Sellout crowds and an excited buzz among theatregoers have boosted the spirits of those working behind the scenes to boost the Cowichan Theatre as a top-class North American venue.
It all started with the rebranding of the facility. Using its new name: Cowichan Performing Arts Centre, Kirsten Schrader, manager of the Cowichan Valley Regional District’s Arts & Culture Division, has been able to pitch its full-service facilities as well as telling prospective clients about the warm welcome awaiting their act if they choose to perform in Duncan.
Schrader said she’s happy to see the burgeoning result of a lot of hard work.
“It’s been building for the last four or five years. I’ve been building relationships with agencies all over mostly North America. We are finally on their radar, which is making a huge difference because that wasn’t the case before. We were getting overlooked,” she said.
The fall/winter brochure for the theatre includes performances of one kind or another almost every night.
Schrader chuckled at the mention of that.
“Honestly, for the past three years every year we’ve said: ‘We can’t get any busier!’ and every year we are even remarkably busier than the last year. I don’t know when it’s going to peak but it hasn’t yet.”
The Canada 150 theme for the fall has been a fun way to group acts, too.
“Some of them are Canadian icons, like Burton Cummings. And then we’ve got comedy with shows from the CBC, which of course, is all Canadian.
Country star Corb Lund is another Canada 150 performer.
Corb Lund
We also have lots of Canadian performances after the end of the year, too, but we just haven’t branded them with Canada 150. Steven Fearing, is coming, for instance. I first heard him when I was at university and he’s still going strong. He has a cult following.”
With the number of tribute acts that are on the fall menu, too, the question had to be asked: How did she do it?
“Well, that is relationship-building with promoters,” she said.
“They are showing great confidence to take a risk in choosing this theatre, and it shows a real change in how they see this theatre as a real contender for a provincial tour. This is one of the main stops now for these promoters who bring these tours because they know that we’ve got warm audiences here, that are very enthusiastic, and it’s a good risk.
“It’s taken years to do that because when I buy a show I have to get an agent on the phone or by email. It’s long distance; they don’t know where we are; they don’t know about this theatre…It can sometimes take years and years to get an agent to allow us to buy the show and bring it here.
“It’s the same on the other end with the business promoters. They need to feel that this is a good risk, that it’s a good place to put their money. They can pick and choose. It takes years of working with them, developing that relationship.”
Is there even more excitement coming in the spring?
She laughed.
“The spring is so busy it’s hard to find dates for shows.”
The music festival, the local musicals, the school-based shows, the dance studio shows: all these crowd-pleasing events need theatre time for their performances, and they are usually in spring to celebrate a year of hard work by these enthusiastic amateurs, so it takes engineering to schedule everything in.
But, coming up are also some good professional dance performances, Schader said.
“I’ve been building up our relationship with dance companies for a while because we didn’t have a lot of dance here when I started [although at one time the theatre featured a lot of dance events]. The pendulum swings back and forth: we’re trying to find a middle ground. Dance shows are a big risk because they’ve got big companies and they need two days of set-up and rehearsal beforehand. You have to find the right performances; is it interesting but still accessible? So, I’ve been working with a lot of those options.”
Schrader’s joined Made in BC, which helps people like her connect with different B.C. dance companies that are out on tour.
“It’s important to offer dance even if it isn’t always the big commercial success because there is a very strong audience that loves dance. [The Met opera broadcasts are similar.] If we took away the opera, those 75 people who come every weekend would get really angry. They love it,” she said.
Michele Fry, marketing specialist for the theatre, was also enthusiastic about the lineup for fall and winter.
Three shows have already sold out: Canadian icons Burton Cummings, and the famous group, the Barenaked Ladies, and Menopause: the Musical, which she described as “similar to what you’d see in Vegas” plus there’s been lots of excitement about all the offerings in the brochure, she said.
Fry said she and the other staff were teasing Schrader about how the acts “just kept coming” this year.
“We do have some wonderful shows lined up. We can accommodate big shows. It’s the largest stage on Vancouver Island after all and the people who come here just love it. We have room for them,” she said.
