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Paul Bawek, MFA

Associate Professor of Theatre Arts

Bawek

I train students how to think, not what to think. I cannot teach anyone anything, but only facilitate active learning. Students are required to explore key elements through experiential exercises, and then to apply them in performances and written assignments. Whether students are performing a scene/monologue, directing a scene, analyzing scripts, or writing-critical analysis and presenting oral reports of findings, the student is the responsible agent. They are accountable for understanding methodologies explored and demonstrating them for critical review.

-Paul Bawek

Buckner Theatre - 123

 863.680.4184

Biography

Paul D. Bawek (AEA) is a professional actor, director, playwright, and acting coach. For over twenty-five years he’s taught acting, auditioning for the stage and screen, playwriting, and directing courses at theatres and educational institutions across the nation and abroad. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California-Davis, an MFA in Directing from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, and his teaching certification in the Michael Chekhov Technique of Acting from the University of Southern Maine and the National Michael Chekhov Association.

Professionally produced plays include: CrossRoads starring Colin Hanks, and Falsies at the Studio Theatre in Sacramento, California, The Cabin & Changes at the Marion Civic Center in Marion, Illinois, and No Fault on WSIU-TV in Illinois. Mr. Bawek also co-authored the scripts for Jack London Tales, Gold Country Tales, and Twain Tales, which played at schools throughout Northern California. His play Dawn in Nevada, was a semi-finalist in the New Play Project at the Back Door Theatre, and was awarded third place in The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s National One Act Playwriting Competition.

As an actor, Mr. Bawek worked at the B Street Theatre where he co-starred with Timothy Busfield (Studio 60) in the world premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s (West Wing) full-length version of Hidden in This Picture, at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London, UK, where he worked on the world premiere of Dare, and at The Studio Theatre, The Fantasy Theatre, and Santa Rosa Repertory Theatre. He was the commercial spokesperson for The Bank of Stockton, United Interstate Financial, Port of Subs, and a reporter/interviewer of the Oakland A’s baseball players for KSCH TV in Northern California.

Mr. Bawek's professional and academic directing credits include, the world premiere of the British comedy Average at the Bolivar Theatre in London, UK, and CrossRoads, at the Studio Theatre in Sacramento, CA. Other directing credits include work at The Magic Circle Repertory, The Studio of Arts, Fair Oaks Civic Theatre, American River College, and Southwest Minnesota State University, where two of his productions received Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival awards for best ensemble acting.

Education

  • M.F.A,  Directing, Southern Illinois University
  • M.F.A., Acting, University of California, Davis
  • B.A., Dramatic Art, California State University

Awards

  • Biography included in Marquis Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World since 2011
  • Winner of the Ben and Janice Wade Award for excellence in teaching, Florida Southern College
  • Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Award for Fight Choreography (Rapier and Dagger) in “Romeo and Juliet”
  • Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Award for Best Ensemble Acting in his production of “The Boys Next Door”
  • “Dawn in Nevada” (Full-Length) was a semi-finalist in the New Play Project at Back Door Theatre, and received Honorable mention at Stage 3 Theatre’s Festival of New Plays
  • “Dawn in Nevada” (one-act) was awarded third place in The Little Theatre of Alexandria’s National One Act Playwriting Competition, and received Honorable Mention in the One-Act Festival at First Stage Theatre in Los Angeles

Publications

“Active Monologues That Directors Want to Hear, New In The Moment Monologues That Will Land You the Role”, Bell Crandall Publishing, 2014

“Mithridatism”, The Playwright’s Center Monologues for Women, Edited by Kristen Gandrow and Polly K. Carl, Heinemann Publisher, 2005

“The Director as Storyteller: The Stage Direction of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain” Southern Illinois Press, August 22, 2000

“Change,” Undercurrents - A Faculty Literary Review, Vol. 5, No 2, fall 1998. Tom King Publisher

“First Kiss,” Undercurrents - A Faculty Literary Review, Vol. 4, No 2, fall 1997. Tom King Publisher