#354 – Kimberly Beaune
Kimberly Beaune is an accomplished event industry professional with nearly 30 years experience. After receiving her Hospitality training at Red Deer College, she began her career in hotel sales. It didn’t take long for Kimberly to fall in love with the magic of event design and go on to explore that passion through senior roles in off-site catering, destination management, décor & design and entertainment. While building her foundation in events in Toronto, she also began to create, produce, direct and design theatre projects for the award-winning theatre company Keystone Theatre. As her worlds of events and theatre began to blend, a passion for telling stories through design and event animation grew. Kimberly continued to hone her design aesthetic and established her approach to event storytelling by leading the concept, creation and design of hundreds of unique projects across Canada. She has served as an industry mentor and leader and spoken internationally regarding event design and logistics. Since launching her boutique event firm Creative Twist Inc. in 2014, she has twice been named one of Canada’s “Most Influential Event Professionals” by Bizbash Magazine and won three Canadian Event Industry Awards for her work. In 2021 family brought her back home to Red Deer. Since moving her headquarters to Alberta, she continued to work with key event clients in both Ontario and Alberta. Never far from theatre, she sits on the board of directors for Prime Stock Theatre in Red Deer and is their acting General Manager. Recently, she took over the day to day management of The Scott Block, a vintage black box theatre and cabaret space in Red Deer. This new venture brings both of her worlds together under one roof; a venue for unique and engaging events, and a creative space for theatre and performance. What stories can she help you tell?
www.creativetwist.ca
Instagram: @creative.twist
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Transcript
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Phil Rickaby
I’m Phil Rickaby, and I’ve been a writer and performer for almost 30 years. But I’ve realised that I don’t really know as much as I should about the theatre scene outside of my particular Toronto bubble. Now, I’m on a quest to learn as much as I can about the theatre scene across Canada. So join me as I talk with mainstream theatre creators, you may have heard of an indie artist you really should know, as we find out just what it takes to be Stageworthy.
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Kimberly Beaune is the owner and event storyteller at creative twist Incorporated. She has also been a director, designer and producer for the award winning Keystone theatre. Most recently, she took over the day to day management of the Scott block of vintage black box theatre and cabaret space in Red Deer, Alberta. She joined me to talk about the intersection of events and theatre, how she found her way to the theatre and working to make theatre a cornerstone of the community in red. Here’s our conversation.
Kim Thanks for Thanks for joining me. There’s a lot that I want to cover with you. But to just to start out. And one of the reasons that that was the impetus, the impetus for this conversation, is that your your company creative twist basically took over the management of the Scott block Theatre in Red Deer Alberta. So I’m curious what, what led to that happening?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah. So when we first moved to Red Deer, obviously, as you know, my husband is a theatre guy and artistic director of now artistic director of prime stock theatre. So we sort of wanted to get the lay of the land on what theatre spaces were available. And we got a tour of this lovely black box finished Black Box Theatre. And at the time, it was being operated by genic old age from bull skid, which is a improv comedy group. And so Jenna had been working in managing the space for a number of years. But since COVID, she had a second baby and she had a lot of things to focus on in her world. So she was looking for an opportunity to move out of managing the space and just use the space as a as a renter. So she was hoping that prime stock would be able to take it over. And we floated the idea around a little bit. But the reality is prime stock just didn’t have the bandwidth as a not for profit, no employees all volunteer to make that happen. And I just thought you know what this space needs some love. And it had this great retail office space that was vacant, right connected to the theatre right next to it with a storefront and I thought I could see creative twist in there. I could see me running my creative event business there but also running you helping to run probe stock, helping to create some some energy downtown, which downtown Red Deer really needs some life and some energy especially post COVID. And I just couldn’t see this beautiful little space not giving, getting the lift that it needed. So I threw caution to the wind and put a proposal together and sent it off. It’s kind of a Hail Mary, you don’t know me from Adam, but I’m hoping that I can do this. And yeah, it took it took about three or four months of back and forth. negotiating with them. But yeah, he made it happen.
Phil Rickaby
Nice. Now, it’s a it’s a sort of a, it’s a black box, but it’s a vintage like what tell me about this space.
