gloriaspielman.com - Gloria Spielman - Author of Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

About the Book

2 150 From the age of five, Marcel Marceau knew he wanted to be a silent actor, just like Charlie Chaplin. When World War II intervened, he joined the resistance, helping to get young Jews to safety during this dangerous time. But Marcel never forgot his dream of being a mime artist and entertaining the world.

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Chatting to The Children's Book Review

Janusz Korczak's Children

Chatting with Nicki Richesin of The Children's Book Review about mime, writing about Marcel Marceau, silence and the writing life.

Gloria Spielman is the author of two picture books Janusz Korczak's Children and Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime which has been awarded a Silver Medal in the 2011 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards in the category of Non-Fiction Picture Book. A former high school English teacher, Gloria has also written English teaching books and contributed to multi-media English courses. She has many more wonderful books in the works that we can look forward to reading soon.

Nicki Richesin: Congratulations on your lovely Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime. It's a beautifully compelling book about his legendary career and how he brought the world's attention back to the ancient art of pantomime, but it's also the story of how he survived World War II. What inspired you to create this well-deserved homage to Mr. Marceau?

Gloria Spielman: Thank You, Nicki. I always enjoy reading The Children's Book Review; it's such a terrific resource for anyone in the world of children's books, so I was thrilled to talk to you.

I'd much rather tell you what inspired me to write my first book, Janusz Korczak's Children, it's a far better story. My then third grade daughter had to do a project on Korczak for Holocaust Memorial Day, and that got me reading and thinking.

The truth is, the original inspiration for Marcel Marceau actually came from my friend Mandy. She was looking at Janusz Korczak and said "You know, you should write about Marcel Marceau. He was really interesting." She told me of his work with the resistance and after she left I did some reading. Mandy was right. I started to imagine the pictures. I often imagine a picture book in pictures as well as words. My editor agreed. So did the publisher. And I started to write. I wish could say I saw a wonderful mime performance when I was a child and fell in love with it, but that would be a lie.

I was astonished to learn that Marceau was a part of the French resistance. He bravely smuggled Jewish children through the forests to safety and entertained allied troops. He led such a fascinating life. Did you discover anything that surprised you when doing your research?

It was all fascinating. But there is only so much that can go into a 32 page book. One anecdote that would have made a great picture book illustration is when Marceau came face to face with the man he called his creative father, Charlie Chaplin. He told Chaplin how he paid tribute to him in his American performance and began to imitate him in the middle of Paris airport. Chaplin joined in and the two men were miming Chaplin right there in the airport. I have shared another anecdote on my website about Marceau being stopped by the police who wanted to see his papers during the war.

Marceau was quoted as saying, "People think that when we are silent, you have nothing to say. But you can make people laugh and cry through the tragedy and the comedy of life. During the war I was in the French underground, and I survived. I think very often about this: People who were 20 years old died in the war. Maybe I'm a spokesman because I am a witness of my time." In our modern world, where life is super-fast and often overwhelming, do you agree with this notion that we can still communicate through silence as Marceau famously did?

The feeling of being overwhelmed is a feeling that many people share. The myriad of ways (Facebook, cell phone, SMS, etc) we can communicate or be communicated with can give a feeling of overload. I actually touched on this last month when writing in The Forward. So many people told me they shared my irritation of the insidious piped music heard everywhere these days. A. P. Herbert writing in The Living Age feels very strongly the effect of "modern nuisances" as he describes the new communications technology. He talks of inventions that are "one more nail in the coffin of privacy and quietude" and "the end of civilization." I don't know that I'd take it that far, but it is interesting to note Herbert was writing in 1920. That nail in the coffin was just a wireless opera concert broadcast and the threat to civilization, referred to the then new wireless telephony. You can guess what he would have to say about Facebook, cell phones and Muzak.

Silence can be uncomfortable or even threatening. Think how we scramble to 'fill in the blanks' when there's a lull in the conversation. We panic when we can't find or don't even know the right words. We read negativity into silence. Conversational lulls are often filled with nervous chatter. We all know that sinking feeling when we have to comfort a mourner. We're wrack our brains, wondering, "What on earth do I say to him/her?" Jewish tradition acknowledges this beautifully. When a close family member (parents, sibling, spouse) dies the family remain at home for seven days and are visited by friends and family. The custom is to enter silently, sit close, and say nothing to the mourners unless and until they choose to speak. If they choose not to speak, that's fine. You came. Sometimes, that's enough. And the visitors are often relieved too, "Phew, so it's really ok not to say anything?"

