What About Mime

What is mime? It turns out it depends on who you ask. Broadly speaking, the tradition has its roots in ancient theater in cultures across the globe. Many people envision street pantomimes with white face paint, while practitioners of the theater tradition emphasize the use of the entire body to convey expression and emotion. What does the art of mime have to do with the history of Ann Arbor? In the heyday of mime performance in the 1980s, dozens of event listings featuring mime could be found throughout the calendar year. From Marcel Marceau’s annual visits to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and his brief stint in Ann Arbor at the Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime to the countless groups and performers--the University of Michigan’s Mimetroupe, Artworlds Center for the Creative Arts, Mimetroupe of America, OPUS Mime, EMU Master Mimes, and more--mime dotted Ann Arbor’s cultural landscape. Mime was sure to be found at Summer Festival, Winter Festival and the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, the Graceful Arch becoming known as a site where one would certainly encounter a mime or pantomime. Even the 1973 Blues & Jazz Fest featured pantomime by the British troupe "Friends Roadshow," who would in the following years build a base in Ann Arbor and participate in the city’s Sesquicentennial celebration. The group often performed at local venues such as Chances Are/Second Chance and The Blind Pig with their outrageously-named Michael Spaghetti’s ½ Ring Circus. 

When the word “mime” is mentioned, do you imagine white face paint? If so, it is because of Marcel Marceau’s widely known character “Bip the clown”, based on Jean-Gaspard Deburau’s 19th-century silent, white-faced character Pierrot in the tradition of commedia dell'arte. Because Marceau was so popular, and the art of mime so tied to his success in the American mind, the white face paint that Marceau adopted for his character became synonymous with mime. However, it was not a tradition associated with the art historically. In a 1984 interview for the Ann Arbor News, Marceau emphasized that the makeup was “not traditional or even typical,” but that in his workshops here in town he sees “mostly white faces. But to create ‘little Bips,’ or ‘little Marceaus’ – that is not what I want.” Despite this plea, much of the mime seen around town in the 1970s-1990s was a direct homage to Marceau's iconic character. 

Beginnings: Local Interest Arises

Before the 1950s in Ann Arbor, the word “Mime” would likely bring to mind the all-male performing group at the University of Michigan known as the Mimes Union Opera, active from 1908-1930 with a few revivals in the following decades. That would all change by the mid-1950s when world-famous mime Marcel Marceau toured the United States for the first time and soon became a household name. Marceau made his first appearance in Ann Arbor at Hill Auditorium on December 5, 1960 as part of the final season of the University of Michigan’s Oratorical Association Platform Attractions series, which traced its origins back to 1854. 

When Marceau performed for the University Musical Society (UMS) in 1971, he became the first performer to ever grace the stage of the newly completed Power Center. The 1960s would see a slow rise in programming related to mime, with the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet offering courses in mime, bringing in international mime troupes, and inviting the San Francisco Mime Troupe to town.

In 1972, ArtWorlds, a nonprofit school of art, was founded at 213 ½ S Main Street by engineer Cecil Taylor and his wife Barbara Taylor. Though the couple left for California in 1980, the arts organization continued for another three years, routinely offering courses in mime taught by Michael Filisky, Perry Perrault, Mark Novotny, and Mark Strong, to name just a few.  At its height, the organization offered over 75 classes, employed 40 instructors, and enrolled over 800 students in courses that ranged from “fire eating” to magic, masks, and the classic but now nearly forgotten “Rhythm-meter-hand jive”. 

In May 1975, the second annual Invitational Festival of Experimental Theater, described by the Ann Arbor Sun as a “temporary aggregation of approximately 20 theatre, mime, and dance troupes.” Among them was the local "Friends Road Show" (a troupe living on a communal farm in Milan) and the Living Theatre at a number of venues: Michigan Union, Waterman Gym, and Trueblood Auditorium. That same year, the sixth annual Medieval Festival featured Michael Filisky’s recently-formed Mimetroupe’s interpretation of Boccaccio’s work, which was performed exclusively in mime, alongside “authentic” medieval performances and dances. Filisky became the well-known local figure in mime of the 1970s, and would remain a vibrant part of the community until he moved to New York in in the early 1980s.