Kimberly Beaune
So the building was built in 1914. And it has been used for many different things. Retail Store, department store, it was it was the old fields in Red Deer. Many, many, many moons ago when I was just a young pup. It was an apartment building. And for the last 15 or so years, it has been it has operated as a theatre venue. So the the owner of the building, he’s actually Doug Anderson, he’s actually the CEO of PV Mart. He and his family purchased the building as a social enterprise. So the idea is to make it at affordable space for the creative community in Red Deer. There are offices upstairs, that that lots of not for profits use as well as, as some for profit businesses have rented space there as well. But the idea is, you know, they’re not looking to make make money on this building. They’re looking to have this building as a social enterprise opportunity for the creative community in Red Deer.
Phil Rickaby
Now, I don’t know red deer. I have guests I’ve spent all of I think as you’re aware when we were between fringes way back in 2012. from Calgary to Edmonton, I think we might have spent about an hour to two hours in Red Deer on a break during the long drive between Calgary and Edmonton. So I’m not familiar with the the arts scene in Red Deer or Red Deer at all. What is the art slash theatre scene like in Red Deer
Kimberly Beaune
you know, what it’s the arts community is is actually really quite vibrant. A lot of visual art a lot of like painters and and visual artists. There is the central Alberta theatre which is long standing community theatre group has been in in Red Deer for 30 plus years. So they do dinner theatre they do community theatre programming, there is tree house you theatre which is a fabulous group that does training theatre training and shows for people 17 and under and there are there’s another community theatre group called Red new players who are a like a Senate. A smaller than then cat community theatre group. They do a little bit more edgy, edgy or work a little bit more challenging work. And then there’s pride stock which is red deers only professional theatre company. They do Shakespeare in the square or Shakespeare in in the park during the summer. It’s called Bard on Bauer and then are extending to do two other types of theatre contemporary in the spring and classical theatre in the fall and those are both happening here at the Scott block. So read your I’m sorry, the central Berta theatre cat. They have taken over the Memorial Centre which is the big road House I would say, in in Red Deer. So they they’ve taken over that space and they also do dinner theatre in a place called Festival Hall which is attached to, to the Memorial Centre. Yeah, so it’s coming back. It’s been a long hard haul for as all arts communities in you know, across the world really have have struggled in the past with, with COVID things are coming back. You know, we were hoping to get audiences back off their, off their couches and away from Netflix, and into live theatre spaces, again, both skits they’ve been doing, you know, they’re in their 15th season, doing improv and sketch comedy here. And they’re, you know, they’re starting to get people out again, starting to have that energy, which is fantastic.
Phil Rickaby
Getting the arts and theatre through thriving again, in a place that that there’s not a small town, it’s a city, but it’s also, you know, it’s not, it’s not a big city, it’s the city that has to present some unique challenges. To us, especially as you’re saying to a downtown that I imagine is, is itself struggling to come back from, from from COVID. If, if looking at the city where I live, Toronto has anything to compare it to. There’s a lot of stores and and just things to do that just didn’t make it through the pandemic. And that closers, empty storefronts, things like that. So I imagined that maybe things are similar in Red Deer, and it’s hard to come back from that.
Kimberly Beaune
Absolutely, absolutely. It you know, it is an uphill battle, we do have a very sadly, a very quiet historic downtown. It’s beautiful. But there’s a lot of vacancy right now. We’ve got a great downtown business association that is working really hard to to generate activity. They’ve two blocks north of us, they’ve, they’ve created a Alberta’s first entertainment district. So that’s, that’s very fun. They’ve got a street that’s licenced, and there’s multiple restaurants on that street. So you can go out and you know, walk along patio and, and they’ve got entertainment and things happening. The Arts Council has moved to a storefront a block away from that, and we’re a block away from that. So I feel like there’s an opportunity for us to create an arts and culture district, there’s lots of galleries, the symphony has their offices right across the street from me, the red, your Symphony Orchestra. So I think, you know, it’s just a matter of, of getting these groups together and really rallying around what a community of artists can bring to a, to a neighbourhood. You know, we’ve seen that in Toronto, a tonne of, of what arts and culture can do to gentrify a neighbourhood and bring it bring it some life and energy. And I think that there’s lots of opportunity here for this community to do that.
Phil Rickaby
Absolutely. Now, for you, you’re, I mean, you I mean, you’ve been involved with with theatre on a production side for a number of years. As well as being an event planner and also creating activations for events. As far as all of the events side of your world goes, what is the relationship like? How close do you see Theatre and the events space? Like are they are they very closely aligned as far as like, like, like ethos, or are they are they are they Worlds Apart?
