Artsource The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts ENDURING VALUES
TRANSFORMATION
THEATRE MUSIC ®
ARTISTIC PROCESSES
TRADITIONAL CLASSICAL
1. CREATING (Cr)
CONTEMPORARY
2. PERFORMING, PRESENTING, PRODUCING (Pr)
EXPERIMENTAL
3. RESPONDING (Re)
MULTI-MEDIA
4. CONNECTING (Cn)
FREEDOM & OPPRESSION
THE HUMAN FAMILY
THE POWER OF NATURE
Title of Work:
About the Artwork:
Life Cycle
Life Cycle follows the relationship of two characters,
Creators:
one female and one male, from infancy through child-
The Chameleons Keith Berger b. 1952
Sharon Diskin b. 1963
hood, adolescence, courtship, marriage, parenthood, middle-age, old age, death and finally, rebirth. On a
Background Information:
bare stage and without costumes or props, The
When Keith Berger and Sharon Diskin were children,
Chameleons use pantomime and mime techniques to
they did not dream about being mimes when they grew
project a spectrum of human emotions and enact the
up! Both were drawn to the theatre, studied acting, and
rituals of friendship, love and separation. Performed to
appeared in dramatic productions. When Keith was 15,
the music of Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D Major,”
he saw a mime concert by world-famous artist Marcel
Life Cycle is a work in which we see ourselves and our
Marceau. Marceau’s ability to create characters without
experiences reflected in ways that are playful, dramatic,
words had tremendous impact on him and opened up a
poignant and unforgettable.
new world of expression and artistry. He sought formal training at The American Mime Theatre in New York City and became one of the very first street mimes. Keith has performed his one-man show at Lincoln Center, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and for a Royal Command Performance before Princess Grace of Monaco. Sharon began her mime work with the Oberlin Mime Players under the direction of Keith Berger. She, too, had seen Marceau as a teenager and was struck by the
Creative Process of the Artist or Culture: Life Cycle was one of the first mime pieces on which The Chameleons collaborated. It began with a desire to do a story within a classic structure about universal relationships. They first started improvising ways to create changes of age solely with physical adjustments. As each vignette took form, they would outline and record the segments of action. Pachelbel’s “Canon” was then chosen as
fact that he worked on a bare stage without costumes.
a score because it was circular.
However, it was not until her participation in Keith’s
When it was completed, the
mime workshop that she discovered the true power and
mime drama was a cycle, begin-
depth of feeling possible in the art form. The Chameleons
ning and ending in a state of
began working as a team in 1985 and have since toured to
innocent birth.
the delight of audiences throughout North America and Europe. Their performance style is characterized by strong emotions and natural characters involved in real-life dramas. They are masters of the traditional mime illusions and acclaimed for their original mime repertoire. Artistic collaborators as well as husband and wife, The Chameleons’ performances demonstrate that silence, indeed, is golden.
Photo coutesy of The Chameleons
“Through silence we capture the essence of a moment, and in that moment we are transported.” Keith Berger & Sharon Diskin
California