The 1980’s Mime Boom in Ann Arbor

By the 1980s, Ann Arbor’s love of the art of mime was in full swing. Experimental mime, (or "new mime") featured abstraction, with troupes like Mummenschanz and Paul Gaulin’s Mime Company performing in extreme contrast to Marceau, and bringing a range of approaches to town. Mime became so popular that University of Michigan Mimetroupe’s event posters disappeared an alarming rate; the group attempted to cut them in half to dissuade theft, because, as one member said: “they are real collectors items.” Even with new styles and approaches on the horizon, Marceau became the face of the inaugural Ann Arbor Summer Festival in July 1984. He would return semi-annually to teach intensive workshops and make appearances at the festival in the following years. 

In anticipation of the first Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the Ann Arbor News proclaimed “Marcel Marceau’s love affair with Ann Arbor” and documented responses from local mimes; O.J. Anderson, sometimes referred to as the “good time mime”, noted “His [Marceau’s] is the art, mine is the act. My art is the entertainment,” which often consisted of bringing audience participants on stage and even speaking a line or two, earning him another title: “the World’s Only Talking Mime.” Perry Perrault, founder of the University of Michigan Mime Troupe in 1981 and Ann Arbor Mimeworks in 1988, noted that his approach contrasted to both Anderson and Marceau’s styles as he preferred to focus his energy on collaborative, group performances. 

With the help of Eugene Power, Lou Belcher, and Thomas Monaghan (of Domino’s Pizza), Marceau became the central figure for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and dreamed of opening an official school here. Though it never materialized, the space was originally conceptualized as a “350-seat theater, mime museum, and office space with rehearsal rooms.” The Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime taught seminars associated with the school for two years in town before the center faced bankruptcy. In a 2013 interview, Susan Pollay, former director of the Summer Festival, remembered that the center “was here in Ann Arbor in an instant and then it disappeared.” The following summer, Marceau was notably absent from both the Summer Festival itself and the annual Summer Mime Seminar.

Changing Attitudes Toward Mime: New Approaches Arrive

A Michigan Daily calendar listing on July 15, 1988, advertised the upcoming  series “Influences in Mime” at the Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime with the note: "'Everyone loves a clown. Everyone hates a mime,' said Sam Malone on an episode of Cheers. Decide for yourself…” As in the previous decades, Ann Arborites would have many opportunities to make that decision. In the late 1980s, Stefan Niedziałkowski, a renowned Polish mime artist, taught at Marcel Marceau’s Paris School and frequented Ann Arbor; he later became a resident at Marceau’s short-lived school and taught courses around town. From 1988-1993, Niedziałkowski had a base here for his mime company, Theatre Milchenye, and brought with him new forms of mime that would inspire future generations of artists. 

One such artist inspired by Niedziałkowski is Michael Lee, a local dramatist who specializes in mime. Lee first trained under Perry Perrault after he moved to Ann Arbor in 1984. Three years later he studied at the ephemeral Marcel Marceau School of Mime in Ann Arbor, then under Niedziałkowski, and quickly joined the local scene as a professional mime. Lee established his own OPUS Mime Troupe in 1994 at the former Washtenaw Council for the Arts loft at 122 S Main St. In their debut calendar event listing in the Michigan Daily, changing attitudes toward mime are employed as a marketing tactic, with OPUS mime cheekily stating: “This mime troupe blends the body of a gymnast, the mind of an actor and the heart of a poet into their shows. Who cares, nobody likes mimes anyway.” 

Performances in mime continued around town without the fervor of the past decades, but with a presence nonetheless. In 2001 the 78-year-old Marceau became the recipient of the University of Michigan Musical Society’s Distinguished Artist Award. As part of the residency, Marceau taught students of dance and drama for two weeks, followed by a performance that would add to his resume of over 30 Ann Arbor stage appearances. 