Can we communicate through silence? We tend to pay far more attention to what people say but so much can be conveyed without words. Faces in particular show myriad nuances. Think of a smile. It can be ironic, sly, approving and more. "He smiled ironically" just doesn't have quite the same effect, does it?

I am developing school presentations on exactly this idea and the many ways we communicate.

Marceau is said to have inspired Michael Jackson's moonwalk with his act "Walking Against the Wind." His childhood idol was Charlie Chaplin, but he brought a new spin on Chaplin's little tramp with his character Bip. Why do you think through this particular character he was able to engage and connect with his audience and express himself so vulnerably and deeply?

He's a humble character this fellow Bip with very human characteristics we can all relate to. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do or where you live: Who hasn't dreamt of adventure, struggled to find his or her place in the world, felt powerless against forces greater than themselves. Marceau said, "Bip is a romantic and burlesque hero of our time. His look is turned not only toward heaven, but into the hearts of men."

Could you tell us a bit about your collaboration with Manon Gauthier on her beautiful illustrations for Marcel Marceau Master of Mime?

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, aren't they? But I'm afraid there was no collaboration between myself and Manon. She worked with the publisher's art department. I only saw the illustrations when I received my author's copies and I loved them right away. They were different to what I'd been imagining. I love the marriage of the writer's and artist's vision you get in picture books.

I understand you have five children and teach high school English. How do you balance your busy life with your writing life?

There are three answers. It depends on the day.

1) The Practical: When the children were young, I snatched writing time after I'd taken the older kids to pre-school and kindergarten while the baby slept or between 11 pm and 1 am. About 13 years ago we got rid of our TV, which meant so much time saved. I'm also very lucky to have a very encouraging husband, who is a competent, efficient housekeeper and Master of Laundry. He helps me find pockets of time, between the day job, the house and the kids and doesn't allow me to give up. He has an unconventional work schedule; he works evenings, so is available during the day to take care of these things. I also teach very little now; the children are much older now, they're all teenagers and are very respectful and considerate. I'm very lucky.

2) The Philosophical. Balancing your life is not really about getting up early to write or staying up into the wee hours, or taking a notebook wherever you go or even having a considerate family. No time in the world will help if you don't really want to do it. Finding time is really about finding your passion, an obsession really. It's about finding the thing you can't not do. The thing that you can't wait to come back to. That thing could be writing or painting, fixing old cars or running. It's the thing that beckons you when you're doing pretty much anything else. Along with the passion comes an obsession for finding at least some of the time. If you have the passion, time will come. So, I suppose you could say, I find the balance, because I've found the thing I love to do.

3) The Grumpy. I don't. Not really. It's so hard to find time. There's never a moment of peace and quiet. There's always someone at home. So many distractions. My day job writing EFL materials has to come first. If only I had a noise-proof, air-conditioned writer's shed in the garden and a few more hours a day.

Would you like to tell us a bit about your current projects?

I have three picture books ready and looking for a home. I have two works-in-progress, a humorous young adult book in progress with a teenage boy who believes blood is thicker than water, a mother who disagrees, new families, genes, genealogy and one boy's quest for a father. I'm also working on an adult novel, set in and around the old London library of my childhood. It's about living on the margins of society.

Both of these novels are transporting me quite far from my writing comfort zone. It's a challenge I'm enjoying immensely. Until now, I've written either picture books or texts for learners of English as a foreign language. Both genres involve paring a tale down to its bare bones, without losing its essence, while preserving its essence. It's so different from writing picture books and EFL materials. It's a liberating experience to have such a wide repertoire of words and syntax at my fingertips.

Nicki Richesin is the editor of four anthologies,What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To, and Letting Go of Their Daughters; Because I Love Her: 34 Women Writers Reflect on the Mother-Daughter Bond; Crush: 26 Real-Life Tales of First Love; and The May Queen: Women on Life, Work, and Pulling it all Together in your Thirties. Her anthologies have been excerpted and praised in The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Boston Globe, Redbook, Parenting, Cosmopolitan, Bust, Salon, Daily Candy, and Babble.

Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour Interview

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

Talking to Shannon Hitchcock of Shannon and The Sunshine Band as part of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour.

Gloria Spielman is a children's author whose latest book Marcel Marceau Master of Mime was a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Moonbeam Children's Book Award Silver Medalist, and a Sydney Taylor Book Awards, Notable Book.

