TJ senior Jeanette Rice recently received an Individual All-State nomination for her solo mime titled Black Friday Line.

A solo mime is an art of expressing a message or story without the use of words. The use of facial expressions, hand gestures, and body language are some of the skills needed for being a great mime artist.

“First you have to come up with an idea and that kind of takes a little bit, and then you have to set your characters, then kind of write out your mime just like you were to write a play,” said Rice.

Jeanette’s solo mime was about people you meet on Black Friday. Throughout the solo mime different types of characters were introduced. The first character was a man being a slob and eating a burger. The next character is a tired man trying to read a newspaper. A teen is then introduced as someone texting and taking selfies along with a woman feeding her child.

Rice said that she chose to do solo mime for the freedom of working with her own schedule rather than having to work around other people and being able to practice when she is able to.

“My mom did solo mime when she was in high school and so I decided to do it as well,” said Rice.

“I do plan on going to college but not for this. I’m planning on going to become a statistician and I’m going to study mathematics and stats.”

Rice also talked about how she felt at the State contest when the judges rated her performance.

“I got a one so that was really exciting and really promising that I would get an All-State nomination,” said Rice.

Unfortunately, this year Jeanette will be unable to travel to compete against others for the banner.

Mr. Schmidt, the head speech coach, talked about what he thought of Jeanette’s solo mime performance.

“I’m very proud of Jeanette,” said Schmidt. “She wore a clear mask so the judges could see her facial expressions. She had a very clear storyline and included humor in her piece. Those are big things that the judges look for. She has a natural ability when it comes to mime. It’s not an easy category to do. I wish she wasn’t a senior and that I had more time to work with her,” he added.

“In a normal year, we would travel to the Iowa State Center to compete against other schools in her event,” Schmidt said of the competition. “All performers receive an All-State medal. We can also purchase an All-State participants banner like those hanging in the lunchroom. We have her medal, but not the banner yet.”

“At the close of the contest, the solo mime critic would pick the best performance and that school would receive a traveling banner to keep for the school year, and the school is invited back to present the banner at next year’s festival,” said Schmidt.

“Since there was no festival this year the school that won the banner last year will keep until next year’s contest. That was West Des Moines Valley,” said Schmidt.