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Meet The Team

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Charlene
Van Buekenhout

 

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Artistic Producer, Playwright and Actor

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Kevin Klassen

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Artistic Associate, Director, Playwright and Actor

Charlene (you can use she/her or Char) is a Metis / Belgian / Canadian theatre artist residing in Treaty one territory / Winnipeg. She is the Artistic Producer of Echo Theatre, actor, theatre creator, and emerging director. Charlene recently directed Owl Calling by Dale Lakevold and Darrel Racine, and The Gravedigger by Michael Lawrenchuk at the Gas Station theatre as her directing debut!  She has sat in the Michif Language Revitalization Circle and is working at learning and reviving the Southern Michif language.Check out the "projects section to learn about the latest theatre/Michif collab with the Southern Michif Performers!. Her TYA Michif language show MINOOSH DOO-KAPEESHIW was live at the Winnipeg Fringe in 2022. She created the outdoor theatre performance for individual houses with the Knock Knock Ginger Series with One Trunk Theatre. The show was called Li Minoosh Doo- Kapesheew Daan Liveer and was revived and adapted for a digital audience for Kids Fringe at Winnipeg Fringe 2021. She has  participated in The New England Puppet Intensive and has created a Crankie (look it up) to tell ghosts stories and other stuff! Past  theatre shows you might have seen her in are: 2024's Bikes and Circuses with Green Kids, as the lead narrator in Li Keur: Riel's Heart of The North at Manitoba Opera,  Imagination Situation (Winnipeg virtual Fringe 2021; HAMLET (the rest is silence) with her baby daughter (Shakespearefest 2020) Di and Viv and Rose (RMTC Warehouse), Destroy, She Said (Mia van Leeuwen). Past Echo Theatre productions include: Blithe Spirit (Cowardfest), A Strange Pair (Ayckbournfest), JONNO (Wpg Fringe Fest).

Kevin Klassen lives and works on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg MB. He is a playwright, an actor, a dramaturge, a director, a dad, life partner and artistic associate to Charlene Van B. Apart from winning some playwrighting awards, he has also built many of Charlene and Echo Theatre's set and performance pieces like the shadow tent for the outdoor Minoosh show in 2021, and her Crankie box! He once built a "saw the woman in half box" for a show that sits in our basement and holds xmas decorations.

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He is currently (as of 2022) writing a play about Bram Stoker, Henry Irving, Dracula and more!

Echo Logo design by Kendra Magnus-Johnston

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Echo Theatre has created and performed on this land that is the traditional lands and waterways of the Anishinaabeg, Nehethowak, Anishininew, Ininew, Nehiyaw, Denesuline, and Dakota Oyate and the Homeland of the Red River Metis. We take care in remembering the gift and responsibility it is to create and tell stories here.

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