Biography
Bolen High, a native of Houston, Texas, grew up in Oak Park, Illinois in the home Ernest Hemmingway was born in (now a museum) and graduated with a BFA in Acting from Chicago's renowned Goodman School of Drama. In New York, he studied acting with the legendary actress and acting teacher, Uta Hagen.
As Producing Director of Charleston, South Carolina's Dock Street Theatre and Queen Street Playhouse he produced and directed three seasons of 24 plays and musicals, a film series and a concert series of American jazz.
Additional producing and management credits include: the Brooklyn Academy of Music's The Gershwin Celebration starring Leonard Bernstein, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Rosemary Clooney, Bob Dylan, Madeline Kahn, Chita Rivera, Michael Tilson Thomas and Tommy Tune and its videotaping for PBS's Great Performances along with the world premiere concert presentation of the George and Ira Gershwin Pulitzer Prize winning musical Of Thee I Sing and its restored and re-orchestrated sequel Let Em Eat Cake starring Jack Gilford, Larry Kert and Maureen McGovern; The Bridge - a Festival of American Musical Theatre in Beziers, France, starring Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Honey Coles; the American tour, off-Broadway presentation and two European tours of Robert Wilson's play I Was Sitting On My Patio starring Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs; the original European tour and Metropolitan Opera presentation of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's acclaimed opera, Einstein On The Beach; and a U.S. State Department Tour to Portugal, Denmark, England, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan of The Martha Graham Dance Company.
As a director, he has directed everything from Shakespeare at the Tribecca Bar and Grill to La Boheme for Opera Theatre of St. Louis. He was instrumental in helping launch the careers of actors John Goodman, J.T. Walsh, Dan Florek, Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Robber Bridegroom, The Merry Wives Of Windsor, Workers and with the comedy act of "Pat Stack and Nathan Lane".
He recently starred as Jack Hill, Director of N.Y. City's Office of Emergency Management, in the highly acclaimed FX/BBC docudrama, Smallpox 2002: Silent Weapon (2002). Virginia Heffernan's review in The New York Times stated, "The performances - especially Bolen High as Jack Hill - are perfect - have never seemed so convincing."
He will be starring on the Women's Entertainment Channel (WE) as series regular, Charles Bumble, in the soon to be aired four-part comedy series, The Tinsley Bumble Show. In addition to his work in television, he has starred in three independent features, on and off-Broadway, in regional theater and in numerous television commercials and industrials. His voice can be heard on national commercials, television promos, corporate narration and books on tape.
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Career timeline
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