Center Road School Kindergarteners Have a Little Mime Time

Lenka Pichlikova hopped put of her hiding place and began her mime routine.

The kindergarteners in front of her at Center Road School were immediately mesmerized.

Suddenly, she produced a box and opened it to reveal the word "voice" printed under the cover. She took something out of the box, put it in her mouth and - poof - she was able to talk again.

Voice box was now the vocabulary entry of the day.

Pichlikova, an actress, mime, director and teacher, was on hand at Center Road Wednesday to give the kindergarteners an up-close look at mimes, clowns and other performers in preparation for an upcoming field trip to the Ringling Bros. and and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

She told the children she speaks Czech fluently and asked them what languages they could speak.

"Mime is a language we all can understand," she said after getting a variety of answers.

Shen then went in and out of the voice box, with demonstrations on things like brushing teeth. The children were then called pun to act out scenes of their choice. One made brownies, one drank water and another pulled on a rope.

Pichlokova then went into clown mode and by the end of the session, each kindergartener was part of a circus act.

for another peek at Pichlikova as a mime - and as Mother Goose and a holiday storyteller, visit her Web site at www.lenkashows.com.