Rick Wamer

Biography

Rick Wamer’s global performance career began in 1982 at The Goldston School for Mimes in Gambier, Ohio. He continued his pursuit participating in Marcel Marceau’s US seminars from 1985 -1987, initiating an eighteen-year mentorship under Marceau, and assisting Marceau in later seminars. A founding member of Invisible People Mime Theater and veteran solo performer, Rick has performed throughout North America, Asia, Eastern Europe, Israel, Serbia, Macedonia and the West Indies.

He served as Artistic Director of the Saskatchewan Seminars for Mime and Movement Theater in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, won numerous awards for excellence in programming and artistry, including a choreography fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council, private and public grants and fellowships, and is referenced in From the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond by Annette Lust.

Rick’s one-man show Geometries, mingling mime, physical theatre, and monologue, has been delighting audiences for decades, and will be restaged in Spring of 2026 at the University of Arizona’s Tornabene theatre. Wamer has appeared in numerous theater productions, three films with independent film maker, Ted Hardin; collaborations with A Theater of Mime, generating the role of Scrooge in a Mimodrame adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol in L.A; makes annual appearances with Ballet Rincon, and, with Alithea Mime Theatre, has toured in Poland, China and Puerto Rico as a principal.

Noted productions include Caligari!, an ensemble work inspired by the silent film classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; Mythos, a multi-media production in Tucson at the University of Arizona’s Stevie Eller Theatre mixing mime, dance, circus arts, taiko drumming and visual media; Stories of Painted Sky, a mime-aerial ballet co-written and directed with Nathan Dryden; movement direction for Our Town, restaged by Andrew Belser for Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA, 2010-11 production season; and, a tribute performance to the French Mime tradition of the 20th Century, called The Factory, re-staging seminal Etienne Decroux creations during the 2011- 12 season.  Rick has directed or consulted for several films and music videos, as well as devised performances of students in the School of Theatre, Film & Television, and the mainstage production of Everybody, by Branden Jacobs Jenkins, and the New Directions Festival with colleague, Roweena Mackay.

Winner of Grand Prize for Master Performance at the Skopje, Macedonia Mime and Physical Theater Festival of 2008, and again in 2013 with longtime collaborator, Lorie Heald, Rick has exposed new audiences to the art of mime & physical theatre, frequently performing and teaching in the Balkans. His work can also be seen among the repertory of Mannakin Theatre and Dance, based in San Francisco and Belgrade, Serbia, where he serves as contributing choreographer.

In 2013, Wamer joined forces with Enrique Feldman, Grammy nominated composer and musician, to create a music-rich mime theater performance, called Dancing in the Universe, which had its world premiere at the Stevie Eller Theatre, January 11, 2013, followed by a second collaboration, The Inner Journey with Feldman and Lorie Heald, May 23, 2014.

Wamer received the honor of being recognized as the recipient of the prestigious Contributor to the Arts Community Arts Award from the Buffalo Exchange for 2015.

Current projects include writing his first book entitled, The Physical Imagination, based on his artistic discoveries and acting techniques; a reconstruction of an evening of theatrical productions, Tales of Transformation; a reconstruction project of a late 19th Century French Mimodrame with Dario Salvi, the artistic and musical director for the Imperial Viennese Orchestra in the U.K., and creating a multi-arts production based on the folklore and culture of the Northeastern Maritimes, and the Climate Project - a multi-year workshop production with an expected world premiere in Tucson in 2027.  A frequent consultant in arts education, thought leader and publisher, Rick lives in Tucson, AZ, USA with his beautiful wife and a rambunctious four-footed feline.

Degrees

• M.F.A. Theatre Arts
• University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
• Mythos: Journey Toward What EndA Performance/Production Thesis
• B.S. Literary Arts & Biblical Studies
• St. Joseph's College, Collegeville, Indiana, United States