The American Mime Theatre, Company and School, New York City, will be celebrating our 64th Anniversary on  April 7, 2016.  It all began in 1952 when a young 24 year old, Paul J. Curtis, graduating as a theater Director from  the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research (NYCity) and trained by Erwin Piscatory.  He went to Europe to explore different theater forms and he was disturbed by the arbitrary separation of acting and dance.  Returning to United States, he thought it would be interesting to present to American actors a project of Mime to demonstrate its potential and to correct the limitations of the medium practiced by the French School of Mime.  Forming a Company of 5 actors and 5 dancers they began to work on the project and created a Repertory of plays to present their new works in a concert at the 92nd Street Y, New York City.  The audience's response to the concert was strong, and the Company decided to continue with the work (creating plays for a Repertory and codifying the teaching methodology of this new kind of Mime, a performing art, which would be named "American Mime".

                                          from the mime play, "Six" from the Repertory
                                          of The American Mime Theatre

The American Mime Theatre, Company and School, will celebrate the 64th Anniversary on April 7, 2016.  Paul J. Curtis, Founder and Director, created the Medium known as "American Mime" (different from the French School of Pantomime.  Simply stated, we are actors who motivate movement from our own feelings in what we call form.

I plan to share with you the evolution of this art form in weekly postings.  "American Mime" is unique not only in its performing material but its teaching methodology.  I spent 50 years in working daily with Mr. Curtis; I would like to share this experience with you this story.

AMERICAN MIME - a new kind of Mime