Gloria, congratulations on the success of Marcel Marceau!

Thank you Shannon and thank you for inviting me to talk to you.

Shannon: I think one of the hardest parts about writing a picture book biography is determining a focus. How did you decide which parts of Marcel's life to include in your book?

Gloria: A picture book biography can be either a birth to death story, which is what we usually think of as a biography. But it doesn't have to be. It can also capture a period in the subject's life like or even an event, like Mordicai Gerstein's, book The Man who walked between the Towers about Phillipe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the World Trade Center towers. Master of Mime followed Marcel from childhood till the end of his life.

But you're right, determining a focus is a tricky thing. How do you capture a life in 1,500 words and 32 pages? Every word counts and every incident has to propel the story forward and capture its essence. The right opening determines the focus so getting that right is important. I look out for a seminal event which can be a springboard to follow the person through his life. I tend to think in pictures so if an event creates a picture in my head, it gets shortlisted. This is, after all, a picture book. So, the book opens with Marcel dressing up as his childhood hero and the man he called his creative father, silent movie star, Charlie Chaplin.

Shannon: What's the most interesting story about Marcel Marceau that didn't make the cut?

Gloria: There were two. I'm not sure which was more interesting. One incident that didn't make the cut happened in 1967. Marcel finally met his artistic hero, Charlie Chaplin by chance at the airport in Paris. Marcel began to imitate Chaplin and Chaplin, joined in, right there in the middle of the airport. It connected beautifully to the book's opening, and would have made a lovely illustration but I couldn't get it to fit into the flow of the story, so out it went.

I came across another anecdote in an article by James Kirkup in the British newspaper, The Independent. He writes about Marcel being stopped by the police, during the war, who asked to see his papers. Marcel was on the wanted list and his papers were perfect fakes. Kirkup writes, "The narks kept examining his papers and looking at his face, while he stared back at them without batting an eyelid, showing no trace of fear. The men were baffled, and let him go. It was an early demonstration of the powers of mime." Since this was the only place I'd found this incident mentioned, I couldn't really include it.

This is your second picture book biography. What attracts you to the genre? Who's your next subject?

Gloria: I do enjoy writing picture book biographies but it wasn't a case of 'I'd love to write a picture book biography. Who shall I write about? After, Janusz Korczak's Children came out people started asking 'So, who are you going to write about next?' I realized I'd got the taste for picture book biographies and began to think of writing another one. I'm getting the same question again. I would love to write about an unsung hero next time. I have an idea or two that I'm looking into. People are fascinating and I love writing about their lives.

Shannon: How can teachers use your book in the classroom?

Gloria: I'm actually working on a guide for teachers and also developing presentations for schools. I will have both up on my site as soon as they are ready.

Shannon: Many writers say they have no trouble coming up with ideas, yet this is one of the most common questions they get asked. Why do you think people are so fascinated about where writers get their ideas?

Gloria: The whole process does seem rather mysterious and quite unfathomable to people who don't have ideas constantly distracting them and demanding attention. I've written tons of educational material for learners of English as a Foreign Language, and the question I'm asked the most is definitely 'How do you know what to write about?' The gut-reaction answer is, "I don't know. I just do." Ideas are everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and mind to see them and ask "What if …?" 'What if Columbus had never discovered America?" "What if we lived in a society where everyone was perfect?" The 'what if' question is the germ of many if not most ideas. But the idea is just the seed. But no one asks the really important question. How do you turn an idea into a book? That's the hard part. Ideas are dandy, but it's the hard work that follows that turns it into a story.

Shannon: What do you enjoy most about writing? What do you find most challenging?

Gloria: Very many things. Here's one. I'm never bored and there's no such thing as nothing to do. Not ever. An overly long line at the post office? You never know what snippet of overheard conversation will spark an idea. A long train journey? Uninterrupted time with my laptop. Waiting for a bus? An opportunity to daydream and hopefully let the subconscious figure out what should happen next in your story.

The challenges? Again, there are many. Here are two: First, to force myself to stop and take care of important things like washing-up, folding the laundry or the shopping. Then once, started on the important thing, to then force myself to stay there until it's finished because without fail, a 'brilliant' idea pops into the head and disappears forever if you wait until the dishes are done to jot it down. Two, it's the conundrum, where and how to find time and peace and quiet.

Shannon: What are you working on now?

