What About Mime

What is mime? It turns out it depends on who you ask. Broadly speaking, the tradition has its roots in ancient theater in cultures across the globe. Many people envision street pantomimes with white face paint, while practitioners of the theater tradition emphasize the use of the entire body to convey expression and emotion. What does the art of mime have to do with the history of Ann Arbor? In the heyday of mime performance in the 1980s, dozens of event listings featuring mime could be found throughout the calendar year. From Marcel Marceau’s annual visits to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival and his brief stint in Ann Arbor at the Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime to the countless groups and performers--the University of Michigan’s Mimetroupe, Artworlds Center for the Creative Arts, Mimetroupe of America, OPUS Mime, EMU Master Mimes, and more--mime dotted Ann Arbor’s cultural landscape. Mime was sure to be found at Summer Festival, Winter Festival and the Ann Arbor Art Fairs, the Graceful Arch becoming known as a site where one would certainly encounter a mime or pantomime. Even the 1973 Blues & Jazz Fest featured pantomime by the British troupe "Friends Roadshow," who would in the following years build a base in Ann Arbor and participate in the city’s Sesquicentennial celebration. The group often performed at local venues such as Chances Are/Second Chance and The Blind Pig with their outrageously-named Michael Spaghetti’s ½ Ring Circus. 

When the word “mime” is mentioned, do you imagine white face paint? If so, it is because of Marcel Marceau’s widely known character “Bip the clown”, based on Jean-Gaspard Deburau’s 19th-century silent, white-faced character Pierrot in the tradition of commedia dell'arte. Because Marceau was so popular, and the art of mime so tied to his success in the American mind, the white face paint that Marceau adopted for his character became synonymous with mime. However, it was not a tradition associated with the art historically. In a 1984 interview for the Ann Arbor News, Marceau emphasized that the makeup was “not traditional or even typical,” but that in his workshops here in town he sees “mostly white faces. But to create ‘little Bips,’ or ‘little Marceaus’ – that is not what I want.” Despite this plea, much of the mime seen around town in the 1970s-1990s was a direct homage to Marceau's iconic character. 

Beginnings: Local Interest Arises

Before the 1950s in Ann Arbor, the word “Mime” would likely bring to mind the all-male performing group at the University of Michigan known as the Mimes Union Opera, active from 1908-1930 with a few revivals in the following decades. That would all change by the mid-1950s when world-famous mime Marcel Marceau toured the United States for the first time and soon became a household name. Marceau made his first appearance in Ann Arbor at Hill Auditorium on December 5, 1960 as part of the final season of the University of Michigan’s Oratorical Association Platform Attractions series, which traced its origins back to 1854. 

When Marceau performed for the University Musical Society (UMS) in 1971, he became the first performer to ever grace the stage of the newly completed Power Center. The 1960s would see a slow rise in programming related to mime, with the Ann Arbor Civic Ballet offering courses in mime, bringing in international mime troupes, and inviting the San Francisco Mime Troupe to town.

In 1972, ArtWorlds, a nonprofit school of art, was founded at 213 ½ S Main Street by engineer Cecil Taylor and his wife Barbara Taylor. Though the couple left for California in 1980, the arts organization continued for another three years, routinely offering courses in mime taught by Michael Filisky, Perry Perrault, Mark Novotny, and Mark Strong, to name just a few.  At its height, the organization offered over 75 classes, employed 40 instructors, and enrolled over 800 students in courses that ranged from “fire eating” to magic, masks, and the classic but now nearly forgotten “Rhythm-meter-hand jive”. 

In May 1975, the second annual Invitational Festival of Experimental Theater, described by the Ann Arbor Sun as a “temporary aggregation of approximately 20 theatre, mime, and dance troupes.” Among them was the local "Friends Road Show" (a troupe living on a communal farm in Milan) and the Living Theatre at a number of venues: Michigan Union, Waterman Gym, and Trueblood Auditorium. That same year, the sixth annual Medieval Festival featured Michael Filisky’s recently-formed Mimetroupe’s interpretation of Boccaccio’s work, which was performed exclusively in mime, alongside “authentic” medieval performances and dances. Filisky became the well-known local figure in mime of the 1970s, and would remain a vibrant part of the community until he moved to New York in in the early 1980s.

