25 Facts About Irene Mawer

Irene Mawer, was an English exponent of mime; drama; voice; and mime in education.

Irene Mawer was later known as Irene Dale and Irene Perugini.

Irene Rose Mawer was born in 1893, in Wandsworth, on the outskirts of London, England - at that time a wealthy and prosperous area.

Irene Mawer's father, Henry Mawer, was a Yorkshireman, and her mother, Rosina Alberta Mawer, was originally from Devon.

Irene Mawer attended Putney High School for Girls, where the aims were to educate and inspire the pupils and to help them find passions and achieve ambitions.

In later life, Irene Mawer founded the Institute of Mime where the focus was on education through movement.

However, Irene Mawer was passionate about words and had planned to study literature at university, but family circumstances prevented this.

Irene Mawer was accepted as a student of Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama where she undertook the role of Pivot Club Social Secretary in 1915.

Irene Mawer learned much of the theory of rhythmic movement and of how muscles and the nervous system developed from her attendance at Ruby Ginner's dance classes.

Irene Mawer then put this together with Elsie Fogerty's Greek Chorus lessons on co-ordination of the rhythms of speech and movement and this led to her own technical basis for the teaching of mime.

Irene Mawer was interested in words, and in the relationship between words and movement.

Irene Mawer produced the Greek Chorus and acted in the plays.

Irene Mawer continued in paid employment for a further five years as Senior Tutor and Lecturer at Pamela Chapman's Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, now known as the Birmingham School of Acting.

In 1959, Irene Mawer retired and moved to live near Ruby Ginner in Blewbury in the south of England.

In 1923, Irene Mawer was one of the first people to be involved in the newly created Diploma in Dramatic Art, the first qualification of its type in the UK.

The syllabus included mime, and Irene Mawer taught this as part of her duties at the Central School of Speech and Drama which was newly affiliated to the University of London.

In 1927, a mime play written and produced by Irene Mawer formed part of the Dramatic Examination performance for this Diploma of Dramatic Art.

At Ginner-Irene Mawer mime was not seen as a stand-alone subject, it was seen as a foundation subject for all other forms of movement and speech.

Irene Mawer's method contributed to the rapid changes in body training during the first four decades of the twentieth century and the work of the Ginner-Irene Mawer School can be said to form a link between Isadora Duncan and Rudolf Laban.

Irene Mawer's influence was felt around the world with students of the Institute of Mime teaching in South Africa, Costa Rica and Canada and in Australia and New Zealand and performing a mime play in Costa Rica.

Irene Mawer was the youngest of six children and survived her parents and all of her siblings.

In 1917, Irene Mawer married Robert Jacomb Norris Dale, who was killed in action during World War I, leaving her a widow after 10 months of marriage at the age of 24.

In 1930 Irene Mawer married for a second time, to fellow Londoner and widower, Mark Edward Perugini, a theatre historian, journalist, author and great nephew by marriage of Charles Dickens.

In December 1962, aged 69, Irene Mawer suffered a stroke and died in hospital in Oxford.

The Institute of Mime, which Irene Mawer founded in 1933, had a substantial list of supporters on its council and as its patrons.