- Pantomime- All About Mime Ministry

What is Mime Ministry?

By Praise In Motion

 

Mime ministry involves drastic movements, facial expressions, and hand signs to depict God’s Word, God’s will, life’s struggles and accomplishments.

 

The responsibility of every mime is to bring the word of God to life with great intensity and divine excellence!

 

The Origins and Development of Mime and Mime Ministry

 

The language of gestures was born with man and is reborn every day as part of his need to express himself. Before the human voice developed, gestures served not only to communicate but to aid in the development of vocal sounds. Later they were incorporated in the first forms of written language of, for example, the Egyptians, the Aztecs, and in the pictographic writings of the Hebrews. Gestures and expressive movement were also utilized in ancient religious dances and ceremonies. And from the ancient ceremonies in China, Japan, India, and Egypt emerged the actor, who was at once a dancer, singer, and mime.

 

The following article was excerpted by Annette Lust from her book, From the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond: Mimes, Actors, Pierrots and Clowns: A Chronicle of the Many Visages of Mime in the Theatre

 

The Word and Mime

 

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel was a prophet that was called to announce God’s judgment on Israel, and other nations, and to proclaim restoration for God’s people. His preaching was not well received by the Jews who were with him in captivity, Chapter 3, so God gave Ezekiel many methods, illustrations and demonstrations to help get the message across to the Jews, Chapter 4,5. Ezekiel acted out most of the methods, and did illustrations for Israel. Israel later became restored again and God renewed the Temple and a New Jerusalem, Chapter 40.

 

Ministering Mime is interpreting gospel music, using illustrations and non-verbal methods to allow the congregation to understand what you are doing, just like Ezekiel demonstrated in the Old Testament.

 

For more information about the origins of mime ministry or about Praise In Motion Mime Ministry click here.

 

 

Mime Ministry Tips

 

Tip 1. Pray! Pray! Pray!

 

Tip 2. Worship! This is an important aspect of mime as it is in any aspect of the Christian life style. When we worship God and meditate on his message and purpose for the transformation of our souls and encouragement in the faith, choreographies themselves become clearer as we receive instructions directly from God as to how we should approach a particular mime.

 

Tip 3. Worship is more important than techniques. When we worship, God can teach us all of the techniques that we need to know, he can teach us through one day’s worship experience what it may take students years to learn at a Ministry training school or University. Techniques are however also important and the combination of worship and techniques is a powerful combination.

 

Tip 4. Beginners in mime should learn to use actions outside of their regular zone of comfort (our regular expressions).

 

Tip 5. To be a good mime, you must learn to surpass limited movement and exaggerate your actions to communicate effectively the same way a singer or actor projects their voice to the audience at the back of the auditorium.

 

Tip 6. Get it together! Get your mime ministry together and work as a team. Remember that there is no “BIG I’s and little u’s”. We all make up a team for one purpose and that is to edify the people of God through glorifying God. If you mime solo get your thoughts together and allow yourself to flow through the Holy Spirit.

 

Tip 7. God created you uniquely to be you and not like anybody else. As long as you are trying to be like someone else, the best you can ever be is number two!

 

Applying and Removing Mime Makeup

 

Grooming

 

Men:

 

Make sure you shave before you put on your makeup! If you forget you’ll probably only forget once. It’s a nightmare trying to outline your face with stubble in the way.

 

Women/Men:

 

If you have long hair: Put your hair back! (and leave it back/up for ministering).

 

Makeup Tip

 

Go slowly. It’s hard to fix mistakes afterwards. Leave yourself (more than) enough time to put on your face. Even after you have put on your face many times you will still want to leave yourself about 30 minutes.

 

 

Putting on Your Makeup

 

1. White base

 

You can get cake (water based) vs. Clown white (grease based) makeup. Cake may appear streakier than grease makeup. Some cake makeups (Ben Nye or Mehron) are simply pressed powder while others (Kryolan) are glycerin based. Clown white (Kryolan, Mehron) provides a heavy grease base and has talc powder that makes it go on thick. You can also get waterproof clown white (Kryolan). Applying skin moisturizer (not cold cream which is just more grease on your face) before beginning to apply clown white will help the grease makeup to spread easier.