Continuing into the new millennium, Michael Lee set up a new office on East Washington. There, he ran a business that offered courses in mime to local schools, including Milan Schools and Rudolf Steiner. Lee stressed the difference between mime and pantomime in the Ann Arbor Observer's August 2000 edition, noting that true mime is an “art of the body as dramatic tool … that includes 264 hand positions and body positions that go back to Greco-Roman sculpture.” Leaving behind the Marceau-inspired white face paint, Lee created his own interpretation of the classic art of mime. By 2002, Lee had secured a grant to perform a work in mime, but was ultimately turned down by a local festival and could not locate a theater to perform in. The physical office in Ann Arbor closed, but a year and a half later he returned to mime part-time. Over the next years, he would continue his involvement with the Performance Network and participate in workshops, theater productions, and festivals in Washtenaw County.   In 2011, Lee and Perrault performed for Chelsea High School theater students after Opus Mime completed a two-week residency. Since then, Lee has moved away from Ann Arbor, but continues to teach and perform in Michigan and beyond. 

While mime no longer has the hold on Ann Arbor it once had, the lively tradition had a strong influence on the performing arts community here that still lingers today. 

[audio_player:https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/01-harveys_le…^Harvey's Lens|https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/02-last_known…^Last Known Address|https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/03-arbor_oaks…^Arbor Oaks Park|https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/04-eric_farre…^Eric Farrell's Derby Party|https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/05-north_star…^North Star Lounge|https://aadl.org/sites/default/files/archives/annarbor200/06-veterans_p…^Veteran's Park Ice Arena]

Artist's Introduction: 

Located about 18 miles south of where I grew up, Ann Arbor was the cool older sibling to my hometown. Just a short drive down US-23 there were used book and record shops, vintage boutiques, comic sellers, coffee houses, punks, students, hippies, and other college town fixtures less common in the suburbs. During summer festivals you could see scruffy Andean folk bands busking on street corners and Hare Krishnas drumming in the Diag. Brighton had its merits, of course, and my childhood there was near-idyllic, but my young mind really opened up whenever I got to come to Ann Arbor. 

In the late-'80s, my mom drove my brother and me into the city to take guitar lessons from Michael Lutz at Al Nalli Music. Mike was an affable guy with shaggy hard rock hair who correctly deduced that we didn't care about notation and just wanted to learn how to play songs by ear. His band, Brownsville Station, had a hit in the mid-'70s with "Smokin' in the Boys Room," and to us he was a legitimate guitar god. Being too young to get into clubs, I watched in-store acoustic shows at Schoolkids' Records by touring bands like Camper Van Beethoven and Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. When I was a little older I started volunteering at the Ark and eventually got a job as a clerk at Schoolkids'. I never attended the University. I always gravitated toward the townie side and still do. Every job I've held since the age of 18 has been in Ann Arbor and I've built my music career amid its various overlapping scenes. 

Last Known Address is a collection of six short songs related to my life in Ann Arbor. I'll be the first to admit it's a thematically disparate lot, but sometimes memories are like that. You shake your head and unexpected things fall out. Think of it as a little ragtag bouquet of wildflowers plucked from the city's greater ecosystem. I've accompanied each one with a photo and corresponding essay. The songs themselves are intentionally brief; fleeting musical snapshots from a relationship still in progress. The photos offer visual context and the essays add color. My partner throughout the arranging and recording of this project was singer and multi-instrumentalist Carol Catherine, an Ann Arbor native with a long history in the arts. Every June you can find her in Nichols Arboretum, co-directing Shakespeare in the Arb.

Song Essays, lyrics, and photos:

HARVEY'S LENS

"Diag 1994" - © 1994 Harvey Drouillard

LYRICS:

Nudes in the Diag

Nudes on State

Move through the Art Fair

Harvey's lens is an x-ray

Although I grew up in Brighton, Ann Arbor was where the interesting things happened. In the mid-'90s I was a teenager, driving into the city to play acoustic gigs at local coffee houses and shop at record stores like WhereHouse, Wazoo, and Schoolkids'. Ann Arbor also had its share of eccentric gift shops like Middle Earth and Peaceable Kingdom, which sold interesting curated objects that ranged from punk t-shirts and imported folk art to plastic toy bulldog guns that squeaked when you pulled the trigger. These shops also stocked postcards of every stripe. 

In 1994 I remember noticing a series of black and white postcards depicting local events like the Art Fair and Hash Bash. The curious thing about them was that they contained both nude and fully-clothed people in casual interaction, as if it were an everyday occurrence. Even then I recognized how artfully done they were. All I knew was that they were taken by a photographer known mononymously as Harvey.

