It Goes Without Saying - Bill Bowers and Self-Discovery

The morning following a show in Wyoming, Bill Bowers said he was surprised by the reaction his performance received. The town reminded him of a childhood spent in Montana – Midwestern and conventional – where quiet and isolation once threatened to define him. But as he took the stage, unsure of what to expect, the crowd embraced him, embraced his story.

Bowers has been on the road for much of the past few years, touring the country with his one-man show It Goes Without Saying. He’s performed in 48 cities across 20 states, telling his story and connecting everywhere he goes with the thousands who have come to share the journey.

Now he’s reached Red Bank. Bowers, a trained mime, will perform his show – which features him speaking, interestingly enough – at the beginning Thursday and ending Sunday.

  Born of experience and a love for story telling, Bower’s play is one that promises, more than anything, honesty. It’s both the story of a man’s retreat inward and eventual path to self-discovery.

“There’s something about bringing an honest story to the stage that really opens people up,” he said. “I’ve had the experience of people coming up to me and telling me their stories. Everyone has something in life that is a challenge. And that’s why I think it works. There’s a universal appeal to it.”

There have always been those funny moments, well, moments now funny in retrospect, the kind of moments that endear Bowers to his audience. Struggling performers do what they can to make a living, he said. There was the time Bowers stood on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike in a cape and blue tights. Seatbelt Man they called him.

In time, successes have come. Bowers has performed on Broadway in the stage adaptation of Lion King and trained under arguably history’s most famous mime, Marcel Marceau. But that’s not what this is about, entirely. There have also been many personal discoveries, and the personal tragedies that often precede them, but this isn’t about that either, entirely.

The play has been a work in progress, developed in front of an audience for much of the past decade.

“I really didn’t want this play to be like (stage therapy),” he said. “What does that say to an audience? It’s totally a piece of theater, it just happens to be based on my own experience. I’m not interested in airing my laundry in front of people. How do we make this inspired by my life, but not my life?”

Though struggles and tragedies have played important roles in his life, they have not crushed him. As a gay kid growing up in Montana, Bowers was drawn to the performances of silent movie stars like Charlie Chaplin.

Silence, he said, was a language that he could understand.

In silence, Bowers found expression. In high school he studied the art of miming. Still just a teenager, his mother – not completely understanding what he was going through but trying to help her son anyway – bought him a ticket to see Marceau perform. The experience, and the 800-mile round trip bus ride, was all Bowers needed to know that he would be a performer.

In performance, and a move to New York City, Bowers discovered his calling and found he could finally express himself. Now 51, Bowers hopes his story will help children the same way Marceau’s performance helped him those decades ago.

It’s more than just telling people he’s gay, it’s about relating context and the experience of being gay. Living through an age of silence, only to meet the AIDS epidemic – and losing his partner to the disease – Bowers said there’s a history that needs to be imparted. Children growing up gay now aren’t the first, and they won’t be the last.

“I like that conversation with kids. I like telling them ‘this is what I went through.’ It gives some perspective on how far it has come. I just feel like that’s part of what I want to be doing, continuing their education,” he said. “I do a lot of teaching and traveling, and I end up meeting a lot of young people. I made this decision to tell people I was gay. I figured I was going to make that choice.”

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by visiting Two River Theater's website.