| Artist Statement I am a Physical Theater Artist who uses aspects of Mime, Clown, Music, Poetry, Art, Dance and Pure Physical Theater to create original work. Dealing with themes which go beyond words such as emotion and humanity, Physical Theater speaks directly to the essence of mankind; it is immediate, intimate, familiar and universal. I strive to relate to my audience through skilled performance as well as through shared experiences. I choose projects, commissions or assignments that challenge me to become a better performer, as well as a better human being. Whether it's a commission from a gallery to interpret visual art through Physical Theater, a project with musicians to create a Bastille Day performance or a request to perform a Marcel Marceau tribute solo – each performance is a unique collaboration with my fellow artists and the audience. |
| Catalogue of Programs PERFORMANCES: YOU CAN BE ANYTHING!: (grades 1 – 12) You can be a clown, a little girl, a baseball player, a daisy, a butterfly - and more! Beth becomes all of these and more in this show, that shows how YOU can be ANYTHING! (when you're a mime) TWEETS – A CLASSIC CLOWN: (grades K – 12) Beth (Tweets) pulls out all the stops with juggling, balancing, magic and old- fashioned “clowning around” to involve the audience in every aspect of the show. Warning: adult involvement may be fun. EVEN CLOWNS READ: (grades K – 12) Tweets brings her book bag of tricks to school today to show the importance of reading and writing in EVERYONE'S lives, even clowns. SPARROW THE COURT JESTER: (grades 3 –12) The court jester is in trouble again. Having been wrongly accused of stealing the Queen’s fan, she escapes from the castle dungeon. Many costume changes are needed to give the royal guard the slip. SPARROW THE COURT JESTER: (grades K – 12) A jester for all ages, whether you're royalty or one of the little people, you'll have fun with Sparrow on stage as she invites the audience to join in the revelry. She'll perform magic, juggling, mime and music to make you, her royal court, laugh SANTA’S HELPER: (grades K – 12) Santa’s helper is here to help you get ready for Christmas, whether you want to or not. When she’s done the stage will be full of holiday cheer and part of the audience. (This could be a very funny way to introduce Santa.) SILENT SELF EXPRESSION: (grades 7-12) Need a way to express yourself? Learn how to create a mime play. Beth Byrd, professional mime, teaches methods, techniques and more. Mime goes beyond words. Where words fail, mime succeeds. |
WORKSHOPS: MIME 101: (grades 3 – 12) This is a demonstration and audience participation workshop that teaches the basics of mime for any age level. Participants will have fun while learning skills to apply to any mime performance whether that performance is on a stage or in the family kitchen. MAKE-UP, CLOWN, ACTION: (grades 3 – 12) Beth demonstrates becoming a character from the inside out while putting on her clown make-up before performing for the audience. THE ART OF MIME: (grades 5 – 12) This is an instructional course in modern mime. A final performance is ideal and preferred. A minimum of 6 sessions is needed. A performance at the end is recommended. Prices vary depending on travel, size of audience, number of shows per area, etc. |
Producer hopes fortune shines on mime
By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star
Spring 2006
Beth Byrd knows mimes have a bad name. But she wants to change that.
Byrd, an Indiana native who has lived in the Kansas City area since 1985, is a skilled clown, mime, artists’ model, living statue and
instructor. But it’s as founder of Beth Byrd Productions that she has nurtured what she calls movement theater to the point where it’s
the focus of an annual showcase.
The Byrd-produced “Fools’ Fortunes II,” featuring both young and established practitioners of physical theater, will be presented
Friday, Saturday and May 18 at the Just Off Broadway Theatre.
In addition to Byrd, the roster includes Stephanie Roberts, a University of Missouri-Kansas City theater professor who will lead the
International Lost and Found Marching Band; Ric Averill, a veteran actor/playwright based in Lawrence; performers Jason Smith,
Jason Reynolds, Kalen Campernolle and Brutus, a handsome Boston terrier belonging to Heidi Stubblefield.
The showcase will include 10 minutes of a new version of “Coppelia” that Stubblefield is directing and plans to stage for the Fringe
Festival this year.
