Let's face it: we've all made fun of mimes at some point in our lives. Heck, Gary Larson could fill a book with Far Side cartoons on the subject. It's time everyone looked at the facts and realized that it's just too easy to pick on someone who won't talk back. Needless to say, the funny face paint doesn't really help their cause.
But Hype! -Tufts' only mime troupe- is out there each and every day trying to make sure that mimes get some much-needed respect. Senior Scott Trudell put it best by stating quite plainly: "Mimes are cool."
The troupe consists of seven members, ranging from freshmen to the seniors who joined four years ago when Hype! was founded by Jay Willoughby. Hype! brought two new members - freshmen Chris Bonewitz and Kevin Miller - into the group two weeks ago. Not surprisingly, both Bonewitz and Miller have acting backgrounds at Tufts.
"No experience [in miming] is necessary," Bonewitz said, adding that, to his knowledge, no one in the group had any previous mime experience before joining Hype!. As he put it, the audition tested "mostly creativity and your ability to adapt."
To prepare, each auditionee chose a piece of music and created a three- to five-minute skit to perform. After watching the piece, the group discussed each one with its performer. As a test of improvisational skills, each prospective member performed his piece again with additional challenges, such as incorporating a member of Hype! into the skit and expressing specific emotions throughout the length of the piece.
Miming is especially difficult because a story must be told using only motions and facial expressions. Hype! performances involve skits much like those seen in the auditions - action set to music.
"Our shows are compelling because we express a great variety of emotion in the skits we write," Trudell said. "We work closely with the music to create a story without words." The music fleshes out the skit, bringing the story to life through movement.
Unlike most performance groups, Hype! has no one choreographer who tells everyone else what to do. Their skits are a true collaborative process and allow everyone to express themselves.
"Members will sometimes come to rehearsal with skit ideas already fleshed out, but more often we develop the ideas as a group," Trudell said. "We do not have an artistic director because the final product is an integration of each member's ideas about a skit after we all take ownership of it."
In traditional theater, one acts out someone else's conception with little personal freedom. Instead, the members of Hype! can do exactly what they want. They manage to convey a wide variety of emotions as their musical taste covers numerous genres.
Hype! is not about the traditional "stuck in a glass box" miming - the image that so many people conjure up when they hear the word. Instead, the members strive to carve their own niche while borrowing from the art form,. But they do observe the greats: several of the members are going to see Marcel Marceaux next month.
Though the group practices hard, there are relatively few opportunities for the public to see Hype! in action, as it performs only once per semester. Instead of going for quantity, the performers aim to put on the best show they possibly can. About half of each weekly practice involves talking about and testing out new skits, searching for the perfect ones to include in their performance. About a month prior to each show, the group has a marathon practice in which the members choose exactly which skits to include. Then they have one practice a day until the show to make sure that their performance will be as clean and professional as possible.
Each show includes about ten skits, all encompassing different moods and styles. Sometimes they will include "progressive skits" - ones that keep reappearing throughout the show to create a unifying theme.
Luckily for all you hardcore mime fans out there, while auditions are over, you haven't missed Hype!'s show this semester, scheduled for April 30. Until then, you'll just have to get your mime fix elsewhere.