Kimberly Beaune
Oh, they’re very closely aligned. Honestly. I would say at least 75% of the people that I know who are successful in the event space came from theatre, they studied theatre, they studied design or they studied or they were actors or the performers or, you know, lighting tacks, in theatre and their first love first love is theatre. So you know, any use, you throw a dart in In an event space, and you’re going to hit somebody who’s involved in theatre, like, it’s just, that’s the way it is. So, so they’re, they’re very much in line. And that’s why this just felt like the right choice for creative twist. Because, you know, I, I, I can approach the space as a theatre creator, and understand what the theatre creators need and, and the not for profits. Because, believe me, we’ve been there, you know that Phil, what they what they need to do to make a space viable and make it production viable. But then I can also approach it from a event perspective in you know, for a wedding, you know, how can we transform a space and tell stories in this space, that are about a person as opposed to, like, you know, about a couple in their, their journey versus, you know, a story off on off a script. So, yeah, it’s events and theatre are, are really symbiotic. And I think I’m so excited about having my, you know, this is, this is kind of, like the penultimate part of my journey is, is, is finding stuff out. So that may be not the right word, but finding that, that those two worlds, you know, coming together so beautifully in a space like this,
Phil Rickaby
ya know, creative twist is, is, as I understand it, you don’t necessarily plan the event of a you can, but a lot of what you have done in the past is create what’s called activations Can you talk about what what an event activation is?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah, so, so sometimes I get involved with, like, all the planning details that would have, and sometimes I just get brought into, to add a layer of experience to the event. So whether that’s bringing in characters to animate a space on a theme, or to, you know, bring in staff and we, we do a craft station or, or, you know, giveaway, giveaway swag in a you unique way, or we do an art, art installation, a collaborative art piece, I’ve done that many times, J, you know, often, in the last couple of years doing that for the city of Red Deer doing activating a square, just off of downtown here, with, you know, collaborative art, where we’ve got people coming in, and they create a piece of, of larger art piece, and it all comes together. And so, so that’s a lot of what I what I like to do is is finding ways to bring people together to collaborate on something or to tell tell a story through experience through experiential elements in in a, in a space.
Phil Rickaby
Now, there are two parts of your story that I’d like to I want to talk about. We talked about I want to talk about your journey to the theatre. Second, I want to talk about how you got into events. What was that? How did you start and how did you find your way to doing events?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah, so I went to Red Deer college, I took the Hospitality Tourism programme, and part of that was just because I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do. And they had a one year certificate programme, and I had met the chairperson of that programme, thought she was, she was great. So I thought okay, well I can do that. Let’s take this one year certificate, get a job figure out what I want to do with my life and then you know, go back to school. Well, I love the programme ended up staying for the two year diploma and, and then just kind of got into the industry. I started working in hotel and then from hotel I pretty quickly moved up in ranks and like I was a director of sales by the time I was 24. And and then I had the opportunity to move to Toronto, and there I I decided that I was ready to move away from home hotels and wanted something a little bit more creative. So I got a job working for a catering company doing off site catering, and it was one of the bigger, more influential catering firms in Toronto at the time and, and I just got to do really cool events. And that’s sort of where I learned the event thing. And then from there, I got an opportunity to I got headhunted to to move to a destination management company, which is a company that is their role is to be the the local experts for large conferences and conventions that are coming into the city. So I got hired as a senior planner, to plan all of the tours and activations and, you know, like, welcome party, you know, streets of Toronto streets, provinces of Canada, welcome party or the closing Gallas with, you know, in buses, tours, and so, huge learning curve. And then from there, I moved to a decor and design company, that specialised in large scale events did events all across the country. And when I was pretty much, I was the director of sales there as kind of as I’d been there for eight years, about as high as I could go. In that company. without marrying in AI. I decided to take the leap and start my own company. So
Phil Rickaby
and starting your own company, was that was that a difficult choice? Was it a frightening choice? What was with all?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah, it was, it was because I was very loyal, very loyal, I didn’t want to, you know, I was worried about my customers, I was worried about my, my team, I was worried about leaving people in the, in the lurch and making the leap. And, and, you know, fate stepped in and and there were some things that made the choice a little bit easier to leave. And then I, you know, I just was like, I ready, I’m ready to do my own thing, I’m ready to, to be my own, be my own boss. And then I realised, after I did the leap, and started and got things Oh, and I realised I really wasn’t ready. But now then you’re there, and you’re just making it happen. So I had a lot of learning it was, you know, entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It’s,
Phil Rickaby
it’s kind of funny about the what you’re describing is, is it sounds like the, in some ways, the origin story of every theatre producer I’ve ever met who started out in fringe especially, but, you know, it’s like, I thought it would be easy. It turned out to be more than I thought, and I just learned with a fire under my ass. Yeah.
