Rob Mermin Producer, Director, Performer, Educator, Author, Lecturer, etc.
Programs
This page briefly introduces the programs I currently offer. For full descriptions click on any Main Heading on top of the Home page under the photo collage, or click below:
SILENT FILM CIRCUS MAGIC MIME BUBBLES CIRCUS SMIRKUS
WORKSHOPS are available with all the shows. FEES for all shows and workshops are variable. Contact me for pricing and further information. As a VISITING ARTIST I enjoy being in a community for a week or more visiting schools, libraries, and campuses giving performances, lectures, and master classes at all levels.
The "Picturesque History" Series
A "Picturesque History" is a one-man, multi-media show on a topic of personal cultural history performed live with storytelling, demonstration, and illustrated with fascinating film clips.
For schools, colleges, theaters, libraries, cultural centers, and general public.
This is a full evening of entertainment from the era of silent cinema, re-discovering The Forgotten Art of Silent Film Acting, and illustrated with a dazzling array of clips from 100 silent films! An "American Masterpieces" Arts Council selection. (90 minutes) Click SILENT FILM for full description.
The Silent Series Shorter silent film lectures (45 min-1hr) include:
a. Silent Clowns: Comparison of comedy styles—"Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon, Laurel & Hardy, and Then There Was Chaplin"
b. Silent Women: Portrayal of women in 1920's Hollywood—"Pickford, Gish, Brooks, Bow, and Then There Was Garbo."
c. Silent Men: Portrayal of men in the '20's—"Valentino, Novarro, Barrymore, Gilbert...and Then There Was Fairbanks."
2. Circle of Sawdust
This is an autobiographical show recounting True Tales of High Adventure and Low Comedy from forty years in the circus world. Rare and amusing historical film footage showcases Rob's adventures in the ring in the context of 200 years of circus history. An "American Masterpieces" Arts Council selection. (90 minutes) Click CIRCUS for full description.
3. CIRCUS IN CINEMA: Hollywood Under The Big Top is a "Picturesque History" show commissioned by Focus on Film for the Green Mountain Film Festival. (90 minutes). This program depicts how the movies represent the international world of circus, with all its characters, romance, drama, and intrigue! Rob presents live commentary from the stage along with clips from 25 feature films! Film stars include: Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Lollobrigida, John Wayne, Betty Hutton, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Charlton Heston, Humphrey Bogart, Frederic March, Peter Lorre, Pat Boone, Doris Day, Danny Kaye, Jimmy Durante, Charlie Chaplin, and more!
A one-man program expressing an unabashedly reverent yet critical look at the author's teachers, Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux and their art of Mime. Rare documentary film footage of the masters performing, teaching and speaking is accompanied by live demonstration and personal anecdotes. (90 minutes) Click MIME for more information.
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Close-Up Programs
These shows are designed for smaller venues and audiences — kids, families, and general ages. All my shows and projects in a forty-year career have in some way involved cultivating the idealism and nourishing the dreams of young people, while stimulating their creative imagina
tion with playfulness.
The BUBBLE CIRCUS (performance) was inspired by an 89-year old vaudeville wizard, an expert in the soapy science, who impressed me profoundly with how he saw all of life in the luminous wonder of a bubble. A Bubble Circus & Soap Suds Sideshow presentation: Click BUBBLES for full description.
GRANDPA'S SLEEVE (also known as Tricks With Stuff) hands-on workshop of simple tricks with ordinary objects comes from a lifelong attraction to science, playful silliness and magic. It is a fascination with those invisible realms just beyond our usual senses, but within a blink of our imagination. A workshop for all ages! Click MAGIC for full description.
This is an intimate evening of close-up conjuring designed for grownups for special occasions, dinner parties, and informal living room gatherings. Your guests enjoy a friendly atmosphere of personal mysteries and delicate enchantments, as well as an edifying digression into scams, bets, and swindles.
