UMS Concert Program, October 30, 1992: University Musical Society -- Marcel Marceau

Season: 114th
Concert: Ninth
Power Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Walking
Walking Against the Wind
The Staircase
The Tight Rope Walker
The Public Garden
The Bill Poster
The Kite
The Sculptor
The Painter
The Cage
The Bureaucrats
The Hands
Remembrances
The Side Show
The Pickpocket's Nightmare
The Amusement Park
The Automat's Revolt
The Fisherman
The Chrlatan
Contrasts
The Maskmaker
The Seven Deadly Sins
Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death
The Tango Dancer
The Small Cafe
The Dice Players
The Four Seasons
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL SOCIETY
MARCEL MARCEAU
with Blanca Del Barrio
and Bogdan Nowak
Friday Evening, October 30, 1992, at 7:00 Power Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan
PROGRAM
Program to be selected from: Style Pantomimes
The Dream
The Creation of the World
The Trial
A Sunday Walk
Ahel and Cain
The Deadly Smile
The Dress
The Pawnbroker
The Angel
The Tree
Pygmalion
The Tragic Actor on an Opening Night
The Bird Keeper
At the Clothier's
Lunapark
The Magician
Optical Illusion
Tug of War
The Samurai's Sword
The Tempest
The Eater of Hearts
The Mirror
Fight with Darkness
Duel in the Dark
Obsession
1500 M Race
Bip in the Subway
Bip Travels by Train
Bip Travels by Sea
Bip as a Skater
Bip Hunts Butterflies
Bip Plays David and Goliath
Bip at a Ballroom
Bip Commits Suicide
Bip as a Soldier
Bip at a Society Party
Bip as a Street Musician
Bip as a China Salesman
Bip as a Fireman
Bip as a Great Artist
Bip has a Date
Bip as a Baby Sitter
Bip as a Professor of Botany
INTERMISSION
Bip Pantomimes
Bip and the Dynamite
Bip as a Lion Tamer
Bip, the Illusionist
Bip Looks lor a Job
Bip in the Modern and Future Lite
Bip at the Athletic Club
Bip as a Tailor in Love
Bip Dreams he is Don Juan
Bip and the Matrimonial Agency
Bip with a Traveling Circus
Bip as a Children's Nurse
Bip in High Society
Bip as an African Hunter
Bip Looks tor an Audition
Bip as a Museum Keeper
Bip as a Jeweler's Apprentice
Bip Plays Faust
Bip as a Matador
Marcel Marceau is presented in association with Wil-Mar Productions Inc.
The University Musical Society thanks Ann Arbor mime Michael Lee for his Philips Pre-concert Presen?tation October 25.
Ninth Concert of the 114th Season
22nd Annual Choice Series
About the Artists
Marcel Marceau, universally ac?claimed as the greatest living pantomimist, was horn in Strasbourg, France. Marceau's interest in the art of mime began at an early age when he would imitate with gestures anything that fired his imagination. Later he was inspired by such silent screen artists as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and his admiration for these great actors inspired him to pursue the art of silence as his profession.
In 1946 he enrolled as a student in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art in the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris, where he studied with the great master, Etienne Decroux, who has also taught Jean-Louis Barrault. The latter noticed Marceau's exceptional talent, made him a member of his company, and cast him in the role of Arlequin in the pantomime entitled Baptiste, which Barrault himself had interpreted in the world-famous film Les Enfants du Paradis. Marceau's perfor?mance won him such acclaim that he was encouraged to present his first "mimodrama" called Praxitele and the Golden Fish at the Bernhardt Theatre that same year. The praise was so unanimous that Marceau's career as a mime was firmly established.
In 1947 Marceau created "Bip," the clown who in his striped pullover and battered, beflowered opera hat, has become his alter-ego even as Chaplin's "Little Tramp" became that star's personality. Bip's misadventures with everything from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or restaurants, are limitless.
As a style pantomimist, Marceau has been acknowledged without peer. His si?lent exercises, which include such classic works as The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Maskmaker, and In the Park, and satires on everything from sculptors to matadors, have been described as works of genius. Of his summation of the ages of man in the famous Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death, one critic said, "He accomplishes in less than two minutes what most novelists cannot do in volumes."
In 1949, following his winning the renowned Deburau Prize (established as a memorial to the 19th-century master) for his second mimodrama, Death Before Dawn, Marceau formed his Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau-the only company of pantomimists in the world at the time. The ensemble played the leading Paris theatres--Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Theatre de la Renaissance, Sarah Bem-hardt, as well as other playhouses through?out the world. In the 1959-60 season a retrospective of his mimodramas, including the famous Overcoat by Gogol, ran for a full year at the Ambigu Theatre in Paris. He produced 15 other mimodramas including Pierrot de Monmartre , The 3 Wigs , Paris Laughs , and Don ]iuin adapted from from the Spanish writer Tirso de Molina.