The 1980’s Mime Boom in Ann Arbor

By the 1980s, Ann Arbor’s love of the art of mime was in full swing. Experimental mime, (or "new mime") featured abstraction, with troupes like Mummenschanz and Paul Gaulin’s Mime Company performing in extreme contrast to Marceau, and bringing a range of approaches to town. Mime became so popular that University of Michigan Mimetroupe’s event posters disappeared an alarming rate; the group attempted to cut them in half to dissuade theft, because, as one member said: “they are real collectors items.” Even with new styles and approaches on the horizon, Marceau became the face of the inaugural Ann Arbor Summer Festival in July 1984. He would return semi-annually to teach intensive workshops and make appearances at the festival in the following years. 

In anticipation of the first Ann Arbor Summer Festival, the Ann Arbor News proclaimed “Marcel Marceau’s love affair with Ann Arbor” and documented responses from local mimes; O.J. Anderson, sometimes referred to as the “good time mime”, noted “His [Marceau’s] is the art, mine is the act. My art is the entertainment,” which often consisted of bringing audience participants on stage and even speaking a line or two, earning him another title: “the World’s Only Talking Mime.” Perry Perrault, founder of the University of Michigan Mime Troupe in 1981 and Ann Arbor Mimeworks in 1988, noted that his approach contrasted to both Anderson and Marceau’s styles as he preferred to focus his energy on collaborative, group performances. 

With the help of Eugene Power, Lou Belcher, and Thomas Monaghan (of Domino’s Pizza), Marceau became the central figure for the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and dreamed of opening an official school here. Though it never materialized, the space was originally conceptualized as a “350-seat theater, mime museum, and office space with rehearsal rooms.” The Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime taught seminars associated with the school for two years in town before the center faced bankruptcy. In a 2013 interview, Susan Pollay, former director of the Summer Festival, remembered that the center “was here in Ann Arbor in an instant and then it disappeared.” The following summer, Marceau was notably absent from both the Summer Festival itself and the annual Summer Mime Seminar.

Changing Attitudes Toward Mime: New Approaches Arrive

A Michigan Daily calendar listing on July 15, 1988, advertised the upcoming  series “Influences in Mime” at the Marcel Marceau World Center for Mime with the note: "'Everyone loves a clown. Everyone hates a mime,' said Sam Malone on an episode of Cheers. Decide for yourself…” As in the previous decades, Ann Arborites would have many opportunities to make that decision. In the late 1980s, Stefan Niedziałkowski, a renowned Polish mime artist, taught at Marcel Marceau’s Paris School and frequented Ann Arbor; he later became a resident at Marceau’s short-lived school and taught courses around town. From 1988-1993, Niedziałkowski had a base here for his mime company, Theatre Milchenye, and brought with him new forms of mime that would inspire future generations of artists. 

One such artist inspired by Niedziałkowski is Michael Lee, a local dramatist who specializes in mime. Lee first trained under Perry Perrault after he moved to Ann Arbor in 1984. Three years later he studied at the ephemeral Marcel Marceau School of Mime in Ann Arbor, then under Niedziałkowski, and quickly joined the local scene as a professional mime. Lee established his own OPUS Mime Troupe in 1994 at the former Washtenaw Council for the Arts loft at 122 S Main St. In their debut calendar event listing in the Michigan Daily, changing attitudes toward mime are employed as a marketing tactic, with OPUS mime cheekily stating: “This mime troupe blends the body of a gymnast, the mind of an actor and the heart of a poet into their shows. Who cares, nobody likes mimes anyway.” 

Performances in mime continued around town without the fervor of the past decades, but with a presence nonetheless. In 2001 the 78-year-old Marceau became the recipient of the University of Michigan Musical Society’s Distinguished Artist Award. As part of the residency, Marceau taught students of dance and drama for two weeks, followed by a performance that would add to his resume of over 30 Ann Arbor stage appearances. 

