Grand looks forward to life after Capitol

Lesley Grand likes the direction the Chatham Capitol Theatre is taking, even though she will no longer be a part of it by the end of the year.

Grand, manager of the theatre since February of 2011, will retire at the end of December to move to St. Catharines and spend more time with family.

She took control of the Capitol nearly seven years ago, after the initial effort slid into bankruptcy mere months after opening.

“There was no staff when I came over,” she said. “I had to rebuild. It’s been an interesting nearly seven years, not without its challenges.”

But Grand has seen great progress, she said. New theatre manager Heather Slater is taking over at a good point for the theatre.

“I think the community has come around. It helps that the municipality has stepped up and provided staff, resources and funding,” Grand said.

Slater will work with an administrative assistant, a technical director and should soon have a marketing co-ordinator, a position Grand said is crucial to the theatre’s success moving forward.

As for Grand, she will transition from theatre manager to day-care operator with a clientele of one – her soon-to-be first grandchild.

“When my daughter goes back to work, I will be the day-care provider,” she said. “My mother did it for my three kids. There’s nothing better than your children being raised by family. I know it’s not practical for most people, however.”

Despite looking forward to her hands-on grandmother role, leaving the Capitol is bittersweet for Grand.

“I’m super happy for the new staff. They’re going to do some really great things,” she said. “I wish I would’ve had that kind of support over the past six years, but it is what it is.”

Still, the exit won’t be easy.

“It will be hard to leave here. I have developed some strong relationships,” she said.

But she won’t be far away, and will visit often, as her parents and son live in Chatham.

Grand said it’s her belief that the people who ran the Capitol before she came along had grand plans, but tried to run when they perhaps should have been learning to walk instead.

“I believe the business plan for the original operator was to build an organization that would draw from far and wide,” she said. “I think there wasn’t enough community support yet for the theatre.”

When the Capitol first opened in 2010, it was a polarizing venue. People either loved it or hated it. Many of the haters had never set foot in the theatre, but opposed the idea of the millions in local taxpayer dollars being utilized for a theatre.

Grand said it’s been a long road educating the haters that the Capitol is a local treasure.

“I have had on occasion a person come in who swore they’d never come. When they walk into the theatre, they can’t help but be impressed,” she said. “We win them over one at a time.”

But all the negativity can become a burden, Grand added, as it is hard to not take it personally.

Prior to running the Capitol, Grand oversaw operations at the Kiwanis Theatre. For her first 11 months at the Capitol, she oversaw both.

When Grand took over, she said she went back to the grassroots concept, developing a relationship with the local arts community and gaining local support first.

“We have had some great artists here in the last six years and have been well supported,” she said.

But Grand added a great deal of local partnerships are involved in locally produced programming. She’s worked with Studio Black, Theatre Kent, Tom Lockwood, Ken Crone and others.

During her time at the theatre, she’s worked for the municipality, in “survival mode” for the first 11 months following the operation sliding into receivership, then for St. Clair College for about three years, and then for the municipality again.

“Each organization had their own way to do things and we just adapted,” Grand said. “We had to keep going.”

Grand said her favourite performer over the years at the Capitol was Chris Hadfield, the high-profile Canadian astronaut.

“The irony is that for somebody who runs a performing arts centre, I have a scientist at the top of my list. It’s funny,” she said.

Jim Belushi ranks up there as well for Grand, despite the fact he cancelled a performance.

“He’s just a lovely man. He stayed after the show was over and we watched the hockey game on the big screen,” she said.

Belushi, like every other performer, is a human being.

“What amazes me is what an artist is like when not on stage,” she said. “For the most part, it’s all been positive. They really enjoy being treated like normal people.”

Normal treatment includes home-cooked meals. Grand said she’s used the William Street Cafe to provide meals to performers over the years, and the effort is appreciated by performers.

The desire for that kind of treatment is a large reason why some performers put strange requests in their rider agreements.

“Artists spend a lot of time on the road. Can you imagine being in a different city every night for three months without family and to have a theatre give you fast food or pizza?” Grand asked. “They (performers) want to make sure you read their rider closely.”

She said the food served to performers, as well as the technical support provided by the theatre, receive rave reviews from visiting artists.

For the most part, rider requests she’s received over the years have been pretty tame. No removal of all brown M&Ms as Van Halen once requested while on the road. The oddest request Grand recalled is one artist asking for the lock on the dressing room door to be changed to a different style.

Despite doing what performers want, you can occasionally fall victim to a temper tantrum. Over the years, two performers have trashed their dressing rooms, Grand said.

Soon, she’ll have entirely different tantrums to address.