Kimberly Beaune
That’s it. That’s it, you know? And like, so for the first the first year and a half, I was taking contracts. And, and then I realised that I was like, Okay, well, I’m, I’m making ends meet Sure. But I’m not building my own business business. I’m building somebody else’s business. I’m working for somebody, I’m taking a three month contract, six month contract, rookie in somebody else’s business, and I’m not building my own thing. So then, at the end of my second year, I was like, That’s it. I’m not I’m not taking a contract. Like to work for somebody else. In their business, I’m going to everything is going to be creative twist, I’m going to just have faith. And like two months later, I landed Canadian tires national convention. And so that was a thing and you know, and then I, that would really well and I became a preferred vendor for them and did a lot of events for them. And then I, you know, had other companies bring me in to be like, the creative director or the creative piece, they would look after the logistics and I’d work at look after the creative and design and it just started to build. Yeah.
Phil Rickaby
As far as that, I mean, one of the things that, you know, this sort of like dovetails into your theatre, sorry, a lot of the the activations and a lot of people that you worked with were like, theatre people, lots of things, both people who worked in from various aspects and just people that you’ve encountered buskers and clowns and, and just like all over the place. That’s that sort of like, was that something that you started to think of I know that activations were not leading invent them. But like, as far as like taking these people that you had encounters with the he’d worked with, and like bringing them into the events world, was that something that was that just was a no brainer for you? Or did? Did you? Uh, how did that come about?
Kimberly Beaune
Um, I think I think it became, it was a bit of a no brainer, because, because I always believed that, that, you know, an event was better if there were non static elements to it, right. So if, if, if you could have somebody help you, guide you, your guests along the journey, or interactive, make it make it more impactful, more memorable. So pretty much when I was working at the, at the catering actually started at the catering company, I remember, we were doing an event. And I actually reached out to some, some friends who because my husband was in was an actor and a director and knew a lot, we knew lots of actors. And I wanted to have somebody activate the space and dress in leader Hosen for this winter buff winter food station, and we had a train going around and, and so I reached out to some friends and and found somebody who was willing to do that. And then we had another event where, where we were doing a winter wonderland. And we wanted living statues. So I hired a bunch of, of actor friends. And we got them all in costumes. And they, they basically just stood in vignettes all night as Freeze Pose. Living statues, and it was a great day because I, you know, these, these actors were happy for the work happy for to get paid, you know, I’m not asking you to volunteer, I’m actually giving you money to do what you do. And, and, but it was, it just brought our offerings as a as a company, when, when I was with a catering company, and when I was the decor company to another level, right? It different differentiated us from what other people were offering, because we were adding these these interactive elements. And and then I also realised that if we were doing like an activity station, instead of hiring, just regular staff, I’d hire actors, because they were much more outgoing, much more friendly, much more interactive with the, with the guests. And that brought it up to another level, you know, the guests were, the guest experience was better that the feedback was always better because, you know, they they had a memorable experience. They had a photo op with a lady dressed as, as Marie Antoinette or they, or, you know, we did walk and living vines, walking through the space and, and, you know, it’s so fun to be creative when you’re spending somebody else’s money eat. Right, unlike Theatre, where you’re like, on a budget, and you can can do you know, in, in corporate events and and in events, you can be a little bit more a little bit more creative and, and, you know, outside the box and and play the boundaries a little bit, which is super fun.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah, yeah. Now, I want to talk about about how you found your way into the theatre world. Was that something that happened? Were you interested in theatre? At the same time that you were going through events or did that come that come later? How did you find your way into like producing theatre and things like that?
