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Hailed by critics as the most accomplished and renowned mime of his generation, Bill Bowers currently performs and teaches the art of physical storytelling throughout the world. His methods and exploration of universal truths transcend the spoken word to educate and touch audiences in countries as varied as China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Poland, The Netherlands, Scotland, Japan, Macedonia, Romania, Italy, Norway, Germany and Austria. An award-winning actor, Bowers has also performed in all 50 United States and Puerto Rico appearing on the stages of Broadway, The Kennedy Center, The White House, Steppenwolf, LaMaMa, Theatre for a New Audience, St. Anne's Warehouse, Urban Stages, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ensemble Studio Theater, Radio City Music Hall, HERE, and the New York International Fringe Festival. His Broadway credits include Zazu in The Lion King and Leggett in The Scarlet Pimpernel. He has also portrayed the great silent clowns: Charlie Chaplin in the world premiere of Little Tramp, Pierrot in the world premiere of Beethoven N Pierrot, and Petruchka with The Colorado Symphony. A passionate student and educator, Bowers studied with the legendary Marcel Marceau and currently serves on the faculties of New York University, Stella Adler Conservatory, and William Esper Studios. He was also a Visiting Professor at Williams College. He holds an MFA from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts, and an Honorary PhD from Rocky Mountain College.
BACKGROUND & APPROACH Bowers was born and raised in the wilds of one of the quietest places on earth, "Big Sky Country" Montana. Growing up before the advent of Facebook, Glee or the Oprah Winfrey Show, his childhood was surrounded by circles of silence and conformity. For Bowers, coming to terms with being gay in a small western town also meant keeping secrets in order to survive. This mix of inaudible mayhem, humanity and beauty led him to explore and love the meanings and physicality of the unspoken. At a young age, he would find his way to the art of mime. Today, the opportunity to make the ancient art form of mime accessible to a contemporary audience drives his professional artistry. Bowers is a mime who also talks, deftly interspersing narrative with stunning visual portraits. He marries classical aspects with contemporary sound effects and music, poses present-day considerations through physical tapestries, and invites a wholly transformative look at the humor, pain and beauty of our humanity through simplicity and grace.
ORIGINAL WORKS
In 2013, Bowers garnered 5-star accolades across the board at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for his solo show, It Goes Without Saying. He has been creating theatrical works and performing them in Off Broadway venues and theaters around the world for over twenty years. His writings draw from a mix of autobiographical anecdotes, literature, current events and other people's life experiences. In particular, his is a growing anthology of stories that are hard to put into words, or that are rarely, if ever, expressed:
UNDER A MONTANA MOON (2000) - a collection of silent stories that all occur under a Western Sky and look at the experiences of being silenced, remaining silent and silencing someone else. The germinal stage of this play began while Bowers was in residence at Harvard University as part of Anna Deavere Smith's Institute for Arts and Civic Dialogue.
'NIGHT SWEET HEART, 'NIGHT BUTTERCUP (2001) - a two-character play that focuses on sexual abuse in a family, and its effect on the two siblings who hold the secret. One character is heard, and the other character is seen, as they attempt to connect their childhood memories and move on in their adult lives.
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING (2006) - an autobiographical solo play that takes the audience on a scenic tour of Bowers' life and career, from growing up gay to outrageous survival jobs, to the whirlwind of working on Broadway. In addition to the journey of becoming an artist, IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING chronicles the experience of surviving the AIDS crisis in New York City, and the silence that existed within his experience of caring for and losing his partner to AIDS. BEYOND WORDS (2011) is a solo piece that focuses on the journey from boyhood to manhood, the societal messages imparted to boys and men about masculinity in America, and facing the choice of transgression.
HEYOKAH HOKEHAY (2008) Inspired by a traditional Native American figure, the Heyokah (contrary clown), Bowers has also created an interactive ensemble play, HEYOKAH HOKEHAY, which has been produced in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and the Edinburgh Fringe.
ALL OVER THE MAP (2016) 50 states, 30 years on the road, 25 countries, 2 hookers, 1 bunny, and a mime. Bill Bowers takes you places so unbelievable they could only be true. Bowers has performed on Broadway, at The Kennedy Center, the White House, and in some of the finest grade school cafetoriums across the country. In All Over The Map, he shares indelible memories and characters who will stay with you long after lights up.
JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN (2017) Bowers is working to expand his exploration of masculinity through their stories of loss and survival, identity and self-perceptions, and how manhood is measured in our country. He is concurrently developing a physical theatre version of Dalton Trumbo's anti-war book, Johnny Got His Gun, supported by a Individual artist grant from NYSCA (NY State Council on the Arts.) While an Artist in Residence at the Harold Clurman Center for New Works in Dance and Movement Johnny Got His Gun was workshopped and then received a full production in 2016. In 2017 Johnny Got His Gun was produced by the Tisch Graduate School of Acting.
OTHER PROJECTS:
Bill is the Movement Director for Pips Island, an interactive, immersive show for young audiences. It is an open-ended run Off Broadway in a permanent location on Theatre Row in NYC.
Bill has been commissioned by the New York City Children's Theatre to create an original mime play for young audiences that will premiere in NYC in 2019. It is currenty titled BIVOUAC. He is the Movement Director for FINDING HOME at NYU Steinhardt School of Music, a devised musical production about asylum seekers and the refugee experience.
In 2015 Bowers completed residencies in Northeastern Montana performing and teaching in underserved communities, funded in part by WESTAF (Western Arts Foundation), and also as a teaching artist for the Hurricane Sandy Arts Initiative/ Arts as Healing. Bowers was in residency for a month at the elementary school in Lavallette New Jersey, a community devastated by the hurricane. With the students, he devised an evening of Mime and Storytelling entitled Lavallette: Then and Now.
REPRESENTIVE REVIEWS:
THE NEW YORK TIMES "To watch Bill Bowers… is to see the technical elements of a style that brings Marcel Marceau readily to mind, joined to the American West. Mime can be wonderful - the air between him and us is his palette."
The Huffington Post "With a combination of evocative physical theater and story-telling charm, Bowers slowly but surely turns an audience from knowing laughter toward something close to universal truth. … beyond amazing."
THE SCOTSMAN "Bowers vividly describes the breakdown of language and the survival of love through touch and learned movement alone. He delivers it with subtle, delicate gestures of his own which enrich the telling of it immeasurably."
WASHINGTON SQUARE NEWS: Bill Bowers is not your typical mime… he offers a taste of his life through a series of David-Sedaris-esque chronicles - sidesplittingly funny and tear-jerking at the same time.
THEATRE GUIDE LONDON "…a spellbinding hour of vignettes and true tales…"
DALLAS ARTS EXAMINER "…poignant, fresh, absorbing, empathic, hilarious, and ingenius... Bowers transforms the stage into a realm of revelation…"
CHERRY JONES, ACTRESS "Bill Bowers is joy, wit, wisdom, compassion incarnate and his physicality is the closest any of us will come to flying without wings."
NEW YORK POST "He presents a portrait of small-town America filtered through his own experiences that's both moving and funny. Bowers effortlessly brings us to laughter and tears, often at the same time."
Terrence McNally, PLAYWRIGHT "Bill Bowers is a real theatre artist. Working with the simplest of tools, he creates a world of poetry, meaning and deep emotion."
LAURA LINNEY, ACTRESS "…his stories will lovingly take your breath away."
ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, Playwright and Actress Bill Bowers is a wonderful mixture of skill and diligence, humor and heart- a real artist for humans. He makes you laugh and cry, and think, all in one swoop.