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Reactions from participants from Mime workshops.

1.   Second Elixir Mime Workshop,  Hyderabad, India  2011

This April, we held our second mime workshop for the deaf. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm that all the participants had. Two deaf organizations had participants attending.

As you may have guessed, the deaf are natural actors, especially with hand gestures and their facial expressions. Theatre is a great way for the deaf to be able to communicate a meaningful message and to express themselves.

Many of the participants have had experience with mime and acting before. One participant said, “I have done mime since childhood, but I have learned so much at this Elixir Mime Workshop.  I have seen mime performances before but since there was no translator to explain the technique, I didn’t quite get it, but now I am challenged to take my acting up to the next level of excellence. I am very happy to have experienced this workshop.”

Here are some of the reactions from the participants:

  • I liked the mask making session very much. This was something totally new for me.
  • I learned about isolation, dance movement, and how to use facial expressions.
  • I hope to go out to deaf schools, hospitals, and offices to make people happy with mime. It would be great to teach deaf children how to mime. We could go on tour to other cities as well.
  • I learned new techniques by copying other mime artists.
  • You asked if I were shy and yes, I had to admit I was, but you helped me express myself and overcome in that area.
  • In the 3 days I learned about facial expression and so much more. I am happy I learned at this workshop.
  • We took time to interact and critique after an act, I liked that because we can learn from each other.
  • Some comments from the teachers at a deaf school in Mumbai, India:

“They have never done this before and have given them a booster – a big surge of power for dramatic arts. They learned by doing. They learn by seeing it and copying it. Visuals were very important.  It greatly stimulated their imagination.”

The director said, “I never knew you could teach mime and bring it up to such a professional level."

Come back again. You gave our students a real boost with this workshop.”

“It put me in a place of empowerment. I learned how to show emotion and be the part. This is a new tool that I can use in my home church. I felt enlightened and enjoyed it. Stories became alive and I learned as I watched what other people did. “   Gary – South Africa

“I enjoyed the training. The exercises opened us up. We acquired some very helpful tools.” 

Drama teacher

  • Reactions from students:

Reactions from Ukraine and Crimea:

Thank you very much for your excellent workshop. I liked  the theory, but the practical application was even more interesting. I learned a lot of new things for myself that I will use in the future in my work. We anticipate seeing you next year.

             - Bobyr Alexandra   

This meeting gave me a lot more skills and it filled my life’s experience with new ways to express myself.

I thank  Peter and team and await his arrival next year. We will wait for all our hearts for the next year. Thanks a lot.        -  Antoni

Thanks a lot for all the new things we learned. For the experience in the pantomime. It was really interesting to find out how you can express your emotions without words by showing them with your body. I would like to develop these skills more. We thank you for the great atmosphere in the time of the training. It would be really great if you would make an actor’s course in Sevastopol.  Again thanks ,  -  Alena and Alexiy

Thank you for the interesting workshop. These excellent skits reminded me again that there is nothing impossible, especially if you do it with humor.  It is very interesting to see how people get away from everyday routine and showed their actor’s skills. Thank you very much. We wish you success in acting.

Thank you for that knowledge which I didn’t have enough for the great skills you showed, for the happy atmosphere and for the memory you left for us.

We wish you new ideas in your trip. Thank you very much for everything.         - Juliana.

 

I really liked the film about the mask from clay. Also, I liked the 7 ages of man done in white-face.  The ideas all came into focus when you gave your explanation about it.

                           -Sergey Kuryshin

I liked the workshop very much. It was very inspiring and fun. Especially the second day. It was great acting out the skits. I really liked the morph suit. It was really fun dressed in it. I really enjoyed myself, I hope you will come here and do this again.  - Participant

  • I used to have to paint everyone’s face when we did a show, but now since this face painting class – we can each do it.
  • Now I will always be looking for stories – If I get an idea, I will write it down right away.
  • We need to have a world vision – Indonesia, Zambia, are on the horizon.
  • We can improve our performances with exercise and practice.
  • Before we took a long time to make a mask, but now we that we learned the technique we can do it in a short time.
  • We did simple performances before but we now saw how much we have to learn and improve.
  • we want to start networking with other deaf centers and organizations.

“I enjoyed learning about the 5 different mime artists.”

“Using the rope as an object and then doing without it helped me to improve my mime skills.”

“It put me in a place of empowerment. I learned how to show emotion and be the part. This is a new tool that I can use in my home church. I felt enlightened and enjoyed it. Stories became alive and I learned as I watched what other people did. “   Gary – South Africa

“I enjoyed the training. The exercises opened us up. We acquired some very helpful tools.” 

Drama teacher