Gloria: Many things and I'm excited about them all. I'll mention the two I have a soft spot for. There's an adult novel, set in the old London Library of my childhood and deals with getting your voice heard while living on the margins of your society. Another is a humorous YA with a teenage boy on a quest for a father, new families, his genetic inheritance and worries about his unusually small feet. I am also looking for a home for three unpublished picture books.

Lorin Eric Salm: Mime Artist

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

Lorin Eric Salm is an American actor and mime instructor. Trained by the world-renowned master of mime Marcel Marceau, he is a graduate of Marceau's Paris International School of Mimodrama. Mr. Salm teaches mime at his own Mime Theatre Studio in Los Angeles, is a movement coach and mime coach for Hollywood film and television productions, a guest instructor for Cirque du Soleil, and teaches character movement to top animation studios. Lorin kindly agreed to answer some questions about mime.

Gloria: How and when did you first become interested in mime?

Lorin: I grew up with an interest in acting, and in an age when everybody knew Marcel Marceau's work. Strangely, I don't really remember what I saw of Marceau when I was young, but it's likely I saw him in some of his frequent American television appearances. One of the first mime influences I do remember was Shields & Yarnell, an American mime duo that had a popular network television show from 1977-78. My friend and I used to watch the show and then imitate their movements and characters. When I was thirteen years old, I studied acting for the first time at a summer theatre camp for children at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, a Shakespearean theatre in Topanga, California. One of the classes offered was mime, and since I already had an inclination towards it, I decided to take the class. I found I had a talent for it, and so as I continued to study theatre in school and during my summers, I studied mime whenever it was offered. Two years later, I won an award for a group mime performance in a Southern California school theatre competition, so my affinity for mime as part of my acting work continued to grow.

The turning point for me came when I was in college. By the end of high school, I was acting, singing, dancing, and playing music. I had become good at some of these arts, and very good at others. I wanted there to be one art, though, that I would truly master. While I was doing my theatre studies at California State University, Northridge, I found out -- by sheer coincidence -- that Marcel Marceau had been teaching three-week seminars in Ann Arbor, Michigan, every summer for the past several years. Although intimidated by the idea of going to study with Marceau, I registered for what would turn out to be the last of the seminars he gave there until many years later. The first thing I learned about mime at the seminar was that with all the experience I had up to that point, I knew virtually nothing about mime. During those few weeks, though, I was introduced to an art form that was richer and more profound than I ever could have imagined. I got to see Mr. Marceau perform live for the first time in my life, as he was doing shows for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. I discovered that mime was an art that combined my love for acting and for movement, and to which I could apply my sensibilities for music and dance. I had found the art I wanted to master.

It was at the seminar that I first learned that Marceau had a full-time school in Paris. After a return to Michigan two years later to study with Polish mime master Stefan Niedzialkowski, I finished my degree in Theatre Arts, and then headed to Paris to spend three years studying with Marcel Marceau and the many other wonderful teachers at his school.

Gloria: What was Marcel like as a mime teacher? To perform with on stage?

Lorin: I found Mr. Marceau to be a wonderful teacher. Of all the teachers one may have in one's life, it is an unusual thing to study with one who is world-famous for his work, and considered the master of his art. It would be easy to say that such a person has earned the right to be egotistical, uncompromising, overly-demanding, and as critical as he wishes. Mr. Marceau was none of those things. He was fully aware of who he was and the stature he had attained, yet always mindful of the roots of his art and of those great artists who came before him and from whom he learned and was inspired. He was demanding of his students because of his love for the art of mime and his concern that it must be performed with the utmost attention to quality in order for it to be highly regarded by the public. He was very patient in his dealings with students, taking all the time necessary to help students understand and learn. He was kind and diplomatic even with the most challenged students. One of the things that made him a particularly great teacher was his ability to incorporate all his worldly knowledge into his lessons. He would make references to all the other arts -- dance, painting, sculpture, music, etc. -- and to religion, politics, sociology, psychology, and anything else that was useful in helping us understand that mime calls on all of these aspects of human experience as its material.

My experience performing with Mr. Marceau was limited to only one occasion, but this was enough to see that he took his work very seriously. He was meticulous in his preparation of everything from lighting and music to entrances and exits, and even to details such as that the title cards used to introduce his pieces were held perfectly straight by his assistants. Mr. Marceau used to equate a mime actor poorly executing a gesture with a musician playing a wrong note. It was clear that this philosophy extended to every element of his performance. Participating with him in a performance approached with such high regard for excellence infused me with both a great enthusiasm for what I was doing and a great responsibility for doing it well. I truly felt the weight and the honor of performing alongside the master.

