Wolfe Bowart
Encyclopedia
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
whose work is reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
and Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
. His current touring productions include Letter's End, LaLaLuna and The Man the Sea Saw. Wolfe Bowart is the son of counterculturalist
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
Walter Bowart
Walter Bowart
Walter Howard Bowart was an American leader in the counterculture movement of the 1960s, founder and editor of the first underground newspaper in New York City, the East Village Other, and author of the book Operation Mind Control.-Life and career:Born Walter Howard Kirby in Omaha, Nebraska,...
and Linda Dugmore, daughter of abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore
Edward Dugmore
Edward Dugmore was an abstract expressionist painter known for close ties to both the San Francisco and New York art worlds in post-war era following World War II. Since 1950 he had more than two dozen solo exhibitions of his paintings in galleries across the United States...
.
Letter's End
Incorporating circus, comedy, theatre and film, Bowart’s production Letter's End is a wildly off-kilter take on the lost-letter office. Letter's End made its U.S. premiere in January 2009 in Tucson, Arizona. Bowart's company SpoonTree Productions was awarded a grant from the Australian government to tour Letter's End nationally in 2009. The tour spanned five and a half months and incorporated 43 venues and 91 performances (hear review). In August 2010, Letter's End was nominated for a Helpmann AwardHelpmann Award
The Helpmann Awards recognize distinguished artistic achievement and excellence in Australia's live performing arts sectors. The recognized disciplines include musical and physical theatre, contemporary and classical music, opera, and dance, with a comedy category introduced in 2006...
in the category of Best Touring Production.
LaLaLuna
In 2006, Bowart presented LaLaLuna, a surreal tale about the night the light went out in the moon, at the Melbourne International Comedy FestivalMelbourne International Comedy Festival
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the third-largest international comedy festival in the world and the largest cultural event in Australia. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks in April typically opening on or around April Fool's Day...
, the Adelaide Fringe Festival
Adelaide Fringe Festival
The Adelaide Fringe Festival is an arts festival held annually in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. The event is the Southern Hemisphere's largest arts event and the second-largest fringe festival in the world, second in size only to the Edinburgh Fringe...
, and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre
Queensland Performing Arts Centre
The Queensland Performing Arts Centre is part of the Queensland Cultural Centre and is located on the corner of Melbourne Street and Grey Street in Brisbane's South Bank precinct....
during the production’s first Australian tour. Critic Fergus Shiel of The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
proclaimed the show “luminously inventive and magically silly” and Ari Sharp of The Program wrote “Bowart is the ultimate physical performer. He has a breathtaking awareness of his own body, and glides effortlessly across the stage with balletic skill. His sleight-of-hand is magnificent and fits in so neatly that you sometimes barely notice that it’s there, which allows the audience to be swept away in the dreamy mystique that Bowart seeks to create.”
In 2007, LaLaLuna made its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
as part of the London International Mime Festival
London International Mime Festival
The London International Mime Festival is an annual theatre event in London. Its directors are Joseph Seelig and Helen Lannaghan, winners of the International Theatre Institute Award for Excellence....
(see review). Bowart also undertook a 40-performance national tour of Australia, and presented LaLaLuna at the Volos International Festival in Greece. In 2008, Bowart performed LaLaLuna in Hong Kong, New Zealand, Greece and Brazil and returned to Australia for seasons in Sydney (see review), Hobart and in Melbourne at the Melbourne Arts Centre. Bowart’s 2009 UK tour included performances at the Theatre Royal, Bath
Theatre Royal, Bath
The Theatre Royal in Bath, England, is over 200 years old. It is one of the more important theatres in the United Kingdom outside London, with capacity for an audience of around 900....
, where LaLaLuna headlined the inaugural Family Theatre Festival. In 2010, Bowart premiered LaLaLuna in New Zealand and Austria, and returned to the UK, where the production was part of the Brighton Festival
Brighton Festival
The Brighton Festival is an annual arts festival which takes place in the city of Brighton and Hove in England each May. It was founded in 1966, and is the largest multi-art form festival in England...
