If you don’t know Bill Irwin, today is your lucky day to learn about him. Bill is a clowning (actor) genius. He is someone from whom I learn comic timing; the importance & necessity of PRECISION of the body on stage; INTENTION of physical movement on the stage; ATTENTION to “the moment” of story; COUNTENANCE (the face); GESTURE (the body); the beauty of SILENCE; the great privilege to SPEAK; the honor to PERFORM on a big wooded area called a STAGE. He demonstrates what it is to possess GRACE and GRATITUDE as a performer. His work is NEVER “half-way” nor is a corner ever cut. He services audiences on stage & screen that suggests he is there to GIVE, not to GET. He teaches us all what it is to be HUMAN! Who better artist to highlight in the times we face in the history of our world?
ABOUT BILL IRWIN
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, BILL!
Bill Irwin was born on April 11, 1950, in Santa Monica, California, to Elizabeth (Mills), a teacher, and Horace G. Irwin, an aerospace engineer. He is the oldest of three children, and is of English, Irish, and German descent. Irwin spent a year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as an exchange student. He is a graduate in theatre arts from Oberlin College, OH, a graduate of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College, FL, and received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1984.
BILL IRWIN TRIVIA
Selected for the International Clown Hall Of Fame, and was inducted August 7, 1999.
In 1989, was nominated for four Tony Awards for "Largely New York": as author of a Best Play nominee, Best Actor (Play), Best Director (Play) and, with collaborator Kimi Okada, Best Choreographer. In 1999, his show "Fool Moon" won a Special Tony Award for Live Theatrical Presentation.
Won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, for his performance as George in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'.
He was awarded the 1994 Drama-Logue Award for Performance for "Fool Moon" in presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson at the James A. Doolittle (University of California) Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
David Shiner and his play, "Fool Moon" in presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson at the James A. Doolittle (University of California) Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded 1994 Los Angeles Alliance Ovation Theatre Award for Play (Large Theatre) .
He and David Shiner of "Fool Moon" in presented by the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson at the James A. Doolittle (University of California) Theatre in Los Angeles, California was awarded 1994 Los Angeles Alliance Ovation Theatre Award for Director.
M.C. O'Connor, Doug Skinner and he were awarded the 1983 Drama Logue Award for Outstanding Creation and Performance for their play, "The Regards of Flight," in a Mark Taper Forum production at the Mark Taper Forum Too Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
M.C. O'Connor, Doug Skinner and he were awarded the 1983 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Creation and Performance for "The Regard of Flight" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
NEW YORK TIMES QUOTE
"Whether doing classic mime ("Fool Moon") or children's television ("Sesame Street"), this uncanny comic actor has always exuded the sense that he is listening to music that no one else can hear." - The New York Times
WHAT I WISH FOR YOU
I wish you a BILL IRWIN kind of day of focused attention and intention - like the way you pick up a cup, or the way you wash your hands, or the way you respond to someone calling your name. These moments of movement and awareness can remind you who you, remind you of the gift of movement, remind you how lucky we are to be alive.