Gerome highlights the San Francisco Mime Troupe Records

This week Gerome has chosen to highlight one of our manuscript collections, the San Francisco Mime Troupe Records. The San Francisco Mime Troupe is San Francisco’s critically acclaimed and oldest professional political musical theater. It began in 1959 when Ronald G. Davis formed the R.G. Davis Mime Troupe while affiliated with the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop. Initially, the Troupe improvised silent mime performance “events,” but soon added sound, music, and dialogue. In 1962 they began producing free shows in San Francisco parks and moved from mime into other forms of drama: first adaptations of commedia dell’arte, then vaudeville, melodrama, and other American theater. In 1963, they severed connections with the Workshop, and changed the group’s name to the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

The San Francisco Mime Troupe Records consist of unique items relating to the history of the Troupe. The collection contains original and adapted scripts, financial papers, photographs, audio visual items, promotional material, correspondence, clippings, and office files. A finding aid for the collection is available on the Online Archive of California here.

The Mime Troupe, which celebrated its 50^th year in 2009, continues to create and perform today. They will be performing their new show, Freedomland, this weekend in Sacramento on August 29 and in Davis on August 30. You can find out more information about the performances on their website.

Gerome hopes that you are able to enjoy a performance of Freedomland!

Gerome with posters from the San Francisco Mime Troupe Records, D-061