Gloria: Mime is probably not the most popular of the performing arts in the public's mind. Why do you think that is? Do you agree?

Lorin: I believe the art of mime is greatly misunderstood, and that this misunderstanding leads to its under-appreciation. There was a long period during the height of Marcel Marceau's popularity when a great many performers imitated him without the proper training and education in the art to do justice to its possibilities. They copied the outer technique, but didn't know how to fill the technique with the inner life that is essential to touching an audience in a profound way. Many also performed in the streets, where mime became seen as more of a quaint amusement than a serious art of the stage. Even those who saw Marceau perform were most likely familiar with his one-man show, and most people today continue to think of mime as a solo performance. There is a whole other side to mime which is ensemble mime theatre, in which groups of actors perform mime plays, from short pieces to full-length productions, utilizing costume, scenery, music, and often props. In spite of the fact that Marceau led mime companies that toured the world with their performances, the majority of the public today seems unfamiliar with ensemble mime theatre, so the stereotype of the solo performer continues. Film and television also help perpetuate a poor view of mime not only by limiting virtually all representations of mime to the stereotype, but often by mocking or mistreating the character of the mime performer.

Although some perceive mime as a dying art form, the reality is that it is still performed in many countries around the world, in styles resembling Marceau's, and in styles completely different from his. Some of these other styles originated before Marceau's and developed independently alongside his, and some are a fusion of contemporary mime styles and older regional forms of theatrical performance. Mime festivals and theatre festivals featuring mime take place annually in several countries, continuing to inspire the development of mime through new creations, and providing the opportunity to expose a new generation of the theatre-going public to this centuries-old art.

Gloria: Have you noticed a difference in the way children and adults respond to mime?

Lorin: Mime is wonderful in the way it calls on the audience's participation through imagination. Children are easily able to see something for what it is, and are more than willing to lend their imagination to the experience. Adults tend to be more analytical about what they see, I think, and run what is presented to them through various filters in their minds, arriving at some interpretation. I think mime can reach them as easily as it does children, but they may not be as aware that it has. Mr. Marceau used to tell the story of a woman who came to see him backstage after a performance and asked him questions about his piece "The Creation of the World". She said she felt that she didn't understand quite everything in the piece, and wanted to know what she missed. Instead of explaining, he asked her, "What did you see?" She proceeded to describe everything in the piece -- the water, the fishes, the Garden of Eden -- and soon had described the entire piece. He pointed out to her that in fact she had understood everything.

There are some aspects I find adults are more aware of in a mime performance, as they often recognize and comment on the physical skills of the mime performers. They seem able to enjoy the dramatic experience while appreciating the virtuosity involved in the performance itself. Children are not aware of such things, and can totally immerse themselves in the dramatic moment. I find that both children and adults respond positively to a well-executed mime performance, but that they experience and appreciate it in different ways.

Gloria: You've taught movement to animators at Disney and Dreamworks. Can you tell us more about that?

Lorin: Animators were once famously described as "actors with a pencil". Nowadays the pencil is often replaced by a computer, but usually the animator is still solely responsible for the physical part of a character's performance. (The exception being the ever-growing use of performance capture to incorporate a live actor's movements into an animated character's performance.) In their training, animators learn much about character and movement, but the approach seems to be different than the way an actor learns these things. Even when acting teachers are brought in to teach animators, making the connections between the work of the animator and techniques meant for live actors is sometimes difficult. Since mime's focus in acting is specifically the physical aspect of expressing the personality, thought, and emotion of a character, it lends itself very well to the animator's art. I selected certain concepts and techniques from the art of mime that I felt would be applicable to animation, and happily discovered that most of these aren't generally part of the initial education even of animators working at these top studios.

The animators in the workshops I give tend to be much more shy than acting students, but in the end they seem to become more comfortable with, and enthusiastic about, using their own bodies to try out and discover the attitudes and movements they will eventually lend to the characters they create.

Gloria: Thank you very much Lorin. That was a fascinating insight into many aspects of the world of mime that most people are not aware of.

You can read more about Lorin's work on his sites:

Mime Theatre Studio - Lorin's mime school in Los Angeles

The World of Mime Theatre - Mime Theatre around the world

Movement Coach and Mime Coach Lorin Eric Salm - Lorin's work for film and TV

Character Movement for Animation Workshops - Lorin's animation workshops

Silence, Blessed Silence

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

This post was my third guest blog for the Jewish Book Council and appeared on The Forward.