Harvey Drouillard now lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and still specializes in guerilla-style nude photo shoots. His models disrobe for less than a minute, mingling with the local flora and fauna while he quickly captures the scene. Usually before anyone is the wiser the models are already clad and moving on. Over the years he has staged nude shoots in dozens of North American cities, but the tradition was born in his hometown of Ann Arbor. 

LAST KNOWN ADDRESS

"Liberty Station" - © 2024 Timothy Monger

LYRICS:

Post office box 8036

Last known address,

Liberty Station

While he lived,

His ghost in town sublet

The downtown post office was moved to the federal building at 200 E. Liberty in 1977, the year I was born. In 1999, my band, the Original Brothers and Sisters of Love, was about to release our first album and required a common mailing address for legal purposes. My brother Jamie and I shared a house on West Ann, but our rented duplex was hardly permanent. So, using money earned from our monthly gig at Arbor Brewing Company, we rented a mailbox in the lobby of Liberty Station. Over the next couple decades it became the de facto mailing address for my various bands, record labels, and other ventures, providing me a consistent presence in town long after I'd moved away. Because of its location, I've always thought of it as ground zero, the dead center from which the rest of Ann Arbor radiates. Wherever my corporeal self roams, my ghost in town keeps residence at Liberty Station. It is my proxy, my last known address. 

Write to me at:

Timothy Monger

P.O. Box 8036

Ann Arbor, MI 48107

ARBOR OAKS PARK

"Arbor Oaks Park" - © 2024 Timothy Monger 

LYRICS:

Been having a hard time, too much on my mind

Got to get on my feet, get lost, just to get by

Hop across Stone School onto Champagne Drive

I found hope at Arbor Oaks Park

I learned to meditate at a picnic table

And a kid was shooting baskets

As the solar eclipse passed

And I wanted to share the moment

So I gave him my dark glasses

In the summer of 2017 I adopted Arbor Oaks Park as my personal refuge. My office building was maybe a half mile away on Varsity Drive and I'd taken to wandering around the suburban fringes of Pittsfield Township during my lunch breaks. It was a melancholy time, and I felt rather lost. One day my explorations carried me across Stone School Road and into a neighborhood I'd never been to. A few blocks in I discovered a quiet little park next to Bryant Elementary where for the rest of that summer I took up residency. To combat my anxiety, I'd begun experimenting with meditation via one of the guided apps that had recently become popular. Several lunchtimes per week, I could be found, eyes closed, focusing on my breath at a picnic table near the park's west entrance. On the afternoon of August 21, I walked over there to watch a total solar eclipse make its way across America. I was alone except for a young guy shooting baskets at one of the nearby courts. As the earth's shadow passed over the sun, he kept on playing through the darkness until I walked over and insisted he wear my eclipse glasses and look up to witness this astronomical wonder. 

ERIC FARRELL'S DERBY PARTY

"Eric Farrell" - © 2008 Timothy Monger

 LYRICS:

Detroit Street, Derby Day

Midwestern fancy

Women in hats

Heels, no flats

Julep drunk in May

Up the stairs at Eric's house

Reckless joy just spilling out

On Derby Saturday

I first met Eric Farrell sometime in the mid-2000s. He was then employed by Zingerman's Mail Order and lived on Detroit Street, just north of the Deli and directly across from the fusty old antique shop Treasure Mart. Every year on the first Saturday in May he hosted a Kentucky Derby party. Formal wear was highly encouraged; women sought out elaborate hats, men were suited, it became a sort of raucous thrift store gala. Good food was always in abundance and Eric premixed a massive punch bowl of bourbon and simple syrup for a make-your-own-julep station with heaps of crushed ice, a bouquet of mint sprigs, and a few silver julep cups reserved for honored guests. 

Gambling was also encouraged, making the actual race-viewing, crammed into his tiny living room, a high-stakes affair. They were decadent and joyous daytime bangers that stretched into night. In 2011 Eric opened the Bar at 327 Braun Court, a beloved Kerrytown space which matured into one of Ann Arbor's legendary in-the-know hangs. The Derby parties eventually faded out and in the spring of 2024, the bar too closed its doors. Like his parties, Eric's bar was a cult classic, something not meant for the mainstream, but cherished and protected by those who found it. 