Continuing into the new millennium, Michael Lee set up a new office on East Washington. There, he ran a business that offered courses in mime to local schools, including Milan Schools and Rudolf Steiner. Lee stressed the difference between mime and pantomime in the Ann Arbor Observer's August 2000 edition, noting that true mime is an “art of the body as dramatic tool … that includes 264 hand positions and body positions that go back to Greco-Roman sculpture.” Leaving behind the Marceau-inspired white face paint, Lee created his own interpretation of the classic art of mime. By 2002, Lee had secured a grant to perform a work in mime, but was ultimately turned down by a local festival and could not locate a theater to perform in. The physical office in Ann Arbor closed, but a year and a half later he returned to mime part-time. Over the next years, he would continue his involvement with the Performance Network and participate in workshops, theater productions, and festivals in Washtenaw County.   In 2011, Lee and Perrault performed for Chelsea High School theater students after Opus Mime completed a two-week residency. Since then, Lee has moved away from Ann Arbor, but continues to teach and perform in Michigan and beyond. 

While mime no longer has the hold on Ann Arbor it once had, the lively tradition had a strong influence on the performing arts community here that still lingers today. 

Tracks Made History Download [4.4MB|MP3 Audio] Written by: Buff1 Vaughan Tego 3Steez Produced by: Mayer Hawthorne and DJ Dahi

In 1994, seven friends never anticipated they’d make hip-hop history in Ann Arbor and beyond. A mutual love of creating music and playing sports prompted the Huron High School students to form a group that would eventually become Athletic Mic League.

“We weren’t Athletic Mic League then. We were the Anonymous Clique, but we all started going to Trés [Styles’] crib writing and messing around on little beat machines and little recording setups in 1994,” said Jamall “Buff1” Bufford, one of Athletic Mic League’s MCs.

“We didn’t become Athletic Mic League until probably [1997]. Wes [Taylor] came up with the name … so we said, ‘Yeah, let’s go with it.’ We all play sports. We took an approach to writing and practicing like it was training.”

Thirty years later, that disciplined mindset has stayed with the members of Athletic Mic League: Trés Styles, Wes “Vital” Taylor, Vaughan “Vaughan Tego” Taylor, Michael “Grand Cee” Fletcher, Mayer Hawthorne, Kendall “14KT” Tucker, and Bufford.

Now, the group is celebrating its contributions and legacy in a new track aptly titled “Made History.”

Commissioned to write and record the track for the Ann Arbor District Library's Ann Arbor 200 bicentennial project, Athletic Mic League also pays homage to Washtenaw County hip-hop history and Black history in Ann Arbor.

“We wanted to make sure there was no … erasure of Black history in Ann Arbor,” Bufford said. “We wanted to make sure there was no erasure of AML history in Ann Arbor. [We’re] letting people know our significance [and] Black history significance in Ann Arbor. And let me be real, let me be clear: I’m not saying that people are denying AML’s history. We get love … but it’s hip-hop, you gotta let people know sometimes.”

Back in the Days When I Was a Teenager

Athletic Mic League in the early 2000s. Photo by Doug Coombe.

On “Made History,” Bufford, Vaughan Taylor, Styles, and Hawthorne explore those milestones through nostalgic lyrics and local references over a chill beat.

In the first verse, Bufford raps: “Basketball and rap they was my two things / Me and Trés on the same AAU team / We lost touch and reconnected in 1993 / I met Grand Cee and KT in the time between / Scarlett Middle School, we was from the east / Trés and the Taylor brothers from the north side of things / Mayer went to Tappan kinda the middle between / At Huron we formed like Voltron and assembled the League.”

“I had a class with Trés my freshman year. I was writing in class and he looked over my shoulder and said, ‘Are you writing a rap?’ Back then, it wasn’t as cool to be a rapper—believe it or not—we kept it a secret,” Bufford said.

“I said, ‘Yeah, I’m writing a rap,’ and he said, ‘I write too.’ … And we discovered that Wes and Vaughan wrote raps and then we discovered that KT wrote raps.”

With the group intact, the members rapped on DJ Chill Will’s hip-hop radio show, The Prop Shop, on WCBN-FM (88.3) in Ann Arbor, when they were teens.

Tucker, Hawthorne, Styles, and Vaughan Taylor also formed a locally renowned production crew called The Lab Techs.

“They were one of if not the most innovative production teams from Michigan, but I would say in all of hip-hop at the time,” Bufford said.