He first toured the United States in 1955-56, close on the heels of his North American debut at the Stratford (Ontario) Festival. After his opening engagement at the Phoenix Theatre in New York, which received rave reviews, he moved to the larger Barrymore Theatre to accommodate the public demand. This first U.S. tour ended with a record-breaking return to New York at the City Center in the spring of 1956 where Marceau played to standing-room only crowds in San Francisco, Chi?cago, Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and other major cities. His exten?sive transcontinental tours have included
South America, Africa, Australia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Russia and Europe.
Mr. Marceau's art has become familiar to millions of Americans through his many television appearances. His first television performance as a star performer on the Max Liebman Show of Shows won him an Emmy award. He appeared on the BBC as Scrooge, in A Christmas Carol in 1973. He has been a favorite guest of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore, and he also had his own one-man show entitled Meet Marcel Marceau.
He has also shown his versatility in motion pictures, such as First Class in which he portrayed 17 different roles, Shanks where he combined his silent art, playing a deaf mute, puppeteer, and his speaking talent, as a mad scientitst, and Mel Brooks's Silent Movie. A further exam?ple of Mr. Marceau's multiple talents was the mimodrama Candide, which he created for the Ballet Company of the Hamburg Opera. He directed this work and also performed the title role.
Children have been delighted by his highly acclaimed Marcel Marceau Alphabet Book and the Marcel Marceau Counting Book. Other publications of Mr. Marceau's poetry and illustrations include his La bal?lade de Paris et du monde, which he wrote in 1966 and The Story of Bip, written and illustrated by Marcel Marceau, published by Harper and Row. Belfond of Paris pub?lished Pimporello in 1987. In 1982, The Third Eye, his collection of ten lithographs, was published in Paris with an accompany?ing text by Mr. Marceau.
The French Government has conferred upon Mr. Marceau their highest honor, making him an "Officier de la Legion d'Honneur." He has been named Com?mander of the Order of Arts and Letters, and Commander of Merit (France). In 1978 he received the Medaille Vermiel de la Ville de Paris. He is an elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Academie des Beaux Arts France. The City of Paris gave him a grant that enabled him to reopen his International School of Mime. Students from around the world are enrolled in the school, which offers a three-year curriculum.
Following this tour, Mr. Marceau will he preparing a new company, suhsidised by the French Ministry of Culture that will premiere new style pantomimes, new pan?tomimes of Bip, and a new mimodrama, The Bowler Hat. The new company will include 15 students who have graduated from his school.
Mr. Marceau holds honorary doctor?ates from Linfield College, Princeton Uni?versity and the University of Michigan-America's way of honoring Mar?cel Marceau's creation of a new art form, developed from an old tradition.
Marceau has a long history of perfor?mances in Ann Arbor, beginning in 1971 and continuing at frequent intervals through his most recent appearances at the 1984 and 1985 Ann Arbor Summer Festi?vals. In 1983 he began his American tour here with a program of new work never before seen in this country. The Ann Arbor News called it "a sensational evening of silence." Tonight's performance marks his tenth visit to the city.
A graduate of the "El Colecho" Drama School in 1977 and the International Mime School in 1984, Blanca del Barrio partici?pated in the International Theatre Atelier of the American Center in 1986. She conducted and directed Parabola in Spain in 1980 and Mimeworks in Austria in 1983-84In Italy in 1985, she was Marcel Marceau's partner in the world premiere of the mimodrama Abymes by Anne Sicco. From 1985 to 1987 she toured Germany, Spain, Italy, and France as an actress with Theatre de la Sphere. Rejoining the Com-pagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau in Sep?tember 1990, whe has since partcipated in the Parisian season at the Theatre du Gymnase and toured with Mr. Marceau around the world.
Bogdan Nowak was born in Boleslawiez, Poland, in 1958. His first public appearances were with the Kineo Studio in Warsaw in 1978 and with the Stodola Pantomime Theatre in Warsaw from 1979 to 1981. He entered the Inter?national School of Mime in 1981. Upon graduation, Marcel Marceau invited Mr. Nowak to become a member of his com?pany. Since 1985, he has performed with Marceau around the world.
Marceau Lithographs
Marcel Marceau will be available for autographs and dedications of his purchased lithographs at the Campus Inn Ballroom on Saturday, October 31 from 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon.
PRODUCTION STAFF FOR MARCEL MARCEAU
Stage Manager .........Antoine Casanova
Assistant Stage Manager .....Francisco Fernanadez
TOUR STAFF
Company Manager........Jonathan Ball
Tour Stage Manager .......Kurt Wagemann
Tour Staff Assistant .......Robert DeLuca
WIL-MAR PRODUCTIONS INC.
Producer ..........Ronald A. Wilford
Associate Producer........Carolyn Weber
Production Assistant.......Kristen Caputo
EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT: . . Wil-Mar Productions Inc.
165 West 57th Street New York, New York 10019
TOUR DIRECTION:.......Columbia Artists Management Inc.
165 West 57th Street New York, New York