The curtain is closing for good on the Grande Parlour theatre.
Last week, the hub for performing arts in Cold Lake announced that they will be shutting their doors in January 2020.
“It’s been a pretty tough decision. It’s one that we’ve been talking about for a while that could be a possibility. With our year-end being, for the not-for-profit society, in September, we kind of knew…the numbers don’t lie when it’s all said and done,” explained Craig Konechny, president of the Cold Lake Entertainment Society (CLES). “In the end, Teresa (Pettit) and myself have had a lot of discussions, and have had to accept that it’s a possibility.”
Together, Konechny and Pettit brought the Grande Parlour to life in 2017. The multi-use theatre occupies the space next to Beantrees Café, which is owned by Konechny, in downtown Cold Lake.
Recognizing a gap in the arts and culture offerings in the area, their aim was to create a space to host productions and workshops with the ultimate goal of developing an arts school in the community.
“It’s extremely difficult. Opening a theatre is something I’ve wanted to do since I was eight; I’ve always wanted to own my own place. When you look at the Grande Parlour, it was sort of the realization of something I’ve dreamed about for years,” expressed Pettit, who writes and directs, working at the theatre full-time.
“We knew coming into 2019 it was going to be a hard year…people still don’t have lots of expendable income. We knew that it very well could be our last year if we weren’t able to keep up with what we’ve done the year before.”
Owned and operated by the CLES, the Grande Parlour has been the scene of numerous performances and events in its short lifespan, including their latest production Pig Girl and the annual Verge Festival.
When they first introduced the idea, Konechny expressed the expectation was that support in the city would continue to grow, but that wasn’t the case.
“We’ve fought and defended this space for three years now and it does take a toll on a person after a while. At some point, you feel like does the community really desire this? Or, is this just another entertainment venue? I think, to some extent, that comes into play. The same goes for council, does the council really want arts to develop in this community? I would have hoped there would have more of a proactive stance in that.”
He continued, “I guess what I was naive about when we started talking about the idea, is that if I take this on, invest all of my own money and I build the arts in this community, that council will get on-board and they will start doing their part in bringing arts into this community. I really wish there had been a proactive approach to building the arts. I thought if I created it, built it, proved it could work, that it could be a conduit to make it flourish.”
The Grande Parlour recently received $50,000 in grants between the City of Cold Lake and MD of Bonnyville to be used for upgrading equipment. However, Konechny explained the real financial strain comes from the theatre’s operational and overhead costs.
Their rent comes in at $54,000 annually, in addition to overhead costs which average around $15,000 per month. The only salary paid out, to Pettit, is only $500 every two weeks.
According to Konechny, with the Verge Festival being a break-even event, in order to cover the theatre’s expenses, they need to put on four to five successful productions per year.
“We’ve come to the realization that if we ever want to move towards an arts school in this community, you have to develop the youth. In order to do that, you have to have workshops where there is a high demand for it. Right now, the workshops won’t generate money, productions generate money. We have to have four to five productions a year to generate enough money to keep the space open and that takes up the entire year. So you’ve got this vicious little circle.”
Konechny explained the major game changer would be if they could get the Grande Parlour’s rent down. Ideally, he would like to purchase the building they’re currently in, and rent it at to the society at no charge. However, through discussions with their landlord, that hasn’t been a possibility.
“That would allow us to have one production in the spring, one in the fall, and to have more workshops. We could get Portage College involved, which they are interested in, and start developing that first steps towards possibly having an arts school in the community.”
Since the Grande Parlour opened, both Konechny and Pettit agreed it’s been evident that they’re filling a need within the community. While he realizes the arts “will never measure up to sports and recreation,” Konechny expressed they couldn’t have predicted the impact it would have.
“You have kids who are crying at the end of a production because it’s become a family. It was always incredible to me how I could just build something and it have such an impact on so many people.”
Pettit recalled, “There’s a little boy I worked with in Acts of Villainy, he’s 12, and he’s not too academic, he doesn’t play music, but he did a workshop with me the summer before and then he did Acts of Villainy with me, and at the end of the show he said, ‘I didn’t even know that I was special until I came here.’ For a 12-year-old boy to tell you that, that in and of itself, for me, is a reason to keep it open. Children are feeling like they have a place, they are feeling like they’re special in some way and they actually can give back to the community in some way, why allow it to die?”
Since releasing the announcement on social media, Pettit said she’s had a number of current and former actors reach out to her to express their dismay at the news.
For Konechny, he’s imploring people to not just accept the news, but to share their connections with the Grande Parlour.
“I guess what I would have hoped for would have been more fight. We definitely have people who are directly involved who will stand up and speak at council, and hopefully enough of the community decides this is important and will let council know.”
As for the CLES, they will stay in operation for the meantime. The plan is, come January, to store their equipment as they wait for another opportunity or donate the assets to another not-for-profit organization.
“I’m not scared of starting over. I’m also looking at other communities, what other community is going to support this wholeheartedly and embrace it?” stated Konechny. “I’m curious to see how the dust settles in the next couple of months. In the end, we might know very quickly, because in the next three months, we’re really going to know what the desire is.”
Pettit added, “If there’s anything that I personally could say to the community, it’s that the only reason we were ever able to go as far as we did with it, is because of their support. So, even though it’s closing, thanks for the wild ride. It’s been a lot of fun.”
