Show-stopping costumes in Beauty and the Beast

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MacQuarrie suggested that council take time to consider the City’s Vision and Mission and whether it meets council’s own vision as to where the City should be heading, and if it should be addressed during council’s Strategic Planning sessions.

She went on to describe the five sustainability pillars listed in the current City Strategic Plan consisting of: Environment, Land and Infrastructure; Social Wellness; Culture and Recreation; Community Economic Development; and Governance and Community Excellence. “Pretty much everything the City does fits inside one of these sustainability pillars.”

Proposed process

MacQuarrie explained that the City’s proposed process for the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan will begin with public consultation through both an online (digital) and a paper survey beginning late January, while simultaneously having a staff survey.

“We are hoping to plan a community conversation on February 9. This is, of course, dependant on COVID and the restrictions that are in place at the time.

“The leadership team will have a workshop to provide input into the main components of the Strategic Planning say, and council will review the staff and public input in late February in preparation for council’s Strategic Planning worship on March 11 and 12.”

MacQuarrie said, following that workshop, the management team will review the outcomes from the Strategic Planning worship to develop their operational input.

“Then we will hold a council workshop, if necessary, to refine the draft of the Strategic Plan based on that operational input.”

The draft copy of the Strategic Plan will then come to Committee of the Whole on May 16, then to the public for feedback.

“Following the public feedback, if necessary, we will have another council workshop to refine the Strategic Plan with finalized version planning to go to council on June 20.”

Public engagement

As part of the Strategic Plan process, the City proposed to council an extensive public engagement piece in 2022 through Community Cafés.

“Looking at our operational plans for the next year or two, we have quite a few items that are going to come up that are going to involve a lot of public engagement,” noted MacQuarrie. “The goal of the City is to sit down at the beginning of the year and set up a year of Community Cafés–a targeted public engagement in a systematic way that is predictable by the citizens.”

MacQuarrie explained that the Conversation Cafés will involve targeted conversations, on a schedule, with City employees on specific topics throughout the year. “The by-product of which will be citizens meeting each other and hoping to form some relationships and engage further amongst themselves around specific topics.”

MacQuarrie said that the Community Cafés will not take the form of a townhall-type conversation, but are going to be tabletop conversations for these specific issues. “It gives the community a lot better chance of having a back-and-forth conversation with the people responsible for these areas of interest, rather than at a townhall, where you find those overwhelming voices often take over the flow.”

Community Café topics will include: • Council Strategic Planning in February • Business/Industry specific one in March/April • Policing and community safety later in quarter two and, • Budget consultation in the late fall.

“The City is also preparing for the Municipal Development Plan which will require different legislative engagement on a variety of different topics including: environmental sustainabililty, land management and planning,” reported MacQuarrie. “Once we get council’s ratification on this idea of holding this ongoing public consultation, and once we hear back from council on the Strategic Planning, we will start planning out a month by month on these community conversations so the public knows when a matter of interest is coming towards them.”

MacQuarrie referred to a draft copy of the Public Survey included in the report for council’s feedback.

Council inquiries

Councillor Joy-Anne Murphy asked if the City has a backup plan should in-person engagement sessions not be feasible, and if there is a plan for more than one time slot for the same topic.

MacQuarrie said the City has software available that they hope will be able to accommodate online community conversations.

McCarroll said the City had hoped to plan both days and evenings for in-person conversations to accommodate as many citizens’ schedules as possible. “Also, we will have online sessions (which may include live online interactions) as well as paper copy to meet all the needs of the citizens where they are at.”

Councillor David Francoeur inquired about a conversation that had occurred with council on the underutilization of the Camrose and District Centennial Museum. “It really needs some sort of focus. Can it be part of this?”

MacQuarrie said it would be added under the Recreation/Cultural Services component as a potential topic for community conversation.

Councillor Don Rosland inquired as to where the questions on the survey originated.

McCarroll said half of the questions were from previous rounds of Strategic Planning and public engagement, and half were brainstormed with some of the new management team and new parts of City staff.

Rosland was also pleased to see the City making an effort to engage as many citizens as possible by including paper surveys along with digital access.

Councillor Kevin Hycha inquired as to what the City felt could be expected, percentage wise, for response.

