Mime Spoken Here - The Book

Mime Spoken Here: The Performer's Portable Workshop
Softback Edition: $15.00
(plus shipping and handling)

For more than 45 years, Tony Montanaro celebrated mime at the top of his field. And for over 25 years, Montanaro shared his insights and skills as mentor to hundreds of performers. At last, here's Tony's book, a book for all performing artists (not just mimes) -actors, musicians, dancers, poets....

To Tony Montanaro, mime is "eloquent gesture," with or without words, with or without props. Montanaro's approach is more than an invaluable lesson in theatre; it is a lesson in communication. Knowing what you want to project, sensing what the audience sees, and developing the skill necessary to bring the two together with eloquence and personal style are the goals of Mime Spoken Here.

Mime Spoken Here covers such subjects as premise work, isolation exercises and illusions, character work, preparatory exercises, improvisation, sketches, and performance subtleties. Here's a guide to understanding just what makes a performance "work," and how a synthesis of artistry and technique can be achieved by individual performers and by a group. Along with valuable contributions from Karen Montanaro, a ballet dancer and mime, Mime Spoken Here will show you how to put movement and gesture to work for you. This book is invaluable for anyone interested in what makes a performance successful, believable, impressive, interesting, and entertaining.

Click here to read excerpts from Mime Spoken Here

Reviews of Mime Spoken Here:

"I have been a student of Tony Montanaro's for the past 22 years. Since 1986, I have been teaching mime at New York University, and have used Mime Spoken Here since it came out in 1995, as a text for my class. My students, both graduate and undergraduate, are actors, teachers, business people, psychologists, artists and filmmakers, among other professions. They invariably find the text to be a rich source of information, as well as being an inspiring supplement to the exercises we do in class. I strongly believe that the lessons Tony provides in writing are invaluable to any performer or student of performance, myself included."

- Nancy Smithner, Freelance Performer and Professor,
New York University Program in Educational Theatre


"It is thrilling to see a performing artist advocating the placement of the performer's body in the midst of a bare stage in order to explore the depth of expression and communication in a performance... Montanaro's message is vitally necessary. Tony Montanaro's Mime Spoken Here combines the spiritual and technical aspects of performance, inspiring performers in all disciplines to find new possibilities in their work and to develop appreciation for other artists."

- Pirooz Aghassa, Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts, Michigan State University


"Tony Montanaro is the 'boss.' He has been my director, teacher, and inspiration to be original for the past 20 years of my performing career. Let his magical creativity and words change your life, too."

- Fred Garbo, "Inflatable" performance artist, Sesame Street puppeteer


"There are few who can perform and teach as brilliantly as he does and fewer still who actually do it. His enlightened visual style and creative teaching techniques are an experience I would wish on anyone."

- Brian Meehl, Mummenschanz, the Muppets, New Vaudeville Festival


"Tony is the teacher who can work with the totality of what I do and who can show me a way to create something that never was before. He is never stymied by the fact that I play a harp - he approaches my instrument as if it were my partner and teaches me to connect with it and through it to the audience."

- Deborah Henson-Conant, Jazz Harpist

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