Charlesanne received her BA from the University of Houston and her MFA in Theatre from The Ohio State University. She has been a company member in Infernal Bridegroom Productions and the Catastrophic Theatre (Houston, TX), Right Brain Productions and The Plgagerists (Chicago, IL), and worked with The Royal Shakespeare Company in their Stand Up for Shakespeare program. She returned to Texas in 2016, and now lives and works on her 15 acres on the Colorado River where she does custom costuming, printmaking, and leatherwork.
1. Why did you move to Bastrop?
I grew up in Bastrop, my family has been here since 1852, but I moved to Austin, then Houston for my BA, Columbus, Ohio for my MFA, and spent time working with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England. After grad school, I moved to Chicago and worked in theatre as an actor, director, choreographer, intimacy director, and designer. In 2016 both my mother, who lived in Washington state, and my father, who was still in Bastrop, got ill. I made the choice to leave Chicago and move back to Texas so I could care for them both.
2. What compels you to spend time creating?
My mother was an actress, so I was raised in the theatre. Whether it was on stage or behind the scenes, I’ve spent my life in the creative arts. I wouldn’t know how to live without it.
3. Tell me three things you’ve learned in the past five years.
1. Finding your community is paramount for happiness.
2. Creating comes with its own set of stressors. It’s just as important to find a work life balance with creating as it is with any other job. Burnout is always lurking.
3. I’m only happy with my hair when it looks like the hairstyle of a long dead Edwardian school marm.
4. What are you currently making, reading, watching, or listening to?
I’m working on combing my printmaking and my leatherwork… it’s all trial and error at this point! Reading, I’ve been sucked into #booktock and somehow just started a romance novel between a hockey player and a sentient hockey stick, told from the hockey stick’s perspective. Wish me luck!
5. Cake or Pie?
One thousand times over…. CAKE!
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