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 has 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 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).
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 has also worked extensively as a choreographer, movement coach, dance captain and fight captain on productions at the Old Globe in San Diego, at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Virginia Stage Company, the Cape Playhouse and at theaters around New York City. She has worked alongside directors such Mark Lamos, Scott Ellis and Rob Melrose. 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. She served as the choreographer for the 2021 National Tour, New York City and Chappaqua Performing Arts Center productions of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlotte returned to this position for the 2022 National Tour that also played in Times Square at the Palladium Theater. She served as the Revival Choreographer for La Traviata at the Houston Grand Opera, directed by Arin Arbus. Most recently, she was the movement director for Sense & Sensibility at the Cape Playhouse, directed by Jessica Holt, and Ms Holmes & Ms Watson: Apt 2B at the Dorset Theater Festival, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar. Both plays were written by Kate Hamill. On camera, Charlotte was the season choreographer on Comedy Central's new series, ALTERNATINO (created by and starring Arturo Castro).
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, BeMoving, the Ken Studio, Dance Device Lab and at NVA & Guests seasonal workshops. See the TEACHING tab for more details on the workshop topics and formats.