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The Mime Who Talks! performs “The Scientific Mime, or, What’s Up With Gravity?” for children, and “Mime Explains String Theory!” for adults. Author of “The Performer’s Guide to the Collaborative Process,” she offers residencies and workshops on collaborative creative process, arts integration, mime, and juggling to K-12 and college students, adults, educators, & seniors. You can engage in Collaborative Creativity with Sheila Kerrigan!
Science is full of abstract words and invisible forces that are hard for young people to grasp. In “What’s Up With Gravity?” the mime struggles against gravity, pushes, pulls, and other forces, making abstract forces visible. The show teaches Physical Science concepts for 2nd-5th grades. The audience participates by reading aloud signs that state the scientific concepts and by doing gestures for key vocabulary–they see the mime illustrate the concept, say the concept, and attach movement to it. (“See, say, do.”) It’s educational, participatory, silly, and a lot of fun!

Sheila’s show for adults (especially seniors), “Mime Explains String Theory,” starts before birth, ends after death, and toddles through thirteen stages of Woman.
She works with youth to create issue-based performances. President of the SE Center for Arts Integration, she leads professional development for teachers and artists. She served on Alternate ROOTS’ Resources for Social Change, which uses the arts to spur progressive change. She taught Community-Based Performance at Duke and Creating Original Performance at Bennington College’s July Program. She performed with TOUCH Mime Theater for seventeen years, and with Jelly Educational Theater for four. She has performed and taught in 22 states, in schools, prisons, juvenile detention centers, senior centers, hospitals, and festivals.

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