Kimberly Beaune
So I auditioned for the theatre programme at Red Deer college, and I didn’t get it. And so that’s why I went to the one year hospitality programme because I was like, well, she’s now what do I do because I thought I was going to do theatre. But but you know, I didn’t get in. So my my path took a different different rate. Until When I met my husband, which who is a theatre person? And, and then we just started, you know, producing shows because he wanted to create theatre he wanted to, you know, people were asking him to direct things people were asking him to, to help them create things and I was not really one to sit on the sidelines and I was like, hey, you need marketing, hey, you need logistics, hey, you know, and because that’s what I did. So I would just bring those things to the mix. And then I dabbled, too. I you know, I was doing improv and I studied cloud and you know, those were sort of my forays into into stagecraft. And I did some designing, and I did a little bit of directing, and yeah, but mostly, it’s Richard. It’s, it’s his.
Phil Rickaby
It’s good to it’s good to have somebody to blame specifically, isn’t it?
Kimberly Beaune
Oh, yeah. But you know, it’s also because I’m just nosy and I couldn’t not, you know, insinuate myself and what was happening? Because I knew I could help and make things better. And, yeah.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, as far as the theatre world, I mean, I mean, you were involved with, with theatre sports, while it was around, then you were, uh, you know, the, you know, Keystone theatre would not have existed without you. And Richard and, and so many other projects that you were involved in both ones that I know about, and ones that you were, you did on your own? As far as as the producing part was producing easier to you? Because of the events experience? Oh, was it? Yeah, yeah.
Kimberly Beaune
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because, because I are already, I already had some understanding of things that needed to be done logistics and, and marketing and, and also, I think that I had a different perspective on, on things. So So I, my approach to fundraising was a bit different. My approach to sponsors, I was able to take from my experience in the corporate world versus, you know, just from a theatre, not for profit lens, which was helpful.
Phil Rickaby
I mean, sometimes, I mean, the theatre world can be a, you know, as wonderful as it is, having an outside perspective on things like, operating as a business can certainly be helpful. Because as artists, we don’t often think of, of that aspects. We just like, we just make them work somehow. And don’t think of the money or the business part. So it’s important to have somebody at least who knows that stuff.
Kimberly Beaune
Yes, yeah. And, and, and that’s, like, you know, like, we’re just going through board development for Prime stock right now. And those are the those are the things you have to look for is who you can bring onto the board to do to do all all of that and think think in those ways so that your creative people can be creative and not not feel like they’re they have to be stifled by. By that, you know, cuz it’s hard. I know, you know, Richard is juggling a million and a half things, doing grants or doing you know, all of these administrative necessities, when, you know, his happy place is
Phil Rickaby
be creative. Of course, it’s and that that is the that is the the difficult part of arts administration in arts leadership, right. Is, is the you you got there through your the creativity and the passion for the creativity. But then there’s all of this administration that has to be done. And in a small theatre company, and I’ve talked to a bunch of people who are like, Yeah, I’m the whole team. You know, I do all of this stuff. And that’s, that’s a hard transition if you don’t have anybody helping to guide you.
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah. Well, and that’s, you know, it is it is and, and, you know, we’ve been we’ve been recognising because because I took on the role of, of acting general manager for prod stock when Richard took over as as artistic director. And the reality is that we’ve got so much going on. I’ve got so much going on, that we’re we’re at a point now where we have to hire somebody where we have to look for grants so we could hire somebody because I’m Because I can’t give it its do with all of the all of the things that I’ve got on my plate, and then you know, I also have to, I have to separate church and state between being a general manager of pine stock and Richard’s wife, and being the venue manager for Scotland theatre, and make sure that I am treating prime stock theatre and, and our, you know, their needs with the same lens that I treat both or other resident companies, right, we have three resident companies, and they all need to have their fair opportunity, the space be treated the same way don’t get, you know, any more special treatment than the other. So,
Phil Rickaby
is it difficult to divide your mind like that? How and how do you keep that that division so that you can, you know, sort of keep yourself accountable?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah, it’s just, it’s, it’s a challenge. It is. But, you know, I learned to do that when I was actually working for the decor company, because we were the biggest invest up option in Toronto at the time. And so we often get multiple companies coming to us who are bidding on the same piece of business. So they want us to help them design, and they’re bidding on the same piece of business. And we had to be really careful and very strict about, okay, I’m going to design for you based on the information that you give me. Now, if your competitor is much more open with budget, and creativity and ideas and whatever, I can’t let that influence what I designed for you, because that’s not fair to them, I need to be really focused on what I’ve signed for them based on the information that they give. And that’s it’s the same thing I need to be, I need to be okay, you know, what? I need to call you on this, this thing that you were, you know, you booked the theatre from 12 to five, but you showed up at 1130. And I’m selling you space, so I’m going to bill you for half an hour, because you showed up here to start setting up. And, and because that’s what I would do for the, for the next guy, and sorry, hon, but that’s the way it has to go. And, you know, and I have to do that, because that’s what’s expected of me. And that’s, and I had to make a case for my ability to do that. When I pitched because they knew I was upfront with them.