MacQuarrie said statistically if the City were hiring a company to come in and do a randomized survey, the goal would be 400. “Because we are not randomizing, we hope it would be more than that.”

McCarroll said that the last Strategic Planning survey resulted in 1,200 responses, which she felt was due to large community interest in the outcome of the Aquatic Centre. “We are hoping for over 1,000 this time.”

She went on to say that the City will be encouraging council, council committees and employees to get the word out. “This is an important way for citizens to supply input to council and the City.”

MacQuarrie added, “We are going to be relying on councillors who are sitting as liaisons on council committees to be feeding the survey to the committee and getting the feedback from the committee in a fairly comprehensive way, so those committees will be having almost like their own channel into the Strategic Planning.”

Councillor DJ Ilg indicated as long as council has the link they can share with citizens.

Councillor Murphy asked if the City wants answers from each committee and for each committee to also distribute the surveys.

MacQuarrie replied, the City would like both individual responses to the survey but also responses by the committee which she indicated would likely include more narrative pertinent to the particular interest of the individual committees.

Murray Green, Camrose Booster

Churchmice Players cast members of Beauty and the Beast are busy preparing for February shows at the Lougheed Centre. From left, Kiersten Wilson, Kristin Bergman (back), Sarah Terlesky, Karlina Olson (back), Veronica Dennis, Janine Pudlowski and Hope Haugen prepare for the union of the Beauty and the Beast.

Show stopping costumes

By Murray Green

The show Beauty and the Beast by the Churchmice Players will redefine costumes and set design.

The costumes were rented from the Edmonton Citadel Theatre and are Broadway calibre, raising the bar for costume and set designers in the future.

Kim Misfedt and Todd Sikorski are the costume designers for the Churchmice Players. Todd also designed the set, works closely with the props team and is part of the construction team.

“I was initially brought in for set design. Then I was asked to oversee costumes as well. This is a very heavy set and costume show. We have large set pieces and a large cast that has some elaborate costumes. That was a lot of work, so that is why we decided to bring in Kim. She has a lot of experience in professional costuming,” said Todd.

“We have the rented costumes for some of the main roles, and then we have some costumes for other cast members such as villagers, that are made or are from previous shows. We are very fortunate that the Citadel costumes have fit about 85 to 90 per cent of the cast without major adjustments. Kim was joking, when asking us if we cast the show based on the costumes.”

The costumes are breathtaking and will take the Churchmice production to a new level.

“I had to make some forks and spoons for cutlery to add to those. We looked at the costumes that had a lot of floral, colour and embroidery in them and tried to match that in the ones we had to find or make,” shared Todd.

“In the set we designed, we went with a fairy tale style, with much more colour. This show has a lot more scenes in and outside the castle, tavern, cottage and village. We have to get these sets on and off the stage, so we constructed portable sets on casters that can be moved quickly,” explained Todd.

“We made them reversible, so one side will be a village and the other side the library inside of the castle. We had to do this because we only have so much room backstage. With a large cast, it is a challenge to know where to put everybody,” said Todd.

In theatre, often the show must go on. “To prepare for things like COVID, we double cast some of the main characters. If someone can’t perform, then as least we have a backup plan. Some of the characters will be alternating shows. We will have to come up with a plan if other changes need to be made,” Todd said.

“I have been involved in a lot of productions with Churchmice, and I’ve always loved doing set design and seeing the show come to life. This one has been particular challenging just in turns of the sheer scope. I have never been involved in this level of costumes. The set we are designing is probably the most complex that we have ever designed in terms of moving pieces. We ordered our first scenic backdrop that is a huge canvas that will fill the entire stage. I’m looking forward to seeing how that is going to work. It will be a village backdrop with a castle in the background,” he added.

“Its been awhile since we have had a show and I think everyone wanted to do something creatively, and this show has a lot of excitement and joy from everyone in Churchmice. We look forward to welcoming audiences back.”

The Churchmice Players will be performing Beauty and the Beast (the Broadway Musical version), with evening shows on February 3 to 6 and February 9 to 12 at 7:30 p.m. Matinees will be held on February 6 and 12 at 1:30 p.m.