Jennifer McConnell, general manager of the Vic Juba Community Theatre, held up a new event poster during her presentation to the Rotary Club of Lloydminster on Monday. Geoff Lee Meridian Source
Vic Juba Community Theatre general manager Jennifer McConnell and box office and marketing coordinator Bridget Walsh put on a news-making performance as guest speakers at the Rotary Club of Lloydminster.
Their Monday lunch presentation included breaking news the theatre is set to release details on three new fundraising events in 2023.
“We have a fun money casino happening on Feb. 4,” said McConnell for starters.
“We hope to be doing a big-name artist concert in the summertime and then we are going to have a hats-off fundraiser around the NHL hockey season next year.”
She says they will be sending out details about that shortly.
McConnell also told Rotary the theatre will expand by taking over the black box stage no longer needed by Lakeland College due to a “down tooling” of performing arts as a university transfer program.
The theatre plans to update the equipment and make it functional as a black box theatre again.
“Instead of us building on a new black box that the original expansion plan was; it’s changed now, so we are looking at the whole footprint of the building,” said McConnell.
They are also looking at possibly creating a new main entrance to the theatre instead of using the existing combined entrance with the Lakeland Rustlers gym.
“It’s a very busy traffic area, so we’re looking at the whole footprint of the area with the inclusion of the black box,” said McConnell.
Walsh ran through the entire Dr. H.A. McDonald season with a video presentation with McConnell doubling up with a shorter version in a media interview.
“We’re seeing the return of bigger attendance numbers,” said McConnell.
“We’re also looking at a lot of artists who are actually from Alberta, so I think that always helps when you have some hometown appeal.”
Saskatchewan country singer Jess Moskaluke is performing on stage this Saturday.
On Nov. 28, the popular Terri Clark will be in town with her It’s Christmas Cheers show.
“We’re anticipating that one will sell out. We are almost there. There is about 100 and some tickets left out of the 550 for her show,” said McConnell.
“In the new year, we’re really excited for Aaron Goodvin in January as well as A Dinosaur Tale in February.”
The latter is a family-featured show with something for all ages themed around a dinosaur time warp story.
McConnell also took a moment to tip her hat to living legend, Rotarian Vic Juba, who the theatre is named after.
“He’s not only a Rotarian but he’s also in the theatre and very engaged still as Mr. Lloydminster. We are so fortunate to have our space named after such a humanitarian,” said McConnell.
She also thanked the Rotary club for their donation of lobby furniture in 2019 as part of her speaking agenda with Walsh.
“So we just wanted to touch base with everybody and let them know what’s going on and just say thank you for everything they do for the community and for our theatre,” said McConnell.
