Bip in a Book
"This ingenious square volume makes brilliant use of both the great mime\'s talents and the idea of the book as a physical object....For the uninitiated, this thoughtfully conceived volume is an ideal introduction to the art of mime at its finest; for Marceau\'s followers, it is a must."
Publisher's Weekly
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It was a great honor and a challenge to be asked to write a book with the great mime Marcel Marceau. Right away, I knew that we should create a wordless picture book. I came up with the idea of creating a book adaptation of Marcel’s classic “The Cage.” I created a storyboard for the book with pretty terrible stick figures. Luckily, Marcel was very good at seeing what I meant rather than what I had actually drawn. We met at his home outside of Paris to discuss the project and then a month later we shot the book in a Paris studio. Photographer Steven Rothfeld contributed the perfect lighting and camerawork to capture Marcel’s amazingly graceful movements and expressions.
It’s true, by the way, that offstage, mimes love nothing better than to talk, talk, talk. Well, at least Marcel did. He loved to hold court on everything from art and theater to philosophy and politics. He spoke perfect English and had a wonderful sense of humor. He loved to poke fun at my clumsy drawings and even clumsier efforts to act out the scenes from the book. Then when he took the spotlight, it was remarkable to watch him transform my rough sketches into energetic, joyous life.
