Kevin Bowen is a playwright and songwriter living in Eagan, Minnesota. He also works as a professional graphic designer at Bowen Design (www.kevinbowendesign.com), which he started and has operated since 1995. He is a member of the Playwright’s Center and the Minnesota Association of Songwriters where he formerly served as their Treasurer. His plays and musicals have been produced and staged throughout Minnesota.
For more information about any of these completed plays or the new works, please email Kevin at: tctheater@gmail.com
Plays
During the Roaring Twenties, Wilbur Burton Foshay was an ambitious and successful businessman. He opened the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis and was on his way to becoming one of the richest people in the world. Fate, however, and the Great Depression had other plans for him. This world premiere new musical is the true story of a man who, by losing everything, finds himself.
Featuring 31 original songs, Foshay! A New Musical was Mr. Bowen's third full-length musical production. It ran (10 shows) July 21, 2023 through July 30, 2023 at Open Window Theatre, 5300 South Robert Trail, Grove Heights, Minnesota MN and featured the following production team:
Book: Kevin & Lynn Bowen, based on an original concept by Tim Colby
Music and Lyrics: Kevin Bowen
Director: Amanda Weis
Arrangements: William W. Brueggemann, David Neville, Travis Anderson
Music Director and Pianist: Anna Murphy
Music Assistant: Jean Orbison Van Heel
Scenic and Props Design: Nate Farley
Assistant Scenic and Props: Tim Colby
Costume Design: Marybeth Schmid
Lighting Design: Alex Clark
Sound Design: Jeremy Stanbary
Stage Manager: Kathryn Humnick
Assistant Stage Manager: Lauren Volkart.
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
In this true story, a young Midwestern man (Mark Forgy) chronicles his life on the Mediterranean Island of Ibiza where he befriends, and then ends up working for a man who's life holds many secrets; Elmyr de Hory, the artist known as "The World's Greatest Art Forger."
For information about producing a remount of the 60-Minute One Act or the Full-Length Musical, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
This video clip is from when "The Forger's Apprentice" was first produced as part of the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival. It was remounted in 2015 at the Sabes Theater in St. Louis Park as a two-hour production with orchestra, and featured the following production team:
Kilkieran Valley is hungry—but so is Father Padraig Bones. Returning from Galway to his small boyhood farm in Ireland, Padraig reunites with his brother William, but then skirmishes with conniving British soldiers, rebellious Irish farmers, and a fickle crop. Why did his father commit the crime that shattered his family forever?
A play that addresses the question of what happens to a society that uses food as a political weapon.
For information about producing a remount of the 60-Minute One Act Musical or the Full-Length Musical, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fIJGmxtdQ8&feature=youtu.be
Featuring 21 original songs, The Red Tureen was first produced in the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival, where it was a Pioneer Press “Must See” and finished 6th in total tickets sold out of 162 plays that year. It was remounted in 2011 at the Howard Conn Theater in Minneapolis as a two-hour production with a fifteen piece orchestra, and featured the following production team:
For Liam Dwelling, an Irish writer-in-residence at THE DWELLING PLACE B & B, life is messy. A complex marriage, failing business, and unpredictable friends make it difficult to work through his writer’s block.
For information about producing a remount of the 60-Minute (7 actor), please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
Directed by: M. Scott Taulman Stage Manager: Abi Carlson Props: Tim Colby Featuring music by: Kevin Bowen & Martha Davis © 2019 By Kevin Bowen & Lynn Bowen. All Rights Reserved.
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
For updates on The Dwelling Place LIKE our FACEBOOK PAGE.
New York plumber Hank Tinkler's emotions are clogged, but hope flushes eternal. Will his beloved 1955 Brooklyn underdogs finally win this year? A nostalgic and tender look at America's favorite pastimes: baseball, family and plumbing.
For information about producing a remount of the 60-Minute (5 actor) One Act or the 90-Minute (8 actor) One Act, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
Flushing New York is currently being revised and expanded, but was first produced in 2014 featuring the following production team:
The play's the thingy! The Queen is visiting Stratford-beyond-Avon for some royal business and wants to take in a show. The local Shakespearean community theater company — The All’s Well That Ends Well Players — are the only game in town. They have one more hour to prepare for the show. They are not ready.
Part of the 2016 Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 4 - 14h - at the Rarig Thrust Stage.
For more information about this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
A chance meeting between playwrights Hyman Gaines and Antonia Brunowski spells murder, mystery and mayhem in this psychological thriller. Presented on the Rarig Thrust stage as part of the 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival. One act, approximately 60 minutes.
Cast:
"Playwrights on a Train", directed by Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha, with Bill Marshall as "Hyman Gaines", Caroline Vodacek as "Antonia Brunowski", M.Scott Taulman as "Jack Phillips"/"Officer Frankie Benedetta"/"Barry", Anna Olson as "Meredith Gaines"/"Lina"/"Catherine Brenner"/"Waitress Marilyn", and Jack Squier as "Pullman Conductor"/"Officer Eddie Donovan".
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
A Russian chess master with a long-held secret squares off against a young New York playwright for the match of his life.
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
by Kevin Bowen & M. Scott Taulman
SHORT DESCRIPTION
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: Five actors perform five shows for five times the fun! An evening of short plays presented by TROMPE L'OEIL featuring a potpourri of comedy, drama and a dollop of surrealism.
• Audition Addition, written by Kevin Bowen & M. Scott Taulman
• Love at First Sight, written by Kevin Bowen
• How to Catch A Squirrel in Your Fireplace, written by Kevin Bowen
• Safe Space, written by Kevin Bowen
• Butterheads, written by Kevin Bowen
Part of the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 2 - 12th - at Theatre in the Round.
A preview clip from Butterheads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X-MVA1CkA0&feature=youtu.be
For more information about this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
A play in ten-minues. A powerful new two-person absurdist play about the complicated relationships that exist between men and women.
Originally produced as part of the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 2 - 12th - at Theatre in the Round.
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
by Kevin Bowen
SHORT DESCRIPTION
A play in ten-minues. Ever wonder what the butterhead sculptures at the county fair talk about when everyone else has gone home? This play has the scoop. This is a six-person absurdist comedy featuring a flexible casting blend of male and female actors.
Originally produced as part of the 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 2 - 12th - at Theatre in the Round.
https://youtu.be/9X-MVA1CkA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X-MVA1CkA0&feature=youtu.be
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
A play in ten minutes. In this provocative two-person show, a writer is compelled to consider a Faustian bargain proffered by an old friend.
For information about producing this show, please contact Kevin Bowen at tctheater@gmail.com
A play that explores what happens when the technology of today collides with a preliterate, non-industrial agrarian society of the future. A post-apocalyptic-comedic-love-story.
The Oracle was first produced in 2015 featuring the following production team:
Successes
READ THE REVIEWS FROM FOSHAY! A NEW MUSICAL:
TALKIN’ BROADWAY By Arthur Dorman: https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/minn/minn1168.html?fbclid=I...
BROADWAY WORLD By Jared Fessler Jul. 30, 2023: https://www.broadwayworld.com/minneapolis/article/Review-FOSHAY-THE-MUSI...
BROADWAY WORLD by Jared Fessler Jul. 28, 2023: https://www.broadwayworld.com/minneapolis/article/Interview-Michael-Conr...
MINNEAPOLIS LABOR REVIEW by Steve Share, Editor, July 26, 2023: https://minneapolisunions.org/mlr2023-07-26_foshay_the_musical_reviewed....