“I knew I wanted to be a clown when I was 7, but it’s because I wanted to be a Red Skelton clown,” Byrd said recently. “And my
favorite parts of his show were when he was the silent clown … because those seemed to have the most creativity and got the
biggest audience response.”
Byrd, 43, said photographs exist of her as young as 2 mimicking Skelton. Over the years she memorized all his pantomime
routines. When the show was canceled in 1971 after a 30-year-run, she was devastated.
It was also at the age of 7 that Byrd won a costume contest on Halloween (her birthday). She was dressed, naturally, as a clown.
“It was purely a costume contest, but I’m sure I performed,” she said. “I’m sure I did something. I would get lost in the grocery store,
and my mom knew how to find me because I had a crowd around me.” The summer after she graduated from high school Byrd
signed up for a mime class in Indianapolis. She majored in music at Indiana State University and in her sophomore year transferred
to Ball State, where she joined a mime troupe whose members never wanted to rehearse. In 1985 she moved to Kansas City.
“My sister, who lived here at the time, enticed me with false stories of a clown college here,” she said. “And what it was, was clown
classes. I think it was Communiversity classes over at Penn Valley Community College. And the clown teaching it was nice enough,
but she wasn’t teaching me anything I didn’t already know because by then I had read every clown book I could get my hands on.”
One of her first jobs was modeling for life-drawing classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. She still models for artists and
photographers but these days prefers to do it in character and in costume.
“There’s a lot of art out there of me,” she said. “I modeled nude for years, but I don’t really want to do that anymore.”
She found that her clown training was a big asset for modeling. She manipulated her body so efficiently that she could provide
anything an instructor requested. If they wanted to see a rib cage, she gave them a rib cage. If they needed to draw hip bones, she
gave them hip bones.
“I was a popular model because I could hold poses a long time,” she said.
The year she arrived in town she discovered the Renaissance Festival, where she performed as Sparrow the Court Jester from
1985 to 2002. In 1993 she was able to go to the Goldston and Johnson School for Mimes in Gambier, Ohio, and study with the
patron saint of modern mime — Marcel Marceau.
“He’s known for his illusions, but he doesn’t start with illusions,” she said. “And if he sees you do an illusion for illusion’s sake, he
throws you off the stage before you’re done. One day he got so disgusted with everybody. He started off the day so full of energy, full
of vim and vigor. And then he saw one too many pieces … and he deflated right in front of us. He said, ‘That’s it! Everybody just go
to bed.’ And the poor girl who was the last one … was mortified. But she did some really classically bad mime. And that was the
only day Marceau lost his energy because of bad American mime.”
And where did bad American mime come from?
“Poor Shields and Yarnell,” Byrd said. “Shields and Yarnell were a couple who were on all the variety shows back in the ’70s. A lot of
Americans saw them do like robot characters in robes, dressed for breakfast. It was funny at the time. And it was real simple. They
would do things like pour orange juice on each other’s heads by accident. …
“And then a lot of Americans over-simplified what they did. So what happened is there were a lot of untrained people on the street
just doing basic mime exercises and putting their hat out.”
Besides, Byrd said, mime artists are taught to perform on stage, not on a sidewalk.
“Mime is acting, and it’s supposed to be performed on stage with lights and sound effects and everything else that theater gets,” she
said. “It’s theater. But it’s a silent form of theater, and because it’s silent it gets to be more universal and it gets to cover bigger or
deeper subjects when you don’t have to use words.”
By ROBERT TRUSSELL
The Kansas City Star
Spring 2006
Beth Byrd knows mimes have a bad name. But she wants to change that.
Byrd, an Indiana native who has lived in the Kansas City area since 1985, is a skilled clown, mime, artists’ model, living statue and
instructor. But it’s as founder of Beth Byrd Productions that she has nurtured what she calls movement theater to the point where it’s
the focus of an annual showcase.
The Byrd-produced “Fools’ Fortunes II,” featuring both young and established practitioners of physical theater, will be presented
Friday, Saturday and May 18 at the Just Off Broadway Theatre.