“They were using computers and nobody else was using computers at that time. … Those four were using a program called Cool Edit, which was used for video editing. They used it to chop samples.”

Athletic Mic League finally released its debut album, The Thrill of Victory ... The Agony of Defeat, in 1998, but the group struggled to book live shows at local clubs like The Blind Pig.

Vaughan Taylor raps about that struggle in the chorus of “Made History”: “Let me take y’all back / Before The Blind Pig let us in / Let me take y’all back, yea, yea, yea, yea.”

“The scene was fledgling. … We couldn’t really perform at The Blind Pig,” Bufford said. “It wasn’t open to a lot of local rap back then. You could be a touring rap artist to come through there, but if you were local and rapping, they weren’t really trying to get you in.”

Athletic Mic League eventually teamed up with Ann Arbor funk/hip-hop band Funktelligence and that opened the door to rock-oriented clubs.

“They were a live band, and The Pig was a little bit more receptive to them—even though they were rapping—so they would get in there all the time. We started getting on bills with them,” Bufford said. “Once they saw what we were about, Funktelligence was our foot in the door. We eventually built a relationship with The Blind Pig and started doing our own shows.”

Some of those shows included shared bills with Ypsilanti’s S.U.N. and his live backing band Gorilla Funk Mob and Ann Arbor’s Invincible.

Bufford pays tribute to those acts and their support of Athletic Mic League in “Made History”: “Forever indebted to those who helped AML / Chill Will, Ill Weaver, S.U.N., Funktell.”

“I wanted to make sure that I made it a point to mention S.U.N.—Scientific Universal Noncommercial—because he was super important in helping AML. I recorded it … so there’s no discrepancy on S.U.N.’s importance not only to us, but to the whole scene, and utilizing a live band, Gorilla Funk Mob,” Bufford said.

“S.U.N. helped with that, Funktelligence helped with that. Invincible—Ill Weaver—they were super critical not only just collaborating with us, but when they moved to New York, that was our pathway [there.] And then Chill Will, of course.”

Athletic Mic League continued to gain momentum through live shows at local venues, collaborations with the Subterraneous Crew and other Southeast Michigan hip-hop acts, and opening slots for national acts like Jurassic 5.

“To be all the way transparent, we had our ups and downs with The Blind Pig, but they were critical,” Bufford said. “They were the venue and we had to have our presence felt there. They were a big part of who AML is, for sure.”

Athletic Mic League also released two other albums—Sweats and Kicks in 2002 and Jungle Gym Jungle in 2004—before pursuing various solo and collaborative projects.

On “Made History,” Bufford raps, “Sold-out shows, we made history / Known around the globe, we made history / When it comes to albums sold, we made history / You proud to call The Deuce your home, we made history.”

“A lot of things that we did before anybody—not even before anybody, that nobody else has ever done—and that’s going to sound very arrogant, but it’s just the facts,” Bufford said.

“As far as hip-hop goes, artists from Ann Arbor—like major label record deals, indie label record deals, touring the world, selling out The Blind Pig multiple, multiple, multiple times—not a lot of people can say they’ve done what we’ve done.”

Native Tongues: Black History in Ann Arbor

Diana McKnight Morton and Curtis Morton of DeLong's Bar-B-Q Pit in 2001. Photo taken from The Ann Arbor News.

Along with honoring its own legacy on “Made History,” Athletic Mic League celebrates Black traditions in Ann Arbor, including Black neighborhoods and Black-owned businesses.

Later in the first verse, Bufford raps, “I can’t forget my early days on The Old West Side / My first bike ride without falling on a test drive / So much Black history in that part of town / Before Kerrytown or Water Hill was thought about / Before Jones School was Community High.”

“A lot of that process was helped by my involvement in the Jones School documentary and my involvement in the Fourth and Catherine Affordable Housing Development with the Ann Arbor Housing Commission and Avalon Housing,” said Bufford, who’s also Director of Washtenaw My Brother’s Keeper. “In that work, it really sparked a lot of my content in that verse that doesn’t have to do with AML.”

Bufford continues to rap, “DeLong’s Bar-B-Q, the sauce they would use on them fries?! / Rosey’s, Rush, where we would go for a cut / Remember this story from Ann Arbor growing up, ay.”