One of the upshots of all the reading and thinking I did for "Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime," was that I ended up doing a lot of thinking about something I'd never thought that much about before — silence and its power.

It never used to be like this. I wasn't always on a quest for quiet. An only child, I yearned for noise, for hustle and bustle, a busy house with lots of people and their comings and goings. Who the hell needed quiet? Quiet was boring, unnerving, depressing, threatening even. A void to be filled. So, on went the TV the second I came home, the radio in the kitchen, a favourite tape, anything, as long as there was noise. Anyway, how could you do homework with no music? I had a friend at elementary school, who came from an odd family. They were odd as they had no TV. I remember thinking. What do they do for noise? It must be terrible, all that quiet. (Ironically, we are bringing up five children without a TV, but that's a tale for another day.)

It seems I wasn't alone. The world is full of intentional background noise: TVs no one is really watching, radios no one is really listening to, and why? Just to break the silence, that's why. Silence can be scary, sometimes lonely, and it forces us to turn inward and gives us space to think. Sometimes that's a good thing and sometimes not.

I'm not sure when exactly this craving for noise became a craving for silence but one day there it was. At some point I realized I could no longer remember the last time I'd turned the radio on at home, or while driving. Silence no longer bothered, noise did. With me, it was mainly a writer thing. "How do you expect me to listen to those voices in my head with all that racket?" So, that's what they mean by "I can't hear myself think!" I started noticing how much more relaxed I was when things were quiet. I started noticing that quiet brought with it feelings of serenity, peace and relaxation.

All well and good, at home where you can turn the TV, radio or your iPod on or off as the fancy takes you, but it's another thing in the public sphere. No one thinks it unreasonable. We've recognized the right not to have cigarette smoke blown into our faces. There are laws against that, so why does the commercial world seem to think it has every right to indulge in acoustic abuse. They just don't let up, do they? It's that insidious worm — Muzak. It's everywhere. Shops, the mall, pool changing rooms restaurants and cafes.

At first, I just suffered without a word. I didn't like to ask. British reserve and embarrassment, I guess. I mean, isn't it grumpy old crankies who don't want the music on? Music is cool. Not so cool to want it off. There are times I'd like to do the writer with laptop in café thing but so far every local café has told me they're not allowed to turn off the music, even if you're the only customer. "Company policy," they tell me. "We can turn it down but we can't turn it off. Sorry."

One waitress confessed, "I'd love to turn it off but if management found out I'll be in trouble." The pool is the only Muzak free zone I can think of, but I'll pass on taking my laptop for a swim. Perhaps, one day, I'll start a campaign for freedom from forced music in public places but until then me and my laptop stay home.

As I finish writing this, it's almost time to start my Shabbat cooking. I'll be listening to "Shabbat" by The Family Wach while I chop, slice and stir. Here's a taste.

Did I say I didn't like music? Oh no. There's a time for everything.

Read on The Forward

My First Writing Group: The Internet

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

This post was my second guest blog for the Jewish Book Council and appeared on The Forward.

It all started back in March 1999. We'd just got our very first home Internet connection and I was setting off to navigate cyberspace and figure out what exactly was out there in that World Wide Web thing that everyone was going on about. These were the days of the Netscape browser and dial-up internet, which hogged the phone line and meant that you could either surf or make a phone call but not at the same time. My husband had assured me that the Internet would help my writing. I was about to discover he was right.

I'd been trying my hand at writing, but what to do with my efforts? Were they any good? How bad were they really? And how would I know? Perhaps I ought to take up flower arranging instead? I should probably have someone read my work, but who? I knew no other writers, neither pre- nor post-published. On the other hand, perhaps it was all for the best as who wants to be sitting face to face with a person as they tell you, as we say in cockney, that your work is, a load of codswallop. So, the path of least resistance looked very inviting and I tucked those manuscripts away in my filing cabinet and the dust began to settle.

But now there was this thing called the Internet. It seemed quite clear that Arthur Clarke had been right after all and advanced technology was most certainly indistinguishable from magic. A click of the mouse and everything I wanted to know was now at the tips of my fingers, email lists, writer's boards and forums, ask any question and it shall be answered instantly. Magic, definitely.

