MIME TIME

Class Act program pairs students and arts performers

Photos By Shelly Donahue/ViewTop, mime Sandy Scheller performs for students at Tate Elementary School, where she spent an afternoon teaching children her art. Bottom, Lvette Bautistia Gomez, 5, peeks over the stage as Scheller pantomimes climbing down a rope. SHelly Donahue/ViewMime Sandy Scheller entertains first-graders at Tate Elementary School in North Las Vegas as part of the Class Act program, which brings educational arts programs into Clark County School District schools. Shelly Donahue/VIewMime Sandy Scheller applies makeup before performing for Tate Elementary School students on July 10. Advertisement

When mime Sandy Scheller created the illusion of being trapped inside a box for the first-graders at Tate Elementary School, the teachers had trouble getting them to settle down. So believable was the trick, a flurry of "whoas" filled the cafetorium, and many students stood up on benches to get a better view.

Throughout her act, Scheller compared pantomime to reading.

"It can make you believe that things are there when they aren't, and books do that, too," she said at the assembly on July 10.

The excitement in the room was barely containable when Scheller became a mischievous marionette and ventured into the aisles.

She took requests for things to pantomime from her engaged and focused audience and showed them how to mime their own invisible walls when her performance was over. She suggested the students go back to class and practice with their teachers.

"The kids probably would never see it if she hadn't come here. The kids didn't know what mime was. They thought she was a clown," said second-grade teacher Missy Nettlingham, who invited Scheller to perform at the school, located at 2450 N. Lincoln Road, as part of a program called Class Act.

Class Act brings educational arts programs into Clark County School District schools. The performers, who visit schools through the program, are meant to complement an existing lesson plan and reinforce the curriculum.

Before Scheller's performance, Nettlingham prepared her students. That is why Scheller made a point to connect reading and theater.

"That's what learning is about. It's making these connections," said Tate Principal Mary Grace Bowling.

Scheller also coordinates Class Act for the program's sponsor, the Winchester Cultural Center.

Scheller taught and performed as a mime for many years before coming to Las Vegas from San Diego and has amassed a resume that includes credits on "Sesame Street" and "Reading Rainbow." Used to booking her own gigs at public schools, she found when she came to Las Vegas that she had to go through the already established Class Act program.

Founded in 1988 by CCSD, the Allied Arts Council and the Junior League, the program works in partnership with Clark County Parks and Recreation and the Winchester Cultural Center, now that the Arts Council no longer exists. Funding comes from a number of private individuals and public groups and usually goes toward sending performers to under-served schools, such as those in the inner city and rural areas that can't afford to pay. However, the program mainly pays for itself through performance fees collected by each school's parent teacher association.

Musicians on the roster include a jazz quintet and a bagpipe ensemble. The dance group can boast members of the Kotobuki Japanese Minbu Dancers and the Double Down Cloggers.

In addition to all her work with Class Act, Scheller also works in the costume department for "Zumanity" at New York-New York.

She said she loves performing in schools.

"Every performance feels like the first time," Scheller said. "I love when the kids say goodbye to me and they're all practicing doing 'the wall.' "

She said she gets a lot of calls for Nevada Reading Week, usually held in late February and early March.

Other performers with the program, such as Kim Russell, an actress who portrays suffragist and abolitionist Sojourner Truth, are called upon more during Black History Month and Women's History Month.

Russell describes what she does as a historical chautauqua. She dresses up as the abolitionist, and students can ask her questions that she answers in the first person -- as Sojourner Truth. Her act supplements units on the Civil War and women's suffrage.

Russell said live performance has a way of stimulating the imagination and helps make history more personal for the students.

"When you actually read it on the page, it becomes lifelike and three dimensional," she said.

To become involved with the Class Act program, each performer goes through an application process that includes an audition in front of a group of children at a school and a panel of judges. Once in the program, performers then are rated after every performance.

To join Class Act, Scheller wrote a syllabus for teachers with a list of books and videos for further learning about pantomime and auditioned for a group of kindergartners.

Scheller believes the arts assemblies are very important -- especially for young students.

"It teaches kids how to assemble, how to sit still and be quiet when someone else is performing, because someday that someone might be them. That's going to stay with them the rest of their lives," she said.

For more information on Class Act, including a roster of performers and booking fees, visit www.co.clark.nv.us/Parks/Class_Act.htm or contact Sandy Scheller at 877-9770.