Storytelling in motion

Bill Bowers stays busy both as a mime — he’s one of only a few in the tight-knit U.S. community — and teaching the craft in three New York City schools and in workshops around the country. He’ll lead a class on creating solo work at Asheville’s NYS3 Studios (2002 Riverside Drive, Studio 42-O) Sunday, Jan. 10, from noon to 3 p.m.

“There’s a lot of folks out there who have stories they want to tell, and they’re trying to figure out how to tell them. So, we look at ways that physical theater can help you figure out what you want to say,” Bowers says. “For me, it’s going to be workshop in storytelling using the body, not necessarily the voice, and how those worlds kind of can come together and come apart in verbal and nonverbal storytelling.”

Bowers promises a fun, interactive afternoon with lots of group activities, so attendees don’t have to worry about being alone. “When you do theater, you’re putting on a play, and I think it’s really important to kind of start with that idea of a childlike sense of wonder and sense of play,” he says. “I think it’s one of the things we don’t get to do much as grownups.”

A self-taught mime, Bowers trained with Marcel Marceau in the last years of Marceau’s life. It’s an education that deeply shaped Bowers’ teaching philosophy. “It was a very non-nurturing experience — that’s the most polite way I can say it. I was dealing with a very old, famous French person who taught like he was from another time. He taught in the traditional master class style, and it was very unwelcoming,” Bowers says. “I want to be the antithesis of that. I really approach pantomime as it’s the language that we all have because it’s our first language — the language you know before you learn how to speak. So, I try to make the art of physical theater very accessible and very fun and very much about who you are as a person.”

The cost of the workshop is $30. Register at nys3.com or call 276-1212. —E.A.