Robert Yowell
Acting and Directing
Robert.Yowell@nau.edu
Homepage: www2.nau.edu/~rly
(928) 523-2279
Bob Yowell teaches academic courses in acting, directing, dramatic literature, oral interpretation, improvisation and voice. His PhD is from Bowling Green State University, his MA from St. Louis University, and his BA is from Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Yowell has served as a chairman of theater and dance at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and California State University, San Bernardino. He was also the director of the School of Performing Arts at Northern Arizona University.
He has authored articles on theater as a learning medium, theater education, directing, and dramatic literature. His book, Stepping Out: An Introduction to the Arts is a text for an introductory course in the arts. He has received grants from Ford, Rockefeller, and several regional granting foundations. He has written original plays and toured a production that he wrote about the great painter of the American West, Charlie Russell, entitled Montana Love Story to Montana. This play has been produced by the Orison Professional Theater Group in Los Angeles. His play, Mother Jones is about Mary Harris (Mother Jones) the great labor organizer. Most recently he has written a script based on the life of Ella Fitzgerald and a short play entitled Liver and Onions.
He has acted in many plays, most recently performing in Brecht’s Galileo and a new play entitled Atomic Bombers. He has directed more than 100 plays. His 2006 production of He Who Gets Slapped was selected to perform at the regional American College Theater Festival at Southern Utah University. He has had six productions that have been invited to regional festivals and his 1994 production of El Paso Blue by Octavio Solis was a national winner with the American College Theater Festival and it performed at the Kennedy Center in our nation’s capital. In 1995 he created Theatre for Social Change, a touring company that used theater to dramatize social problems. He has held many leadership positions in professional theater organizations.
Presently, he is the past president of the NAU Faculty Senate and serves as the Arizona chair for the American College Theatre Festival. He recently returned from sabbatical in Los Angeles were he studied acting with the nationally noted actor and acting teaching Eric Morris and improvisation at the ImproWorks. He also interned with Hollywood Casting Director Mali Finn, who cast the blockbuster movie Titanic and many other Hollywood hits. His wife, Marsha, is an attorney who teaches law related courses in the School of Communication at NAU. He has two sons, Bobby and Patrick.
