Searching for Marceau
Created by Trevor Copp,
Richard Beaune, & Robin Patterson
Number of Actors: 1
Language: English, French, appropriate for ASL
Length: 1 hour
CONTACT
905-630-9665
Searching for Marceau finds a budding young Mime trying to make sense of his two fathers: the real one raising him and the far away Marcel Marceau. The imaginary and the real battle in this theatre/mime piece reinvents Marcel Marceau’s Mime tradition for the 21st Century.
Searching for Marceau will perform at Sweet Action Theatre (Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Unit 106) in Toronto on Sunday Feb 1st at 7:30pm. There will also be a Mime and movement workshop at 2:30pm.
CLICK HERE FOR PERFORMANCE AND/OR WORKSHOP TICKETS
This piece has toured to Ottawa's Undercurrent Festival, Kitchener's Registry Theatre, the LIVELab at McMaster University, the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, Red Deer Alberta's Prime Stock Theatre, the Royal Botanical Gardens, and the Toronto Fringe Festival where it received 5 Ns from NOW Magazine, 3/4 stars from the Toronto Star, and the 'Cutting Edge' Award.
REVIEWS
"Copp is a captivating performer, as skilled in verbally conveying heartfelt emotion and landing deadpan laugh lines as in conjuring all kinds of objects, animals and experiences through his precise physicality" (3 of 4 stars)
- Karen Fricker, The Toronto Star
"In this unconventional and enthralling solo show about Copp’s love of mime, we’re treated to a talented performer who digs into his past to unpack how he thought outside the mime box to elevate his art." (5 of 5 N's)
- David Silverberg, Toronto NOW Magazine
“A master of contemporary theatre….there is a sensitivity to the performance, an indefinable sense of risk taking that signals the true artist.”
- Gary Smith, The Hamilton Spectator
“...inspirational cross-training for the soul… there is a deep seated need for this kind of physical art that people don’t even realize they have anymore. In the age of Netflix and downloads, return to the campfires of our primitive ancestors and feel how theatre first stirred our souls. And as a bonus, feel the incomparable magic of
the man in the box bit done by someone who studied at the Marcel Marceau School in Paris and clearly knows what he’s doing.”
- Diane Lachapelle, Apt. 613 Blog
“He moves with beautiful fluency…simply too creative for words. Highly skilled….a fresh fusion between acting and modern dance.”
- View magazine
"In one hour, Copp goes from teaching us the alphabet of mime to writing poetry with it. As the lights dim on the final piece, there is a weighted silence in the theatre; then, the small audience erupts."
- DART Critics
Marceau:
Poster
Marceau Pic:
Mime Flare
Marceau:
Tech Files
Searching for Marceau
Programme Notes
Mime Choreography/Text/Performance by Trevor Copp
Directed by: Richard Beaune (with Robin Patterson, workshop director)
About Tottering Biped Theatre
Tottering Biped Theatre (TBT) was founded in 2009 as a social justice inspired theatre company. We devise contemporary pieces through a workshop process spanning several years to create highly physical works of artistic excellence during the Fall/Winter. During the summer we create contemporary, highly physical interpretations of Shakespeare. Our works have addressed poverty, Israeli-Palestinian relations, same sex marriage, violence against women, and mental health.
TBT has toured/been presented by regional professional theatres (Hamilton’s Theatre Aquarius, London’s Grand Theatre, and Kitchener’s MT Space), Performing Arts Centres (Burlington, Oakville, Guelph, Brampton, Hamilton, Mississauga, Guelph), and theatre Festivals (IMPACT, Undercurrents, In the Soil, Springworks) and internationally (New York State, Dublin, Albania). In recognition of our work, TBT has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Trillium Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and our work has been featured in over 15 publications including the Canadian Theatre Review and TED.com.
What do you mean ‘Physical Theatre’?
I spent a lot of time debating the use of ‘Mime’ to describe what I do – because this word is a kind of marketing death. Mime sounds like a thing trapped in an invisible box which is, in turn, trapped in the ‘70s.
But this wasn’t the mime I knew. I studied the Canadian Mime companies from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, – and the work was amazing. Rich, varied, complex – and highly disciplined. My studies in Mime in Paris proved this to me further. But the work from Canada in that period is all but lost.
I got a small but timely grant from the Hamilton Arts Council and started these pieces with Richard Beaune, a wonderful physical theatre practitioner. I went on to develop it with core members of the Canadian Mime Theatre/Theatre Beyond Words Terry Judd, Robin Patterson, and Harro Maskow. “Searching for Marceau” emerges out of the chance to work with them: bringing back their work that inspires me, inventing work under their direction, and getting a chance to work with some of the unsung masters of Theatre in Canada.
Director's Notes
Searching for Marceau is the story of a young artist finding his own voice. The piece has undergone its own journey of discovery in order to find its own voice, too. In its earlier forms, Air (as it was then called) had no text and no narrative.
Trevor Copp, like the artist in our invented story, is not easily satisfied, and his constant reworking and questioning of his own work led to an unthinkable choice: the mime would speak! Under Robin’s direction, Trevor was able to reshape the work pretty significantly and the story began to cascade from Trevor’s creative imagination (and based on stories frim his own life; I’ll leave you to guess which are which) and he wrote a script. A script for a mime theatre piece will hopefully seem like an obvious choice once you see it, but it was a great surprise to me. When I rejoined the project it was in a shape very close to what you see today, but the history of its transformations remains a theme deep within the piece itself. We hope that it can inspire other voices and more transformations as it continues to reverberate through its growing audiences.
Bios
Performer - TREVOR COPP completed Theatre Studies at Waterloo, a MA at Guelph, and Mime at the Marcel Marceau School in Paris. He has been a professional actor for over 15 years in pieces ranging from Classical to contemporary, performing in over 30 Canadian and international cities and numerous National Theatre Festivals. Trevor is also a regional American Style Latin Champion and has taught/coached physical Theatre for numerous professional companies and Universities. He is an active arts advocate, director and choreographer.
Director – RICHARD BEAUNE has performed in every province and territory across Canada in both official languages over a 30+ year career. His work as actor and director has garnered rave reviews and several awards, including a Dora Mavor Moore Award and a Canadian Comedy Award, and has been seen in Canada’s largest theatres, including the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, as well as the smallest indie theatres and found spaces. Stylistically, his work has ranged from Shakespeare (30+ professional productions and counting) to new works of physical theatre and all stops in between, but always carries a trademark sensibility that he credits to his clown’s heart. Ultimately his goal in life is to make you smile.
Director (workshop) ROBIN PATTERSON is Artistic Director of Theatre Beyond Words, a physical theatre company that creates original works and adaptations using masks, puppetry, text, music, and mime. Patterson graduated from SFU, Vancouver, B.C. and L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France; then toured for four years with Canadian Mime Theatre as its first female soloist, writer and director. In 1977 she co-founded TBW, touring nationally and internationally with the company as well as being involved as an actor/creator, director and writer for over 35 years. In 2007 Robin won the Woman of Distinction Award for Arts and Culture in the Niagara Region. Currently specializing in clown, mask and physical theatre techniques Robin teaches at Brock University, St. Catharines, ON and Niagara University, Lewiston, NY. For the 2016 season, she will be a Consultant in Mime Techniques for the production of ‘Our Town’ at the Shaw Festival.
