WCT Welcomes a Friendly Face as its New Executive Director
The addition of Chelsea Isenor will bring both expertise and familiarity to the company and give Western Canada Theatre its first all-female leadership team.
KAMLOOPS, BC and the unceded territory of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc – After a nation-wide search, the board of Western Canada Theatre (WCT) has selected a candidate with deep ties both to the community and the company to be its next Executive Director.
“WCT has a mandate to support local talent without compromising quality. For this reason, we are especially proud to welcome Chelsea Isenor, a Westsyde local who went on to larger theatres in larger cities to learn, then returned to Kamloops,” say Chrystie Stewart, WCT Board President. “The Board was humbled to again receive applications from across Canada for the new Executive Director. Through a competitive process, Chelsea prevailed, and we could not be happier.” Between Stewart, Artistic Director, Kelli Fox, and Isenor, WCT will have an all-female leadership team for the first time in its history. Though Chelsea does not officially start at the company until November 2nd, the three have had a lot of time to connect through the selection and hiring process and are already forming strong bonds. This move looks to herald a period of strength and stability for WCT.
“I am thrilled that Chelsea has agreed to join our team,” says Fox. “Her skills, smarts, and professional leadership will help us move forward with confidence. And at least as important as those qualities is her demonstrated love for theatre; particularly for Western Canada Theatre. She is a known and trusted daughter of Kamloops with a passion for serving this community. We’re all grateful to have her on board.”
| For over a decade, Chelsea focused on marketing and communications at theatre companies in the Lower mainland, including The Cultch in Vancouver, Richmond’s Gateway Theatre, and the arts and culture focused agency Murray Paterson Marketing Group. In 2021 she returned to Kamloops as Marketing & Communications Director at Western Canada Theatre, where she was instrumental in ushering the company out of the pandemic years to some of the most successful seasons in its history. She made an immediate impact with the staff and went above and beyond her duties to introduce lasting systems at the company and facilitated a complete digital strategy review that helped future-proof operations. In 2024, she took an opportunity she could not pass up to join School District No. 73 as their Director of Communications and Board Administration. This offered an opportunity to expand and develop her administrative and leadership skills while strengthening and deepening her ties to the community. When the leadership position came up at WCT, Chelsea could not resist the lure of the theatre, so she threw her hat into the ring. She is still very busy with some big school district events, including a school opening and a civic election, but her November arrival at WCT will be well worth the wait.
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The hiring process was lead by a Board sub-committee, chaired by Robin Nichol, WCT board member and Chair of Thompson Rivers Univerity’s Department of Literatures, Languages, and Performing Arts. While there is a lot of collaboration and overlap with the Artistic Director, the Executive Director is largely responsible for managing WCT’s venues, strategic funding relationships and grant procurement, human resources, budgeting, financial policy, community partnerships–including WCT’s invaluable team of volunteers–and a whole lot more. Together, the two act as spokespeople for the company and representatives in the community, with governing bodies, and within the larger theatre industry in Canada and beyond.
“I am beyond excited to be returning to Western Canada Theatre and to work alongside Kelli Fox and this incredible team as we look toward WCT’s next chapter,” Isenor says in a statement about the new position. “WCT holds a special place in my heart. Having grown up in Kamloops, this is where I experienced my first professional theatre production and where my love of theatre began. I know just how special WCT is to this community and to the Canadian theatre landscape. To have the opportunity to now help lead an organization that played such an important role in my own journey is incredibly meaningful. I’m looking forward to building on WCT’s successes, championing our local arts community, and working with Kelli, artists, staff, audiences, and supporters to imagine what the next 50 years can look like.”
Staff, volunteers, and board members at WCT’s 2023 International Women’s Day Event Photo by Emily May Photography (Chelsea Isenor – back row, 4th from left)
WCT’s 2026/27 Season starts in less than a month with a special presentation of
Where the Wild Things Are, an interactive adventure aimed at young audiences 3-8 years old. The limited run features 3 days of sold-out school shows followed by 5 public performances on September 26 & 27, which are already nearly half-sold. This will be followed in October (8th – 25th) by the company’s big musical production at the Sagebrush Theatre,
Little Shop of Horrors, the first WCT production directed by Artistic Director Kelli Fox. Seven-show subscriptions are already sold out for the season, but 5-show Sagebrush subscriptions and Flex Passes are still available. These are the best ways to see all that WCT has to offer at reduced prices.