resume for phillip andrew bennett low

(founder/producer)

"...his ever-expanding skill and bending language to his will and slinging it at you from five different directions at once - that's the primary reason you should see his show. He is damn good at what he does. He is smart. He is funny. He is brilliant. No question."

-Matthew Everett, Twin Cities Daily Planet

Experience

1995-2002 Masque Theatre, Rochester, MN
Actor, Director, Playwright, Company Member, Dramaturg
-performed puppetry, storytelling, mime, and street theatre at various venues in SE MN
-director of the Mime Troupe and head of the Mime program
-performed in over 25 mainstage roles, including Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" and Ichabod Crane in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"
-directed and adapted various projects, including Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper

1996-2002, 2006 Renaissance Festival, Shakopee, MN
Street and Stage Entertainer
-wrote, developed, and performed comic adaptations of myths and fairy tales, including the ancient Norse Eddas and Moliere's The Flying Doctor
-helped earn the company a special "Gem" award for street improvisation

2004-2009 Maximum Verbosity, Minneapolis, MN
Actor, Director, Playwright, Producer, Founder
-wrote book and lyrics for the slapstick musical "Lokasenna" (2004 Fringe Festival)
-wrote and directed the expressionistic verse tragedy "Camelot is Crumbling" (2005 Fringe Festival)
-wrote and performed the mime show "Warrior Needs Food, Badly" (2006 FoolFest)
-wrote and performed the solo storytelling show "Descendant of Dragons" (2007 Iowa and Minnesota Fringe Festivals; bestselling show in its venue in the latter, awarded with a coveted Encore slot; 2009 Kansas City Fringe Festival)
-wrote and performed the solo show "The Secret Book of Jesus" (2008 Spirit in the House Festival)
-wrote and directed the political sketch comedy "All Rights Reserved: A Libertarian Rage" (2008 Kansas City and Minnesota Fringe Festivals)
-wrote and performed the solo show "The Rise of General Arthur (2009 DC, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Melbourne, and Minnesota Fringe Festivals; nominated for Outstanding Spoken Word Performance by FringeFamous)

2005-2009 Other
-director of "Fortune's Fools," a youth troupe at the Rochester Civic Theatre
-theatre critic for the Ivey Awards, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and the Twin Cities Daily Planet
-production assistant and stage manager for Holly Davis Productions, a religious theatre company
-co-founder and Chair of the Rockstar Storytellers, a collective of bestselling solo performers

Training

-studied mime from Kari Margolis (co-founder of the Margolis-Brown Performance Company), Mikael Rudolph, and extensively from Steve Budas (both Marceau-trained mimes)
-clowning workshops from Pierre Byland and Jon Ferguson, both European clowns
-studied Commedia Dell'Arte from Luverne Seiffert and Dominique Serrand, both company members at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, a Lecoq-based physical theatre

Special Skills

Puppetry, Improvisation, Lecoq-based Clowning, Decroux-based Mime, Mask Construction and Performance, Tae Kwon Doe (red belt), Tai Chi Chuan, Gymnastics, Juggling, Fencing, Stage Combat, Commedia Dell'Arte, Poetry Composition and Performance, Storytelling