One day I saw an email on a writers list that a new critique group was starting up and open to new members. Time to fish out those old manuscripts. I sent off an email saying I would like to join. I was accepted. It was December 1999. One of our members was a published writer, there to point us in the right direction and the rest of us were just beginning to feel our way in the world of books and writing.

We introduced ourselves and began to share our writings. The last person who'd looked at my creative writing had been my high school English teacher. And I'd never ever given anyone writing advice. I learned on the job. Gently we encouraged each other to kill our darlings, cut the verbiage, rethink the story arc. And thankfully no mention of cobblers. Most importantly we encouraged each other to never ever to give up. Soon we were sharing much more than writing. Grumbles and gripes, joys and giggles. Some weeks none of us submitted a thing but still we talked and laughed. Babies were born, marriages celebrated, jobs lost and gained, the grumbles and gripes shared many words written and lots of laughs. We had no rules, none whatsoever. Anyone could submit anything at any time. When one of us was on a roll we all helped. Whatever was needed. As Verlie says, "I always love those on a roll times when the whole group lights up to celebrate one writing obsessed mind on fire."

My friends helped me in other ways. These days I have a Kindle and so many books can be accessed on the internet. But in those earlier days, living in Israel, an English reading addict and writer could have gone nuts with trying to get their book fix. I did. My friends knew this and came to my rescue. I never asked, but, it happened that I would come home to an email, saying, "We had a bit of a clear-out, went to a garage sale. Just got back from the post office. There's a box of books on their way to you." Or, "just got this year's Writers Market. I'm putting last year's in the mail."

I had joked that one day we would have our very own bookshelf. It was just a joke. But then our first member had her book published, then another and another. Today we have over two dozen books to our name. That shelf is starting to fill up. I even dedicated my first book to the group, along with my mother and my husband. Twelve years later and it's a very different writing life.

Oh, and just one thing. Did I mention I've never actually met any of my friends face to face? Or even spoken on the phone: A pretty old-fashioned way of communicating when you think of it. Sometimes I think we're not unlike Helene Hanff, Frank Doel and the staff of, 84 Charing Cross Road. Thomas Lask, writing in The New York Times about Hanff's book, said, "Here is a charmer: a 19th-century book in a 20th-century world." Perhaps one day, we'll be a 20th-century book in a 21st-century world. It is all down to the written word and that Internet thing.

Read this in The Forward

Interview with the Author of Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

Writers can often be found either talking to themselves or to imaginary characters that exist only in their heads (crazy people). Given the extensive experience I've had of talking to myself I decided to interview myself.

Me: Where did you get the idea of writing about Marcel Marceau from?

Myself: Well, I wish could say I saw a wonderful mime performance when I was five years old and have been fascinated ever since but that would be a lie. The truth is I can't really take credit for the idea at all. I have my friend Mandy to thank. Mandy was visiting me one day and saw my book Janusz Korczak's Children on my desk. She said, "You know, you should write about Marcel Marceau. He was really interesting." I started reading, agreed with Mandy, and fortunately so did my editor and the rest as they say is history.

Me: What were the challenges?

Myself: Every book has its own challenges. For one thing, I had to tackle material in French, a language I had never learnt. But I love the challenge of a new language and amazingly I did find that with my knowledge of Spanish and the help of Google translate I somehow managed to understand enough of a text to know that it was worth bringing to Rina. Rina was the French teacher at the school where I was teaching at the time and sat with me in our free periods and break times and patiently talked me through the texts.

Me: Tell us something you didn't include.

Myself: I'm glad you asked that. When you write a book there is always so much you have to leave out, especially with such a short book. One of the hardest things is throwing out those interesting tidbits that you just can't include for whatever reason. In this case it was an anecdote I'd read in James Kirkup's article in The Independent. He describes an incident in wartime Paris. Marceau is stopped by the police who want to see his papers. As Marceau was on the Wanted List, his papers were perfect fakes. Kirkup wrote, "The narks kept examining his papers and looking at his face, while he stared back at them without batting an eyelid, showing no trace of fear. The men were baffled, and let him go. It was an early demonstration of the powers of mime." Now, wouldn't that have made a terrific illustration in a picture book? However, I could hardly include a story based on its mention in a single newspaper article so it couldn't go in.

Me: What was the most interesting thing you learned?

