Vision- Past
Echo Theatre is a fluid, artist driven company with a diverse and growing body of work. Our mandate is very simple: We exist to create intelligent, innovative and exciting theatre for all audiences. Projects are chosen to question how we experience theatre, how our senses inform and challenge our intellect to engage with theatre in a visceral way. Echo Theatre is moving into producing more projects that deal with the audience as an active member of the piece, driven by curiosity to explore the play like a detective, or to be pulled through the play by their gut instincts.
Vision- Present
Echo Theatre is an artist driven company. We are flexible and move with projects in the way that they want to move. We love theatre, puppet theatre, shadow theatre, playwritten theatre, collaborative theatre, physical, text heavy, text light, experimental, improvised and devised theatre, slow theatre. We love the intersection between visual arts and theatre, between sound art and theatre, between culture and theatre. Right now we love to connect theatre with the Michif language community. Right now we love gothic stories of gender fluidity in Victorian times. Right now we love audiences to access stories that are for them.
Vision- Future
Echo Theatre is a bridge between artists, and community.
Anti-racism, anti-harrassment, safe space statement
Echo theatre stands against racism, oppression, harassment, and unsafe practices on and off the stage. We commit to serving our community with respect always, and to expect and advocate for inclusion and safety when welcoming anyone, including artists, staff, volunteers and audiences into a space, the work, and the art.
I acknowledge that I am writing this as a light skinned Metis person who is often seen by others as white. Therefore I have been given privileges in society and in spaces where white people are comfortable and feel safe. I work at feeling uncomfortable in these spaces until everyone is able to be safe. I commit to providing a comfortable and safe experience for everyone above ease or financial reasons. If you think I am missing something important and or obvious from this statement please email me: charlene.echotheatre@gmail.com
What We Have Done
Echo has also experimented with historical horror theatre (Grand-Guignol) that, in its time, attempted and succeeded in frightening live audiences using heightened naturalistic violence.
Some highlights for Echo Theatre include: Stoppard’s part murder, farce, philosophy lecture play Jumpers (for which we shot a film to deal with a party scene involving actors who did not appear in the rest of the play, as well as engaging a Winnipeg cheerleading squad); David Mamet’s play for kids The Poet and the Rent; and Caryl Churchill’s challenging The Skriker (for which we had original projected animations, and a cast of 9 using Churchill’s fractured fairytale/ nursery rhyme language).
Echo loves creative problem solving and we get to do that by choosing or creating plays that offer unique challenges.
