Wolfe Bowart

Wolfe Bowart (born May 28, 1962) is a modern-day physical comedian, actor and playwright whose work is reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. His current touring productions include "LaLaLuna" and "The Shneedles". Wolfe Bowart is the son of counterculturalist Walter Bowart and Linda Dugmore, daughter of abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore.

Incorporating circus, comedy, theatre and film, Bowart’s "LaLaLuna" is a surreal tale about the night the light went out in the moon. "LaLaLuna" made its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall as part of 2007’s London International Mime Festival (see review [Liz Aratoon, [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/15742/lalaluna “LaLaLuna”] , "The Stage", January 29, 2007] ). Also in 2007, Bowart undertook a 40-performance national tour of Australia, and presented "LaLaLuna" at the Volos International Festival in Greece. [Sandra Voulari, [http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_civ_575644_07/12/2007_90950 “International Volos Festival makes Comeback”] , "Kathimerini", December 7, 2007]

In 2006, Bowart performed "LaLaLuna" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival, and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre during the production’s first Australian tour. Critic Fergus Shiel of The Age 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.” [Ari Sharp, [http://theprogram.net.au/reviewsSub.asp?id=3556&state=1 “Melbourne International Comedy Festival: LaLaLuna”] , "The Program", April 24, 2006]

As artistic director and co-creator of "The Shneedles", Bowart together with fellow clown Bill Robison have performed in Japan, Singapore, Australia (see review [Alison Cotes, [http://www.stagediary.com/reviews52.html#luggage “Luggage, The Shneedles”] , "Stage Diary", June 22, 2005] ), Germany, Austria, Spain, Iceland and the U.S. In 2007, The Shneedles completed a 6-month season in Germany for GOP-Varieté Theaters.

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-write and performed "Through the Sipapu" with Bill Robison and Steve White (Blue Man Group).

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 for the USA Network, which aired in March 1999. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163953/combined "The Net" (1998) ] ]

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" [Christopher Meeks, [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117902840.html?categoryid=33&cs=1 “Moon Over Madness”] , "Variety", June 20, 1994] at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood, and in "The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite" [Julio Martinez, [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117906246.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 “New Theatre for Now”] , "Variety", May 9, 1997] at the Mark Taper Forum.

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, 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.

Bowart graduated from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts and furthered his studies with mentors as diverse as performance artist Rachel Rosenthal and Cirque du Soleil’s Denis Lacombe.

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.australianstage.com.au/features/melbourne-interview/wolfe-bowart-568.html “Wolfe Bowart”] – "Australian Stage", August 1, 2007
* [http://www.cornish.edu/news/features/clowning_around.htm "Clowning Around"] - "Cornish College of the Arts News", January 2006
* [http://www.theblurb.com.au/Issue54/Shneedles.htm "Class Clowns"] - "The Blurb", issue 54, June 2005

External links

* [http://www.spoontree.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.lalaluna.com/ LaLaLuna website]
* [http://www.shneedles.com/ The Shneedles website]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_F_um8mZHo&feature=related/ The Shneedles on YouTube]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1184496/ Wolfe Bowart] at the Internet Movie Database