Myself: In our modern western society we put a lot of emphasis on the written word. Just look at how much time we devote in our schools to getting our children to read and write. Now, I freely admit to having a serious addiction to the written word, whether it's reading or writing but as I learnt about mime movements and watched mime performances I began to think about how efficient and economical non-verbal communication can be in conveying meaning. Let's take a simple sentence. "John smiled." Our immediate reaction to that is "John was happy." But that's not necessarily the case. John's smile could be feeling nostalgic. He could be saying 'Yeah, right. I don't believe a word." But gestures and movement convey this far better.

Interview with T. Daniel, mime artist

Marcel Marceau: Master of Mime

T. Daniel is an internationally known creator, choreographer and performer of mime. His work has been compared to Red Skelton, Buster Keaton and Marcel Marceau. T. Daniel studied mime under Marceau and Etienne Decroux, Father of Modern Mime. He talked to me from his Chicago home.

How and when did you first become interested in mime?

I became interested in performing at an early age. But it wasn't until I began studying theatre in college that I really became interested in Mime. At that time, there were very few places to learn the art. When Marceau performed at the school, I used my wits to get back stage to meet him. As he signed my program, I told Marceau I wanted to study with him. He said he was going to open a school. The following fall I was invited to study there.

What was Marcel like as a mime teacher?

I have often said that one had to be a better student than Marceau was a teacher. The reason is that he had so much to give, that you, as a student, had to be sure you understood everything he was saying and demonstrating. He was always patient and encouraging. I do not remember him ever saying a negative word to any student, but always found some good in everyone's work.

Mime is probably not the most popular of the performing arts in the public's mind. Why do you think that is? Do you agree?

We may never know how or why Mime went from a really popular art to one that is not popular. At the beginning of the 20th century, Mime (Pantomime) was one of the very popular arts. Jean Cocteau and others all wrote Mimes. (Cocteau wrote three). Mime could be found in film from Children of Paradise to 2001 Odyssey. And just about every TV variety show had some form of Mime from Red Skelton to Jackie Gleason to Dick Van Dyke.

So how did we go from that popularity to such negativity? I think people looked at mime and saw only the illusions. People thought, "I can do that. Nothing to it."

One of the best known mimes is the creation of an imaginary wall. The performer uses his hands to create a solid barrier that can be thought of and seen as a wall. Marcel's piece The Cage begins with him 'making the wall' to show that he is trapped inside 'a cage' but a wall has no emotion. A wall is just there. However, how would you feel if the only thing between you and a hungry lion was the wall? Or how would you feel if you were hungry and the wall stood between you and a feast? Your emotions would be different. Many people who wanted to be mimes did not learn this basic concept, they only learnt that tightening the muscles in the arm creates a solid wall.

What made Marceau's The Cage so powerful was not the 'making' of the wall but the emotion of being trapped within the cage. When Marceau built that imaginary wall, the audience felt what it was like to be trapped. It was not the Wall that made that piece; it was the emotion of the person being trapped in side.

Mime is often associated with those street performers who use these simple illusions but ignore the emotion so people began to think of mime as a poor art and turned away. How would an audience react if they went to several piano concerts and all they heard were variations of Chop Sticks? Before long, audiences would think that the piano is a very poor art. This is what I think happened to Mime. So today people think that Mime is only simple illusions and do not realize that true Mime is so much more. And, that they do not realize that they see Mime all the time, that the images of Mime are part of our culture. Painting, literature, theatre, dance and film all use the images of Mime. The first 18 minutes of one the classic films of the 20th century, 2001 a space odyssey, is all mime, performed by a well-trained mime. Mime is important to humans; it has been since ancient Greece. There must be more to Mime for it to be one of the oldest arts known to man. We just need to help people understood this.

Have you noticed a difference in the way children and adults respond to mime?

If you perform Mime, as it should be, one can reach both children and adults with visuals that appeal to each. The reaction is the same. However, children do have a more open mind to see more, if you provide images that are within their experience. When this is done, their response is true and honest. If they do not like something, they will tell you. Adults, unfortunately, will sit and watch something they do not like. The key, to my thinking, is to reach their imagination and take them to a new place. This is what we attempt to do with each performance. One reason our production, "Fantasmia", is so successful is because of this. We have had comments from audience where children and adults have enjoyed the program, each at their own level. We are all mimes, but we lose the child in us as we grow up. The idea of "Fantasmia" is about recapturing that spark of imagination that we have lost.

And one last question. What's with the "T" in T. Daniel?  What does it stand for?
My standard answer is: the "T" does not stand for anything, it is very intolerant.

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