Originally from Montreal, Charlotte Bydwell has performed and choreographed at leading theaters around the world, as well as in recognized film/TV productions. She holds a BFA from the Juilliard Dance Division and an MFA from the Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Acting Program where she was a recipient of the Craig Noel Fellowship (awarded by the faculty to a student who demonstrates exceptional professional and academic promise).
As a dancer, Charlotte was a member of Monica Bill Barnes & Company appearing at Jacob’s Pillow, the American Dance Festival, and The Joyce Theatre, among others. She was also a guest performer with Keigwin + Co for their Joyce season in 2010. She jointly represented the United States and Canada as a danceWEB Scholarship recipient at the 2008 Impulstanz Festival in Vienna Austria, one of the largest contemporary dance festivals in the world.
As an actress, Charlotte has worked with The Bats, the resident acting company at The Flea Theatre, and played Chrysothemis in their highly acclaimed production of Sean Graney’s These Seven Sicknesses(dir. Ed Sylvanus Iskandar). In the summer of 2012, she was a member of the Resident Acting Company at the Williamstown Theatre Festival where she appeared on the Main Stage in The Importance of Being Earnest (dir. David Hyde Pierce) and as Vera in A Month in the Country (dir. Richard Nelson). She has appeared in several productions at the Old Globe including Comedy of Errors (directed by Scott Ellis), Twelfth Night (directed by Rebecca Taichman) and Othello (dir. Barry Edelstein). Other theatre credits include; Vanda Venus in Fur at the Virginia Stage Company, HELP by Claudia Rankine at The Shed in NYC, Amanda Pryne in Private Lives at the Cape Playhouse, Sheila Birling in An Inspector Calls at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Lady Macbeth in the New York Shakespeare Company's Macbeth and the emcee in Company XIV’s burlesque extravaganza PARIS!
Charlotte played an ongoing role as Lucy Michael in Tony Award-winning playwright/directorRichard Nelson's new family plays, The Michaels (Public Theater) and The Michaels Abroad (Hunter Theatre Project).The final two plays in Nelson's Rhinebeck Panorama -- following THE APPLES and THE GABRIELS family play-- these two work centers around a group of dancers and choreographers. The Michaels was chosen as a New York Times Critics Pick, and nominated for a Drama League Award. Read this article in Dance Magazine about Charlotte returning to her roots in modern dance to take on this exciting role. Reprising her role as Lucy Michael, Charlotte also made a guest appearance in the final installment of Richard Nelson's Pandemic Trilogy on Zoom. A New York Times Critic's Pick, Incidental Moments of the Day was streamed by over 18,000 people. Click HERE to read the NY Times review.
Charlotte has also appeared on camera in numerous award-winning short films and starred in the indie feature film, “Life of Significant Soil” (Best Actress Nomination at the Tampa Bay Film Festival). Upcoming film credits include "Aviva" by writer-director Boaz Yakin ("Remember the Titans"). Her television credits include roles on ELEMENTARY (opposite Lucy Liu) and THE GOOD FIGHT (opposite DelRoy Lindo).
Charlotte has also worked extensively as a choreographer, movement director and associate director on productions at the Old Globe in San Diego, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Houston Grand Opera, Virginia Stage Company, the Cape Playhouse, the Dorset Theater Festival and at theaters around New York City. She made her Off-Broadway choreographic debut with Nicholas Tolkien's Terezin at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in Playwrights Horizons. She recently worked Off-Broadway again as the movement consultant for S. Asher Gelman's world premiere of Scarlett Dream. Other favorite credits include: the recent developmental workshop of the new musical, After Pinocchio, with director Robbie Simpson, three consecutive years as choreographer for the national tour of A Charlie Brown Christmasand serving as theRevival Choreographer for La Traviata at the Houston Grand Opera, directed by Arin Arbus. On camera, Charlotte was the season choreographer on Comedy Central's new series, ALTERNATINO (created by and starring Arturo Castro). Charlotte has also collaborated on multiple occasions with Mighty Earth to create dance demonstration across New York City that bring awareness to major climate change related issues. These events have taken place during NY Climate Week and the NY Auto Show.
In May 2011, Charlotte premiered her one-woman show, Woman of Leisure and Panic, as part of the 8th Annual soloNOVA Festival. The show was nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance Art Production and subsequently translated into Spanish for performances in Mexico. It returned to NYC in August 2013 as part of the New York International Fringe Festival, the largest multi-arts festival in North America, and more recently for a run in Anita’s Way (an outdoor venue in Times Square) through a residency with Chashama. The piece also toured to Philadelphia as part of the 2016 First Person Arts Festival. Charlotte’s other creative works have been presented at Judson Church, 9th Space (P.S. 122), the Center for Performance Research, the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (Lincoln Center) and the Meredith Wilson Black Box. Her one-woman film, “The Nude Model”, premiered at the Nightpiece Film Festival as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2018. It has gone to receive awards/officials selections at numerous other festivals across the United States and Canada. Full details on this project at www.thenudemodelfilm.com
Charlotte created ‘Moving into Language’, a movement-based approach to acting for performers and creators of all kinds. She has taught workshops at Juilliard, Gibney Dance, Barnard, HB Studio, Peridance, Stella Adler, BeMoving, the Ken Studio, Dance Device Lab and at NVA & Guests seasonal workshops. She most recently taught a multi-day acting workshop to the Limon Dance Company focusing on the theatricality within Jose Limon's repertoire. See the TEACHING tab for more details on the workshop topics and formats.