Mime Parade 1937

Mime Parade 1937

It is interesting to see that Irene Mawer actually gave a whole paragraph to the subject of the Institute of Mime when she spoke at the celebrations for the 21st birthday of the Ginner-Mawer School, in 1937. She so rarely shone a light on her own work, yet she couldn’t stop herself from deferring to Ginner’s work, describing the Institute of Mime as the ‘younger sister’ of Ginner’s Greek Dance Association. Certainly the Institute of Mime was younger in years, but this description does not emphasise its value.

Other than that, it is really lovely to at last see Miss Mawer taking some credit for all the hard work that she had done.

“As you know, the purely mimetic side of my work has grown into the formation of the Institute of Mime. The Institute is the younger sister of the Greek Dance Association. It is only four years old. But those four years have, I think, done much to stabilize the art of Mime in this country.
Among its members we number teachers from all over the country. But I think I may say in this gathering that I was very happy, at our performance of MIME PARADE at the Aldwych to number many old Ginner-Mawers among the producers of that varied programme. I found it particularly happy in that they had all gathered together their own companies of interesting men and women and were all doing highly original work.
Among these were Peggy Butler, who brought a company of thirty from Edinburgh, Helga Burgess and Elinor Shan. Pat Gibbs managed somehow to steal time from her work at the St. Pancras People’s Theatre to carry out the arduous work of stage director, and without Joyce Ruscoe as assistant director I doubt if the performance could have been carried through at all.”

21st birthday speech by Mawer. In The Link, October 1937, p.23.