(curated that year by Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
), and the Salisbury International Arts Festival
Salisbury International Arts Festival
Salisbury International Arts Festival is an annual multi-arts festival that delivers over 120 arts events each year, including concerts, comedy, poetry, dance, exhibitions, outdoor spectacles, and commissioned works....
.
The Shneedles
As artistic director and co-creator of The Shneedles, Bowart, together with fellow clown Bill RobisonBill Robison
Bill Robison is an American physical theatre artist.- Career :Bill Robison is an American physical comedian. He is one of the two clowns that make up the performance team, The Shneedles, with whom he has traveled the world. Their show "Luggage" has toured in several countries...
, have performed in Japan, Singapore, Australia (see review), Germany, Austria, Spain, Iceland and the U.S. The Shneedles most recently completed a 6-month season in Germany in 2007 for GOP-Varieté Theaters.
Collaborations
As a performer/playwright, Wolfe Bowart’s previous work has been produced for the theatre throughout the U.S. In 1994, the Mark Taper Forum's youth theater, Performing for Los Angeles Youth, presented the premiere of Harold's Big Feat. The play was written and performed by Bowart and directed by Peter Brosius. In 1997, Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis produced Table Settings. In 1998, the California Youth Theatre commissioned Seven Baskets for Khalid, and in 2004, Maine’s Arts Centre at Kingdom Falls commissioned and produced Bowart and performer Beverly Mann in The Daft and the Daring. Bowart’s play Lemmings and Pallbearers won the Best of the Festival at the New City Theatre Festival in Seattle. Also in Seattle, Bowart co-wrote and performed Through the Sipapu with Bill Robison and Steve White (Blue Man GroupBlue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...
).
Bowart has co-written several motion picture and television screenplays on assignment, including “eye-see-you.com,” the season finale episode of the television series The Net
The Net (TV series)
The Net is a 1998 television drama series based on the 1995 film of the same name. The series starred Brooke Langton as Angela Bennett, the character Sandra Bullock played in the film...
for the USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
, which aired in March 1999.
Actor/Director/Artist
As an actor in the U.S., Bowart has guest-starred on TV programs on ABC, CNBC, the Disney Channel and PBS. On the stage, he has performed in such productions as Moon Over Madness at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, and in The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite at the Mark Taper ForumMark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
.
As a director and artist-in-residence, Bowart has brought physical theatre to people of all ages in conjunction with the Los Angeles Music Center
Los Angeles Music Center
The Music Center is one of the three largest performing arts centers in the nation. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center is home to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ahmanson Theater, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, Wolf Trap, the Ahmanson Theatre, the Playwrights Project, California Youth Theatre, the Virginia Avenue Project, the Mark Taper Forum and Australia’s National Institute of Circus Arts
National Institute of Circus Arts
The National Institute of Circus Arts is the only government-accredited institution that provides professional training in contemporary circus arts in Australia. It is a subsidiary of Swinburne University of Technology and is based at the university's Prahran campus.NICA is a registered cultural...
.
Bowart graduated from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts
Cornish College of the Arts
-Library:The library at Cornish College specializes in art, dance, design, music, performance production, and theatre. As of 2011 it holds 4700 CDs, 40,000 books, has 2,200 videos, and subscribes to 154 periodicals...
and furthered his studies with mentors as diverse as performance artist Rachel Rosenthal
Rachel Rosenthal
Rachel Rosenthal is an interdisciplinary artist, a teacher, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles, California. She is also known for her smoothly shaven head. She is best known for her full-length performance art pieces which she has toured, with The Rachel Rosenthal Company, to numerous...
and Cirque du Soleil’s Denis Lacombe.
External links
- Official website
- Letter's End website
- LaLaLuna website
- The Shneedles website
- The Shneedles on YouTube
- Wolfe Bowart at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...