By Spenser Bailey
Title: Deborah Langerman Papers, 1964-2008
ID: 26/20/232
Primary Creator: Deborah Langerman
Other Creators: Bob Feldman, Jeff Glassman (1949-), United Mime Workers (1971-1986)
Extent: 4.3 cubic feet
Arrangement: By subject and format; then alphabetical
Date Acquired: 10/01/2020. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Alumni, Kabuki, Theatre, University Theatre
Papers of Deborah Langerman (BS 1972, Communications; MS 1990, Library Science) consist of material relating to the United Mime Workers, a mime troupe that she co-founded at the University in the early 1970s and of which she remained a principal member. This takes the form of advertisements, brochures (some under the group's original name, the Hard Core/Hardcore Mime Troupe), budgets, contracts, correspondence, photos, recordings (both audio and video), scripts, and miscellaneous documents.
The rest of the material relates to Langerman's work after the United Mime Workers, which sometimes carried the label "Once Upon a Time... Once Upon a Mime." This consists of programs, contracts, logistical information, news articles, and thank-you letters. Additionally, some material dates from her years at Evanston Township High School.
Deborah Langerman graduated from the University of Illinois in 1972 with a BS in Communications, and began a long and fruitful career as a mime and performing artist. She cofounded the United Mime Workers, a performing arts group, with Bob Feldman and Jeff Glassman, and they performed across the United States and the world until 1986. Later, she returned to the University of Illinois and graduated with a M.S. in Library Science in 1990. After the United Mime Workers ceased operations, she developed and toured a solo act titled "Once Upon a Time... Once Upon a Mime" at schools across the Midwest.
Repository: University of Illinois Archives
Acquisition Source: Deborah Langerman
Related Materials:
United Mime Workers Records, 41/75/47
URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/2620232.pdf
PDF finding aid for Deborah Langerman Papers (26/20/232)