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 produced 3PLAY; Cubicle, the online video series; and Petri Dish, Skewed Visions' 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 was once 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.
He was commissioned as a part of Red Eye Theater's Isolated Acts program in 2024-2025 to create new work for the Red Eye stage.
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.
His 2012 performance Black Water was considered one of the best productions of 2011-2012 by Minnesota Playlist, and the Star Tribune recognized Strange Love as an Outstanding Experimental Theater Work in 2007.
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 was the stay-at-home parent for two children who are now adults, but not yet rich enough to support him.
He collects McKnight Theater Artist Fellowship rejection letters.
