Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

What's Mime Is Yours

In an era when Hollywood blockbuster filmmakers allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars to audio effects and surround-sound swagger, it’s hard to remember that within living memory, movies were literally all visuals, no sound — and actors had to accommodate. Circus Smirkus founder Rob Mermin sums up the forgotten art of silent-film acting in a Friday talk that includes 50-plus film clips featuring genre greats Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish and Greta Garbo. And for those who’d like to experiment with inside-the-box thinking, Mermin (a professionally trained clown and mime who studied with the late, great Marcel Marceau) follows up with a Saturday silent-acting workshop that mixes circus tricks with methods of getting your point across — without a peep.