In addition to Byrd, the roster includes Stephanie Roberts, a University of Missouri-Kansas City theater professor who will lead the
International Lost and Found Marching Band; Ric Averill, a veteran actor/playwright based in Lawrence; performers Jason Smith,
Jason Reynolds, Kalen Campernolle and Brutus, a handsome Boston terrier belonging to Heidi Stubblefield.
The showcase will include 10 minutes of a new version of “Coppelia” that Stubblefield is directing and plans to stage for the Fringe
Festival this year.
“I knew I wanted to be a clown when I was 7, but it’s because I wanted to be a Red Skelton clown,” Byrd said recently. “And my
favorite parts of his show were when he was the silent clown … because those seemed to have the most creativity and got the
biggest audience response.”
Byrd, 43, said photographs exist of her as young as 2 mimicking Skelton. Over the years she memorized all his pantomime
routines. When the show was canceled in 1971 after a 30-year-run, she was devastated.
It was also at the age of 7 that Byrd won a costume contest on Halloween (her birthday). She was dressed, naturally, as a clown.
“It was purely a costume contest, but I’m sure I performed,” she said. “I’m sure I did something. I would get lost in the grocery store,
and my mom knew how to find me because I had a crowd around me.” The summer after she graduated from high school Byrd
signed up for a mime class in Indianapolis. She majored in music at Indiana State University and in her sophomore year transferred
to Ball State, where she joined a mime troupe whose members never wanted to rehearse. In 1985 she moved to Kansas City.
“My sister, who lived here at the time, enticed me with false stories of a clown college here,” she said. “And what it was, was clown
classes. I think it was Communiversity classes over at Penn Valley Community College. And the clown teaching it was nice enough,
but she wasn’t teaching me anything I didn’t already know because by then I had read every clown book I could get my hands on.”
One of her first jobs was modeling for life-drawing classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. She still models for artists and
photographers but these days prefers to do it in character and in costume.
“There’s a lot of art out there of me,” she said. “I modeled nude for years, but I don’t really want to do that anymore.”
She found that her clown training was a big asset for modeling. She manipulated her body so efficiently that she could provide
anything an instructor requested. If they wanted to see a rib cage, she gave them a rib cage. If they needed to draw hip bones, she
gave them hip bones.
“I was a popular model because I could hold poses a long time,” she said.
The year she arrived in town she discovered the Renaissance Festival, where she performed as Sparrow the Court Jester from
1985 to 2002. In 1993 she was able to go to the Goldston and Johnson School for Mimes in Gambier, Ohio, and study with the
patron saint of modern mime — Marcel Marceau.
“He’s known for his illusions, but he doesn’t start with illusions,” she said. “And if he sees you do an illusion for illusion’s sake, he
throws you off the stage before you’re done. One day he got so disgusted with everybody. He started off the day so full of energy, full
of vim and vigor. And then he saw one too many pieces … and he deflated right in front of us. He said, ‘That’s it! Everybody just go
to bed.’ And the poor girl who was the last one … was mortified. But she did some really classically bad mime. And that was the
only day Marceau lost his energy because of bad American mime.”
And where did bad American mime come from?
“Poor Shields and Yarnell,” Byrd said. “Shields and Yarnell were a couple who were on all the variety shows back in the ’70s. A lot of
Americans saw them do like robot characters in robes, dressed for breakfast. It was funny at the time. And it was real simple. They
would do things like pour orange juice on each other’s heads by accident. …
“And then a lot of Americans over-simplified what they did. So what happened is there were a lot of untrained people on the street
just doing basic mime exercises and putting their hat out.”
Besides, Byrd said, mime artists are taught to perform on stage, not on a sidewalk.
“Mime is acting, and it’s supposed to be performed on stage with lights and sound effects and everything else that theater gets,” she
said. “It’s theater. But it’s a silent form of theater, and because it’s silent it gets to be more universal and it gets to cover bigger or
deeper subjects when you don’t have to use words.”