performance
I am an interdisciplinary performer and theater maker. I've worked as an actor, director, singer, or composer in over seventy plays, musicals, dance pieces, cabarets, and other performances, with a variety of companies—including American Conservatory Theater, Art Street Theatre (founding member), Aurora Theatre Company, Banana Bag & Bodice (New York), Campo Santo, Center Repertory, Crowded Fire, Deutsches Theater Berlin (Germany), Encore Theatre Company, Erika Shuch Performance Project, EXIT Theatre, Hope Mohr Dance, Kitka Vocal Ensemble, Magic Theater, Marin Theatre Company, Opera Parallele, Potrzebie Dance Project, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players (company member since 2010), Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), and Word For Word.
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Some awards and honors include:
2016 Bridging the Gap grant from The Shotgun Players 2016 "Originate + Generate" commission from Aurora Theatre Company 2015 Studio 210 Summer Residency with Deborah Slater Dance Theater 2015 Enrichment Grant from the San Francisco Community Music Center. Also in 2007. 2010 grant from the Belle Foundation for Cultural Development 2009 San Francisco Bay Guardian Goldie Award. 2007 Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant in support of my work on the Berlin premiere of Yes Yes to Moscow 2005 Helen Hayes Award nomination for “Best Choreography” The Death of Meyerhold, The Studio Theater (Washington D.C.) 2003 Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant in support of my work on Cabaret Rebel, an original theater-cabaret act In 2002 I was named by San Francisco Magazine one of the top 100 Bay Area artists | ||||||
I direct and devise...
A workshop performance of THE CASSANDRA SESSIONS: RECORDING THIS WORLD, recorded live at The Shotgun Players during the December 2021 Bridge Series. INFO HERE
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A live recording of The Fall, a song I wrote for the 2017 Women's March and later adapted for the 2019 Shotgun Players production of Kill The Debbie Downers! Kill Them! Kill Them! Kill Them Off!
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Take a look at this teaser trailer for OLGA – A FAREWELL CONCERT at Aurora Theatre Company, which premiered in December 2017 and returned again December 2018. INFO HERE!
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The full performance of OLGA – A FAREWELL CONCERT, recorded live in performance at Aurora Theatre Company during the December 2017 premiere run. INFO HERE!
I perform...
I've done other stuff too. (Scroll back up to download my resume—which I gotta update!)
Here's a bit of what the press has said...
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“Beth Wilmurt's whole approach to acting is a little unexpected, not unlike the devastatingly unassuming characters she can manifest… Wilmurt has an intellectual curiosity and a capacity to forgo ego in the name of collaboration and its subtler satisfactions. It's this very trait that lends her acting a seamlessness and flexibility — and makes her an artist to watch.”
– San Francisco Bay Guardian “Beth Wilmurt is one of those rare actresses who completely fades into the texture of each role. Her acting style is so transparent that you may have seen her on stage a dozen times without knowing it was the same actress. From American $uicide and The Death of Meyerhold to Io Princess of Argos, Wilmurt has become a mainstay of the Bay Area's edgy new-play scene. She brings a luminous presence combined with mind-blowing physical dexterity and a facility for verbal gymnastics.” – San Jose Mercury News |
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"I cried. A LOT. I glanced glumly at my wife and then at my six rub-off lottery tickets (I keep them in my theatre tickets fanny pack) and it just HIT me what a friggin' fraud I am." – San Francisco Chronicle editor Stid Merkel regarding Nora.
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“Edward Gant marks the impressive directorial debut of Shotgun company member and well-known Bay Area actor Beth Wilmurt… The director title may be new, but for those familiar with Wilmurt's admirable comedic and musical abilities — the way she melds influences from vaudeville to Viewpoints into an understated, balletic form of physical humor and wry between-the-lines commentary — her stamp is all over the strong ensemble playing and choice details of this pearl of a production.” – San Francisco Bay Guardian.
“Exquisitely rendered by the always insightful Beth Wilmurt, Alma [in Eccentricities of a Nightingale] emerges as a high-strung little bird desperate to fly out of her gilded cage… Wilmurt makes us revel at Alma's free spirit even as we cringe at her foolish heart. The actress captures both Alma's pleasure and her pain, an intense mixture.” – San Jose Mercury News “Wilmurt is graceful, precise, and utterly compelling. She is, in short, magnificent.” – Oakland Tribune |
"Wilmurt is a stealthy songstress, never calling attention to her voice or her showmanship, but rather slowly inhabiting each melody as if she were simply talking to us about her life... That’s how much unassuming emotional candor she brings to each lyric." – The Mercury News
