Robyn Ewing and Jennifer Simons, with Margery Hertzberg and Victoria Campbell

Mime is a more disciplined, exaggerated form of movement with the specific intention of conveying meaning to an outside observer. While this ancient medium of artistic expression has had many definitions, it is best understood as the use of the body to explore or communicate an idea, concept, emotion or story. Usually it is performed wordlessly. Some purists insist on complete silence, eliminating any music or sound effects, but in the classroom it is sufficient for meaning to be conveyed mostly through chosen movements of the body.

Setting up mime exercises

In order to set up a mime, students need to look closely at the physical world, to observe others carefully and to become more aware of how they communicate non-verbally. It gives opportunities for representing actions or emotions precisely and imaginatively, with the stress either on exploring or communicating them.

When preparing for mime activities, the teacher may find it helpful to begin with activities that may help students to change gear and focus on the coming drama.

For example, they can be asked to:

• walk around the room, moving as if they were feeling ‘happy’ / ‘angry’ / ‘shy’ / ‘proud’
• convey an urgent message (e.g. ‘Quick, come over here!’), first with hands only, then with feet, and finally with whole bodies
• in pairs, give and receive a gift, conveying what it is through the giver’s actions and gestures and the receiver’s response
• mould an imaginary lump of clay into a recognisable object through mimed action around the class circle
• pass a nominated imaginary object (e.g. a hot plate, a wet rag, a handful of limp spaghetti) around the class circle.

Linking mime to narrative

A young or inexperienced class may find it easier to begin miming activities as a whole group. The teacher can lead them by narrating a story while the whole class mimes actions, events or feelings together as the story unfolds.

 A variation on this is what Peter Slade (1973, p. 30) has called ‘the ideas game’, in which students suggest three things for the teacher to link into a narrative. Usually one will involve movement and the use of space: for example, the students might offer ‘hat’, ‘bicycle’ and ‘Christmas Day’, which are then linked into an improvised narrative about a family celebration. The story told should have some connection with the focus of the lesson.

Later, the teacher might introduce percussion instruments to develop a tense moment, highlight a pause or represent the mood being conveyed.

Stepping into literature can begin with mime. The teacher can find places in a shared book reading that the students can enact. For example, Oliver Jeffers’ (2005) To catch a star includes many actions that lend themselves to mime. The students can reflect their understanding through mime of how the boy wakes up very early in the morning, climbs to the top of the tallest tree, tries to lasso the star, fails to fish the star out of the water and finally walks home with his starfish friend.

Making mime successful

With mime in the classroom, the emphasis is on detail and effectiveness in conveying meaning rather than on artistry and sophisticated technique. 

Successful mime requires both children and observers to suspend their disbelief and accept the illusion being created. When someone mimes lifting a large, heavy box, for example, the audience must feel that it is large and heavy because of the position of the body, the outstretched arms and the exertion showing on the face. To mime eating a ripe mango requires evoking the sensations of its taste, smell and slippery flesh purely through movement and gesture.