Located south of Kerrytown on 314 Detroit Street, DeLong’s Bar-B-Q Pit operated for 37 years before Curtis and Diana McKnight Morton decided to close in 2001. A July 24, 2001, article in The Ann Arbor News stated: “Robert and Adeline Thompson founded DeLong’s in a former gas station across from the Farmers’ Market in 1964. Today, their daughter, Diana McKnight Morton, runs the business. She says her husband Curtis Morton is ill, restaurant help is very difficult to find and her two daughters have occupations of their own.”

Bufford recalls fond memories of eating there with his father.

“And DeLong’s, I remember walking with my dad [there] and Zingerman’s, too,” he said. “We used to walk to Zingerman’s and get corned beef sandwiches. The fries at [DeLong’s] with that magical barbecue sauce. … I remember the taste, I remember the smell. I was little, I was really young—5 years old—but I remember it.”

Today, the former site of DeLong’s—and later Teriyaki Time—will feature a new luxury condo low-rise complex.

DeLong’s shared that update in a December 7 Instagram post: “As much as this hurts our hearts, the memories had there will forever live on from our stories—your stories and photos. Thus, why my family wanted to reopen the business with you all in mind. Never let [Black] history die!”

Ann Arbor director Kameron Donald pays tribute to DeLong’s in a documentary of the same name. It features the restaurant’s history told by co-founder Diana McKnight Morton. DeLong’s is available to stream on AADL’s website and will be shown December 16 during the Ann Arbor 200 Film Series at the downtown location.

The exterior of Rosey's Barber Shop in 2020. Photo taken from AADL's website.

Bufford also spotlights two barber shops, Rosey’s Barber Shop and Johnnie Rush Barber Shop, on “Made History.”

“Rosey was from my other neighborhood where I eventually moved to in Pittsfield [Township],” Bufford said. “Rosey used to live in Pittsfield. His son Ricco was like a big brother figure to me in the neighborhood. I used to go to Rosey’s to get my hair cut.”

According to an April 16, 2021, article in the Ann Arbor Observer, “Roosevelt ‘Rosey’ Rowry worked in other barber shops in the area before opening his own in 1972. It closed ‘in November 2018’ after [Rosey] passed away.”

Rosey’s Barber Shop was located at 203 East Huron Street in a former gas station and “was one of the last [Black]-owned businesses in [that] area.”

Johnnie Rush in 1960. Photo taken from The Ann Arbor News.

Also located in a former gas station at 1031 Broadway Street, Johnnie Rush Barber Shop operated there for 45 years until Rush retired in August 2020.

Rush earned his barber’s license while working as an orderly part-time at Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital (now Trinity Health Ann Arbor Hospital) and opened his own barber shop in 1961.

He “sold the building a year later to a group that [planned] to open a neighborhood coffee shop and bar called Lowertown Proper,” wrote Dave Algase in an October 25, 2022, article in the Ann Arbor Observer.

While Bufford didn’t go to Rush’s barber shop, three other Athletic Mic League members did.

“I also mention Rush, which I know now is Lowertown [Bar & Café],” Bufford said. “I didn’t go to Rush because he was on the north side, but the guys from the north side—Vaughan Taylor, Wes Taylor, and Trés [Styles]—they did go to Rush.”

Finally, Athletic Mic League gives props to the University of Michigan’s Fab Five on “Made History.” Vaughan Taylor raps in the chorus, “Fab Five era nothin’ better / Wouldn’t trade it back, yea, yea, yea, yea, yea.”

As longtime basketball players and fans, the group was inspired by U-M basketball players Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson in the early ‘90s.

The Fab Five were the first team in NCAA history to compete in the championship game with all-freshman starters.

“I cried at the Chris Webber timeout … that’s how important the Fab Five were. I never got to go to a Fab Five game. I think my older brother got a Chris Webber autograph for me,” Bufford said.

“Much later in life, I got to meet Jimmy King a few times. He would come to my open mic, Elevation Sundays, at the Firefly Club. Obviously, how [the Fab Five] played, their Blackness, how proud they were to be Black, their hip-hop connection, and how much they loved hip-hop and represented hip-hop, it’s super important.”

