Empress Theatre

By Amplify

Supporting local: Empress Theatre grateful to open again

Jun 30, 2021 | 1:47 PM

FORT MACLEOD, AB – Ever since March 17, 2020, the Empress Theatre in Fort MacLeod has been closed with very little income.

How did their business stay alive you ask? Margaret Ann Bianco, Empress Theatre Director, says the community rallied together to help the theatre.

Bianco says the theatre has been selling popcorn, renting out the theatre for private movies has been huge for them in order to generate the bare minimum for income.

Also, Bianco spent days filling out grant processes trying to get some financial compensation and lucky enough, it worked.

The Empress Theatre was able to obtain about $116,000 through many different Alberta grants for businesses “in order to stay afloat.”

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Having zero live events for over a year was especially tough for the theatre as in-person events are what the Empress survives on.

Bianco says their target date for reopening the theatre is July 30th which will mean they will have been closed for over 16 months.

“It was hard, very hard, and that’s why the success of our grants has been you know so very important to us.”

The Empress is “geared toward the public and serves the public,” Bianco added, saying they’re an all-round theatre.

Live events are so vital to the Empress and the possibility of having those sometime soon “brings joy” to Bianco.

Bianco told us a little bit about their motto and the history of the Empress.

“The Empress Theatre is the oldest operating theatre in Alberta.

Since 1912 the Empress Theatre has provided a broad spectrum of high-quality arts and cultural events to the people of rural Southern Alberta.

The Empress is a not-for-profit registered charity that hosts live theatre, world-class music, cinema, summer theatre camps, film festivals, community musicals, weddings, private screenings, conventions, tours, meetings, conferences, symposia, workshops, lectures, debates, rehearsals, memorials, celebrations, benefit concerts, location shoots, live recordings, spiritual experiences, paranormal investigations, parties and more.”

For more updates on the Empress Theatre and future showtimes, go to MacLeodEmpress.com.

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