Conception of Instruction

Instruction at the HAMU Department of Non-verbal Theatre and Comedy has been conceived strictly realistically, perhaps even wisely. None of the instructors intend to train mimes, clowns and mute comedians who will never have any prospects of putting their ability to practical use. We refuse to “manufacture unemployment.”

Towards that end, we not only lead our students to the all-around development of movement technique, but also stimulate from the very beginning their elementary playfulness, provoking their ability to improvise and leading them thereby from spontaneous to conscious creation. By a method proceeding from the simple to the complex and from the general to the original, we inspire students to authorship, from solo appearances to dramatic miniatures, and possibly even feature-length mime dramas. And that is not all: the students in our department must be able not only to think up an act or sketch, but also to write it down in a professionally acceptable form as a script, so that it becomes standardised working material for screenwriters, composers, directors etc. A graduate of our department thus must be able to think up a performance, choose co-workers and, if necessary, handle the other tasks involved in the production him/herself: choosing music, designing the costumes, set and lighting, dealing with the presenter, arranging advertising etc. Clearly, we are striving to create nothing less than the kind of comprehensive man of the theatre that J. L. Barrault was dreaming of. In our genre there is no dramatic literature corresponding to that of classical stage plays. There is only one theatre for mimes in this country, and that is not even enough for the needs of our department, with four to five mimes graduating each year with the desire for self realization and for earning a living at their profession. If our graduates are to have a chance to survive, they have to be trained to be self-sufficient. This explains what is meant by the department being conceived realistically and wisely...

All instruction is realized at three important stylistic levels: Imaginary Pantomime, Clownery and Slapstick.