Bill Bowers is an award-winning mime, storyteller, and educator with a lifetime of accolades to his name. Yet, coming to his work completely blind was a distinct blessing; it allowed me to experience the raw impact of his tragedy and comedy with entirely fresh eyes. Blending precise physical theater with spoken memoir, Bowers uses the historical “Trail of Tears” as a poignant metaphor for his own upbringing in Montana—a place he calls “Big Sky Country,” where isolation was commonplace, and endings were abruptly cruel for a gay man. Bower’s performance masterfully weaves the historical persecution of the Cherokee people with his own deeply personal grief, bearing witness to the devastation of the AIDS crisis. Even in the darkest moments of recounting the care for his partner until the very end, Bowers preserves an enduring sense of love and laughter. It is a profoundly unique narrative frame that forces the audience to look through his/her/their lens and find the projections of their own memories.
— Rowena Ori