 

A suggestion is to outline your face (shape) in white and then starting from your nose out to the perimeter. If you choose to have anything than an oval face one suggestion is to put perimeter ‘dots’ on your face and then to ‘connect the dots’ with lines before filling in your face. You can do all of this using your fingers, a pencil (see below) or a brush.

 

Don’t go too wide with the outline of your face; otherwise it’s very difficult to outline your face with black by yourself. On the other hand you can choose to not have an outline and fill your whole face and have the makeup go right up to your hair.

 

It is much easier to put the markings over cake makeup than (un powdered) grease makeup. Powdering grease makeup is recommended before putting on black, red or any other markings.

 

When applying the white base around your mouth it is better to accidentally get some white on your lips than to not go all the way up to your lips. You can always apply lipstick over the white but it is much more difficult to try to fill in gaps with white after you have applied your lipstick.

 

2. Powder

 

Once again, not all mimes powder and for those who do there may be times when they decide to not powder.

 

For the white it is best to use a super white powder (Ben Nye). A cheaper but not as good alternative is (Johnson’s) baby powder.

 

Shake off any excess powder after putting powder on a puff or brush and before touching your face. You can do this by flicking the back of the puff or the end of the brush with your finger(s). If you put too much powder on your makeup will crack.

 

Powder your face lightly. If you’re wearing grease based makeup you will know that you have powdered enough when your face doesn’t feel ‘sticky’.

 

3. Markings (Black and Red)

 

For the black you can use either a paint, pencil or liquid eyeliner. Paints (Kryolan, Mehron) are simply applied with a paint brush. You can get thin or thick grease pencils (Mehron). If you are trying to keep the grease makeup away from your eyes you can use a charcoal pencil (Mehron) for right around your eyes. Charcoal pencils are not recommended for use elsewhere on your face – grease pencils are best. There are also cream based pencils (Ben Nye). Liquid eyeliner (Kryolan, Mehron) is easier to apply over a white grease base than a pencil but it can also run. Pencils tend not to run.

 

If you smudge you can remove the makeup with a Q-tip and then reapply.

 

A suggested order for putting on markings is as follows:

 

A) eyebrows and other markings

B) outline of eyes

C) mascara

D) lipstick

 

To paint eyebrows on your forehead above your real eyebrows raise your eyebrows and you will see a wrinkle. Paint a line along the wrinkle. (Note: Don’t assume that both the wrinkles above both eyes will be level.) It’s then from here that you determine the placement, shape, length and boldness of your eyebrows. Painting your real eyebrows is fairly straightforward.

 

In terms of outlining your eyes, once again it is a trial and error thing. The best way to learn is to do it and to gain from trial and error.

 

To apply mascara, look away from where you’re brushing. If you can’t control each of your eyelids hold one eyelid down while doing the other. You can even hold one half of an eyelid while doing the other half. It is important that you purchase water resistant mascara. Do your mascara after you powder (if you do).

 

For lipstick you should use a primary (or cherry) red or black. Tube lipstick is wax based and has less colour (pigmentation). Red that comes in a container and is applied with a brush has less wax and more colour. There are several methods of putting on lipstick. It is best to experiment and to find the one that you like best. However, be careful to not go beyond the edge of your lips with the lipstick. It will look awkward and is difficult to correct.

 

You will need a pencil sharpener that is intended for makeup pencils.

 

4. Powder (see # 2)

 

Make sure that your black and red markings have dried before powdering. One suggestion is to have one brush or puff for powdering the white base and another brush or puff for this step.

 

For this step in the powdering stages you will need to use translucent powder (Ben Nye, Kryolan). You can get waterproof powder (Kryolan).

 

After powdering you should wash off excess powder that is outside the perimeter of your face. This will help your makeup face to stand out and to look more defined and professional.

 

Removing Makeup

 

1. For cake (water based makeup) soap and water will work just fine.

 

2. For clown white (grease based makeup) you can simply use Pond’s Cold Cream. You can also purchase makeup remover lotion that is mineral based (Mehron). This type is good for removing makeup around the eyes. You can also get makeup oil (Kryolan, Mehron) (that looks like Vaseline) As a last resort you can use (Johnson’s) baby oil or Crisco oil.

 

3. You can use cotton balls to get makeup off from around the eyes. You can buy cotton squares. Tissues and Q-tips are also good.

 

4. After you have removed greased based makeup it is best to have an alcohol based stringent handy (Sea Breeze).