Charles Campbell

Co-Founder, Artistic/Managing Director

 

Charles Campell is an interdisciplinary artist with glasses and patched pants. Interested in work that thinks for itself, he facilitates perpetual conversation exploring and expanding the possibilities of art. He has created multiple original works and he is a founder of both Skewed Visions and Fresh Oysters Performance Research.

In addition to creating original performance works of his own, he produces 3PLAY; Cubicle, the online video series; and Petri Dish, Skewed Visions ongoing series of conversations about art.

Normative education includes a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, study as a part of the Chautauqua Conservatory Theater Company, and time at the Classic Stage Conservatory in New York City. In 1991 he entered the University of Minnesota where he sneaked an MA in Theater, studied with the Margolis-Brown Adaptors, and wrested a PhD out of some cold dead hands in 1997, where he has since been seen teaching. He has been assiduously studying the theories and practices of Tadeusz Kantor since 1993.

He has performed for Laurie Van Wieren, Fire Drill, Laura Holway, Megan Mayer, Theater Novi Most, Mad King Thomas, Flaneur Productions, and 15-Head. He has created other live performance works for the Right Here Showcase, the Twin Cities Chekhov Festival, Open Eye Figure Theatre, Sam Johns & George McConnell, Tara King, Kevin Obsatz, Chris Schlichting, Small Art, and Young Dance.

 

His 2012 performance Black Water was considered one of the best productions of 2011-2012 by Minnesota Playlist.

In 2014 he was awarded an MRAC Next Step grant to travel to Poland to study the work of Tadeusz Kantor, and in 2009 was a finalist for the (now defunct) Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship.

He was recipient of the 2007 Electric Eyes: New Music and New Media Festival commission, the 2003 Intermedia Arts Naked Stages performance art commission, the Weisman Art Museum’s 2000 Temporary Public Art on Campus commission, and a 2001 Jerome Foundation Building Administrative Capacity grant.

His writing can be found in a series of articles for Minnesota Playlist on “change,” as a part of Red Eye Theater's RELAY RELAY interview marathon on contemporary performance, on the Walker Art Center's Fourth Wall, and was proud to be a part of Criticism Exchange, an online forum for performance criticism created by Emily Gastineau and Theresa Madaus. He blogs as necessary at One Skewed Vision.

Perhaps more interestingly, he has been the stay-at-home parent for two children who have grown, but are not yet rich enough to support him.

BW-Headshot-July2022

Works by Charles

Impossible Performances - April/June 2022
State of Loss - October 2021
Birds of the Future – May 2019
Want – May 2018
APPETITE – May 2017
Losing Kantor – October 2016
EX [remade] – June 2016
EX – October 2014
Black Water – May 2012
Please Remain Seated (selections) [with Gülgün Kayim & Sean Kelley-Pegg] – June 2011
Cubicle 1 (Still Life) – 2009-2010
He Woke Up In A Strange place called Home and Although Looking For Bed He Kept Finding Death Instead – May 2009
Jasper Johns (GRAY) – June 2008
Unbranded (Theater Piece) – April 2008
Islands of Chekhov – March 2008
Visits with Woyzeck – February 2008
Strange Love (performance) – September 2007
Days and Nights (A Quiet Ambition) [with Cherri Macht] – Spring 2006
The City Itself [with Gülgün Kayim & Sean Kelley-Pegg] – Fall 2004
Pipes – October 2003/August 2004
You Are Here [with Steve Epley] – May 2002