Playground Legends: Athletic Mic League’s Legacy

Athletic Mic League is releasing new material in 2025. Photo courtesy of Athletic Mic League.

In the last verse of “Made History,” Styles reflects on Athletic Mic League’s lifelong ties to Ann Arbor and the group’s evolution over time: “Moved back to The Deuce and still handlin’ it / ‘Cause it’s only boss moves in our manuscripts / Correction, we not a clique, this is my family, yeah / Since we was kids there was always plans for this.”

“[Trés] is probably the best bragger of AML. He’s good at letting people know how good we are, how important we are,” Bufford said.

“We need somebody to champion us and let people know what we’ve done. If nobody else will, we got to. I love Trés’ verse, and amongst other things, he’s my brother. But that’s one of the things I love about Trés—what he brings to the group.”

At the end of “Made History,” Styles raps, “We out here! And been doin’ damage, man / What you playin’ for if ya ain’t tryin’ to win a championship?! / Life’s too short to waste a chance at this / The Mic League Kings! Tell my kids I ran with them! / We made history!”

“This song will eventually become history,” Bufford said. “We do need an official day though. I don’t know if it’s the mayor’s call or city council’s. … I’m officially vouching for an AML official day with the city of Ann Arbor.”

In 2020, the group reunited after a 15-year hiatus and released Playground Legends, Vol. 1 on October 28, which is the unofficial AML Day. The members recorded the album during a four-day retreat in Richmond, Virginia. During another retreat, the group made Playground Legends, Vol. 2, which came out in October 2022.

Besides advocating for an official AML Day, Athletic Mic League also released a new single, “Plates,” with Detroit MC Boog Brown. The group plans to release Playground Legends, Vol. 3 soon as well. 

“We’re working on Vol. 3 to end that trilogy, so hopefully that will be out early next year,” Bufford said.

Athletic Mic League's Kendall Tucker, Michael Fletcher, Trés Styles, Mayer Hawthorne, Vaughan Taylor, Jamall Bufford, and Wes Taylor. Photo courtesy of Jamall Bufford.

Written by:
Buff1
Vaughan Tego
3Steez

Produced by:
Mayer Hawthorne and DJ Dahi

Complete Lyrics

Buff1 verse:
Sold out shows we made history
Known around the globe we made history
When it comes albums sold we made history
You proud to call The Deuce your home we made history

Back when the 734 was the 313

I was tryina shoot the rock and live out my hoop dreams like 23
Basketball and rap they was my two things
Me and Trés was on the same AAU team

We lost touch then reconnected 1993
I met Grand Cee and KT in the time between
Scarlett middle school, we was from the east
Trés and the Taylor brothers from the north side of things
Mayer went to Tappan kinda the middle between

At Huron we formed like Voltron and assembled the League
Forever indebted to those who helped AML
Chill Will, Ill Weaver, S.U.N., Funktell
I can’t forget my early days The Old West Side

My first bike ride without falling on a test drive
So much Black history in that part of town
Before Kerrytown or Water Hill was thought about 
Before Jones School was Community High
DeLong’s Bar-B-Q the sauce they would use on them fries?!
Rosey’s, Rush where we go for a cut
Remember this story from Ann Arbor growing up ay

Vaughan Tego hook:
Let me take yall back
Before the Blind Pig let us in
Let me take yall back, yea yea, yea yea
Let me take yall back, yea yea
Fab Five era nothin better
Wouldn’t trade it back, yea yea, yea yea yea

3Stees verse:
A Leader in this clique, Iron Man of this /
Future billionaire playboy philanthropist /
Moved back to The Deuce & still handlin it /
‘Cause it’s only boss moves in our manuscripts /
Correction we not a clique this my family yeah /
Since we was kids there was always plans for this /
Grew up round the corner from ya mans and them /
One of us probably dated ya girlfriend and yeah /
You know us, from rec league, summer camps & then /
Ballin w/ Coach Phillips, & Coach Blanchard’s kid /
From hoopin in the “Heights” to high school gyms /
We all academic scholars turned businessmen /
We out here! & been doin damage man /
What you playin for if ya ain’t tryin to win a championship?! /
Life’s too short, to waste a chance at this /
The Mic League Kings! Tell my kids I ran with them! / We made history!