Keith Fowler

Keith Fowler, former Head of Directing at UCI, passed away on December 30, 2023 at age 84. A classically trained actor and experimental director, he modeled how deep theatrical training and a commitment to innovative stage work could cement the theatre as a site of political and social critique and reimagining.

Born in San Francisco on February 23, 1939 to Jack Franklin and Jacqueline Hocking Montgomery Fowler, Fowler graduated from George Washington High School and San Francisco State University. Early exposure to theatre during his childhood brought Fowler to his first theatre work, performing children’s roles in San Francisco’s little theatres. He made his professional debuts at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 1958 and 1960, followed immediately by a Fulbright Grant that supported his directorial debut at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. Fowler returned to the US with a Shubert Scholarship to earn a Doctorate of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama, where he also studied with Lee Strasbourg at The Actors Studio in New York, and at Yale studied under Nikos Psacharopoulis, then director of the Williamstown Theater Festival.

Fowler began his teaching career in the Drama department at Williams College (1964-1968), during which time he also began making a name for himself as a professional director, mounting productions at the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Festival Theater in El Paso. His work was notable for its experimental, expressionist, and psychological qualities, as well as his facility working across a broad range of European and US playwrights.

In 1969 Fowler was appointed head of the Theater Arts division of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the artistic director of the Virginia Museum Theater (VMT, now known as the Cheek Theater). He quickly established it as Richmond’s first LORT theatre, recruited several New York-based actors as well as local professionals to its troupe, and upgraded its facilities. His debut production, of Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade was the first racially integrated company at VMT; the production itself was considered a major theatrical achievement that drew new audiences to the venue, even as its casting provoked some controversy. In 1973, Fowler again earned a great deal of critical acclaim for his Macbeth, which Clive Barnes described in the New York Times as “splendidly vigorous... probably the goriest Shakespearean production I have seen since Peter Brook’s ‘Titus Andronicus.’” (Feb 12, 1973, pg. 24) In 1977, he taught at Yale for a year, and then returned to Richmond to found the American Revels Company, which, located on the border between the historically Black Jackson Ward and the city’s business district, helped the city navigate a post-segregation identity through community-engaged theatre.

After Revel closed, Fowler was recruited by his Yale classmate, Robet Cohen, to join the faculty at UC Irvine in the early 1980s, where he built the Directing program into a major training center. Under his direction, the department took on forward-looking productions such as Büchner’s Woyzeck (in Fowler’s own translation), Müller's Hamletmachine, Stoppard's Arcadia and The Real Thing, Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, and Chekhov's Three Sisters. And in 1984, Fowler joined Jerzy Grotowski’s “Objective Drama” project in the Barn. From 1996 to 2004, Fowler was the original director of ArtsBridge America, an arts education and outreach program that started at UCI, and was then expanded to all UC campuses. Across his many MFA and undergraduate students, as well as the countless grade school students who benefitted from the ArtsBridge program, Fowler’s commitment to theatrical education made a lasting impact, that continues to manifest in theatre work across the US.

Fowler is survived by his wife, Janice Byrd Fowler, his sons Jeremy Fowler-Lindemulder (Karen) and Matthew Fowler, and grandchildren Ash, Gretel, and Chloe, as well as stepson Ed Glaser (Meagan). He is also remembered by his nephews and nieces Jason Selli, Kendra Crame, Jacqueline Fowler-Miller and their families, and his older half-brother, Gordon Pape.

Eli Simon, Chancellor’s Professor
Department of Drama

Richard Brestoff, Professor
Department of Drama

Philip Thompson, Professor
Department of Drama

Tara Rodman, Associate Professor
Department of Drama