NORTH STAR LOUNGE

"North Star Lounge" - © 2024 Timothy Monger

LYRICS:

Late November

Cold drives the crowds

Home from market day in Kerrytown

Sun down, moon out

Friends constellate at the North Star Lounge

Phillis Engelbert opened the North Star Lounge in Kerrytown in 2022 as an extension of Detroit Street Filling Station, her popular vegan restaurant. Tucked into a historic two-story brick house on the corner of Catherine and Fifth, it immediately became a bustling micro-venue with a cozy upstairs listening room that could bear 35 patrons if they tucked in their elbows. It was billed as Michigan's first all-vegan bar, but the intimate performance space was the real draw. Carol Catherine and I first played there as a duo in November 2023, and to promote our show I wrote us a short 30-second jingle. We posted a video of us singing it online and then opened our show with it. I assumed it would be a single-use relic meant only for this gig, but a few weeks later I spontaneously wrote several more tiny Ann Arbor songs which became the genesis of this project. 

VETERANS PARK ICE ARENA

"Ice Skating at Vets Park, 1971" - © 1971 The Ann Arbor News

LYRICS:

Snow drifts, mid-July

A pale omen

Car seats on fire

Burning a hole down Huron

Vets Park has smooth ice

They've brought its skin outside

When I was in my early-20s and living on Ann Street, I remember driving up Huron past Veterans Memorial Park and noticing what looked like a pile of snow out front. It was either late spring or early summer. At the time I wrote it off as the stubborn remnants of a large snow plow berm, the kind that are ubiquitous in Michigan parking lots even well into the spring. It didn't make sense, though, and it unnerved me. Also, I saw it more than once. Years later I casually mentioned this phenomenon to someone and they offered me a great revelation. The building outside which this anomaly appeared was an ice rink, and the snowpile was in fact shavings from the ice resurfacer. I was never able to confirm this, but the idea of the Zamboni operator dumping his leftovers to melt outside seemed logical enough. Still, this strange Ann Arbor memory has stayed with me over the years and every time I drive by Vets Park in the warmer months, I find myself looking for a flash of white.

A note on the cover:   The photo on the album cover was taken during a snowstorm on January 16, 2002. It was my last year living on Ann Street and I wanted to document the neighborhood somehow. I climbed to the top of the nearby parking structure and snapped a handful of aerial shots on my cheap 35mm camera. This one looks out west toward Ashley Street with West Park in the distance behind it. In the foreground is my old house, 216 West Ann, partially obscured by a large pine tree. My brother and I lived in that house for five years and wrote most of the songs from our first three albums there. Originally built in the late-1800s, the house was recently demolished and rebuilt from the foundation.

Artist Biography:

Timothy Monger is a musician and writer living in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He has released four solo albums ranging in style from lush baroque pop to pastoral folk and harmony-driven indie rock. In addition to his work as solo singer/songwriter, he is the bandleader of Timothy Monger State Park, co-founder of folk-rock cult heroes Great Lakes Myth Society, and curator of the experimental multimedia project Log Variations. He is also a blogger, music writer, and longtime contributor to the AllMusic database. Monger's latest project is Last Known Address, a collection of short songs and essays commissioned by the Ann Arbor District Library.

Credits:

Recorded February - August 2024 in Ypsilanti, MI

Engineered by Timothy Monger and Elly Daftuar

Mixed by Rishi Daftuar

Mastered by Jim Kissling

Timothy Monger - vocals, guitars, bass, synths, chord organ, bongos, stylophone, drum programming

Carol Catherine - vocals, violin, windchimes, vibraslap, triangle, shaker, maracas, floor tom, tambourine

Elly Daftuar - additional harmonies

Chad Thompson - wurlitzer electric piano, drum set 

All songs written by Timothy Monger © 2024

Happy Maps Publishing Co. (BMI)

Commissioned by the Ann Arbor District Library for Ann Arbor 200

Released by Northern Detective in conjunction with the Ann Arbor District Library

Northern Detective - Case # ND-006

Ann Arbor 200 - #159

In this episode David Friedo, Mary Bleyaert, Paul Wiener, Mary Dolan, and Barbara Torretti talk about the 1970s magazine Art Fare. The group discusses David's initial inspiration for the magazine, which was first published in 1973, how it came about, and its reception from the public. Each recount their roles in the production of the magazine, and reflect on the changes in the Ann Arbor art community and beyond.