Phil Rickaby
Yep, yeah. Now, one of the challenges of recent years is you’re involved with a theatre, both of prime stock and otherwise, and the events industry. In 2020, and 2020, as we all know, was terrible year for both. And you’re weathering this at both, both when you left for left Toronto for Red Deer and it started building that the you know, trying to figure out like how do these how do we exist with these things in this new place? Or this old place? That’s new again? How do you weather that? How did you weather that? What was that? Like? What was the situation at the time?
Kimberly Beaune
Well, it was it was a nothing going into it was all necessity, you know. So we were in Toronto when the pandemic hit. We didn’t have much going on in terms of theatre in at that at that point in time, but certainly my event business went from you know, a going concern live events to oh my god, I have nothing and big, big pieces of business walking away. So I had to pivot, you know, to use that that overused word. So I started doing virtual events started a virtual event venue, found ways to to navigate my life that way. Richard was also working in hospitality is working at Hotel at a hotel. So he lost his job because there wasn’t work for him in hotels because nobody was travelling. And then in November 2020, my buck passed away and it became apparent that we needed to move back home to help my stepdad stay in the house. And, you know, because of the circumstance with the pandemic, I had readjusted my business to be like 99% virtual. So I was able to pick up and move across the country in the middle of a pandemic and still keep my livelihood because I was still doing virtual events.
And then, so that was we’ve moved in March of 2021. And pretty immediately after we moved, Richard reached out to the various communities here in Red Deer, we both joined the Arts Council, I joined as Korean twist, he joined us as Richard, we both joined, I joined tours of Red Deer, I joined the Chamber of Commerce, because we’re like, Well, we’re here, we’re going to go all in and be part of this community, we just need to need to embrace the community. So Richard, had an opportunity to get involved with prime stop theatre pretty quickly. And they they were going to come back and do they missed their 2021 seat or 2020 season, but they were going to come back and do their outdoor Shakespeare in 2021. So he got involved with that. And, yeah, we just, you know, tried to engage with the community as much as we could and, and I still had some business happening in Toronto, some clients that I was able to work with, and I got a great project here for the city of Red Deer, activating the new master plan, community Capstone, activating 30 events in a month for them doing art classes, and collaborative art projects and dance classes and having bands and different things. And yeah, we just figured it out.
Phil Rickaby
Yeah. Now, as I mean, you, you grew up in Red Deer, right. So, having left Red Deer, I mean, you’ve also you’ve lived in Edmonton for a while, you know, but then like leaving Alberta going to Toronto, then coming back to the town where you grew up. I’m sure that a lot has changed. And you’ve changed and you’re doing something very different than when you then when you were there. And you mentioned before we started about trying to figure out like, what is Who’s Kim and Red Deer who’s like, let’s create a twist in Red Deer. What have you learned so far? About about red deer? About About yourself about about coming home? What have you learned?
Kimberly Beaune
What have I learned? I’ve learned that that this town is a lot the same and a lot different. I’ve learned that that I still have a soft spot in my heart for for this, this town and this community. I was really surprised by how much art there was. How much you know, mostly it’s it is mostly visual art here but there’s a lot of it. And there’s a there’s a like a really passionate arts community. I I’m figuring out that you know, at this juncture in my career I’ve been in I’ve been in the industry for 30 years I’m I’m at the point of I wanting to give back I’m wanting to to be a leader. So you know connecting with with my tourism bureau and how can I help? How can I take my 30 years of experience and my destination experience and how can I help you achieve the goals that you’ve got for for growing this city and the same with this with working with the city and the masterplan community and you know, how can I bring this experience that I have to the table and and help you achieve your your goals? Yeah, so that’s sort of where I’m at now is is how can I? How can I? How can I use my skills for good? And, and help things, you know, with the revitalization of downtown and, you know, like, it’s, it’s super cool like it now I’m on the first name basis with the mayor. Like, you know, like, he comes to he, he sees us across the room, he’s like, Hey, Kevin, Richard, you know, like, it’s because we have shared vision for and for the possibility in this town and, you know, the leaders from the chamber and, you know, they know me and they’re, they’re like, hey, you know, oh, what are you doing now? Oh, well, you’ve got another thing you’re, you know, finger your finger in another pie get really and I’m like, Well, you know, I’m just, I’m just seeing, seeing where I can where I can be of help.
