The Performing Company/Alithea Mime Theatre

Fusion. Integration. Organic. Individual personal voice evolves from the myriad of experiences that sculpts the artistic aesthetic when creating work at any moment. The Alithea Mime Theatre is a company committed to a continuing vision of mime theatre as a single discipline and multidiscipline with an emphasis on group choreography. After accepting the invitation to co-find the Goldston School for Mime while engaging in parallel training in dance, Johnson established an artistic identity in the mime theatre with a talent for company choreography. In 1994, Johnson, with Sabrina Vasquez as associate artistic director, established the Alithea Mime Theatre and embarked on a creative journey that continues today. In 1999, Alithea became a professional company in residence at Wichita State University.

Recognizing the need for a strong identity in American mime theatre, Johnson began to create new works and restage former company pieces that would later become the touring repertory for the Alithea Mime Theatre, a performing company that would highlight his group and solo choreography. Johnson and Sabrina Vasquez have toured Alithea to the International Mime Art Festival in Warsaw, Poland in May 1999, 2000, and 2009; the first International Mime and Physical Theatre Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico in May 2001; and the China Shanghai International Arts Festival in 2004. The company was invited to perform Angels Rising at the United Nations in 2006, a highlight of Johnson’s career. Alithea choreography, combined with WCDT tours, has also been performed in Taiwan, Colima in Mexico, and Aviano in Italy.

A Short Sample Set Description of Works That Can Be Presented

Electric Nights (created by Johnson) – an energetic and comic fusion of mime and dance in blacklight performed by the ensemble (10 minutes)

Lifesong (created by Johnson) – a heartwarming and poetic trio depicting the family life cycle (7 minutes)

Strangers in the Night (created by Lorie Heald) – a hilarious peek at three people’s sleeping habits with a bed placed vertically on stage (10 minutes)

Marionette (created by Johnson) – a solo work about an old man reminiscing about his puppeteering days (5 minutes)

InsideOut (created by Johnson) – a hilarious solo about a man and a woman and their unrequited love (5 minutes)

Body of Music (created by Johnson) – classic mime illusion work (5 minutes)

Freudian Slip (created by Johnson) – a quartet that takes a comic peek at the id, ego, and superego in action (6 minutes)

Asylum (created by Johnson) – a dramatic work about psychosis, institutionalization, revelation, and the healing capacity of human compassion (15 minutes)

Cain and Abel (created by Jose Rivera) – a short, poignant retelling of the Bible story (5 minutes)

Improvisation – a fun, interactive moment between performer and audience (10-15 minutes)

Bun Raku Love (created by Johnson) – a kung fu-style love story that borrows from the Japanese tradition of bunraku puppetry (6 minutes)

Angels Rising (created by Johnson) – traces man’s competitive behavior from the beginning of time to the nuclear holocaust (17 minutes)