Phil Rickaby
Speak speaking of vision, I’d like you to cast your mind forward in an imaginary fashion. A few years in the future. As as, you know, managing this this theatre, and the street the and be part of the street, the or the downtown that you’re on? Yep. What do you envision the Scott block theatre? could become, could be and what could what effect could it have on the street? In your ideal vision?
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah. I think in my ideal vision, the Scott block is a hub for for entertainment, for gathering for celebration. So I don’t want to turn it into a roadhouse I do want it all to be, you know, art and, and, and culture and, and events that happen. Because there’s a connection to Red Deer because there’s a connection to, to the, the energy of downtown. But, you know, I do want it to be a busy place, I do want people to, to seek out opportunities to, to use the space for for gathering and for celebrating, I would love to see us become a bigger part of a an arts and culture district district. You know, instead of an entertainment district, like just grow that a little bit, a little bit more, you know, build off of it and grow more. There’s another set, a beautiful, two, two space theatre, like, literally around the corner from me, that has been mothballed for three years, because it’s owned by the Polytechnic, and they don’t know what to do with it, they’ve shuttered their theatre programme, and it’s this lovely space. And, you know, I don’t mind if it opens, I don’t like competition, fine. Bring back the energy is downtown, bring back the, you know, opportunity for for more of, of these groups to use space and, and, and bring people together and, and share their, their passion for storytelling and art. So So about
Phil Rickaby
there’s something about an empty and empty theatre and thinking of it as like, like, if that was to open like, it wouldn’t just like be competition, but it would also be like, another way to revitalise and to be like, Oh, there’s more art here. More art means more art more theatre means more theatre and all sorts of like, creates an aura Boris of theatrical delight.
Kimberly Beaune
Absolutely. And there’s and there’s, you know, then there’s more people coming downtown, and more people looking for a place to go for dinner before a show more people to place looking for a place to go for a drink after a show more. You know, maybe maybe more people if there’s a couple of good things happened in a in a weekend. You got hotel rooms, because people are going to get to stay and go see a show at the Wilco cloud at a show here. Or they’re going to go you know, like we’re looking at expanding the Shakespeare the square or Shakespeare in the Park borrowed on our festival this summer, to to have an indoor component because then you know, Can we can we talk to tourism about about creating a package where people come to Red Deer and they stay in the eat and they shop and bring more dollars into the downtown core and and you know, is that going to help The the little cupcake shop that’s next to me, right? Or the or the artisan market. That’s, that’s two doors down, right to have more people in in the area looking at their stopping in their shop. Right. I hope.
Phil Rickaby
That’s great. That’s great. We’re almost at the end of our time. So Kim, thank you so much for joining me having this conversation. I can’t wait to talk to you in a couple of years and see what’s happening in Red Deer. And it’s all very It sounds very exciting to be like, helping to be part of revitalising an area.
Kimberly Beaune
Yeah, it’s it’s, it’s super exciting. And yeah, I’m, I’m hoping I have good things to get things to share when we when we talk again about where we’ve where we’ve moved to with with the physician for this space.
Phil Rickaby
This has been an episode of Stageworthy Stageworthy is produced, hosted and edited by Phil Rickaby. That’s me. If you enjoyed this podcast and you listen on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can leave a five star rating. And if you’re listening on Apple podcasts, you can also leave a review those reviews and ratings help new people find the show. If you want to keep up with what’s going on with Stageworthy and my other projects, you can subscribe to my newsletter by going to philrickaby.com/subscribe. And remember, if you want to leave a tip, you’ll find a link to the virtual tip jar in the show notes or on the website. You can find Stageworthy on Twitter and Instagram @stageworthypod and you can find the website but the complete archive of all episodes at stageworthy.ca. If you want to find me, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram @PhilRickaby And as I mentioned, my website is philrickaby.com See you next week for another episode of Stageworthy