Kamloops-raised Chelsea Isenor named executive director of Western Canada Theatre
Chelsea Isenor will become executive director of Western Canada Theatre on Nov. 2, joining artistic director Kelli Fox and board president Chrystie Stewart in what WCT says will be its first all-woman leadership team.
Photo credit: Western Canada Theatre
Chelsea Isenor first encountered professional theatre in Kamloops as an audience member at Western Canada Theatre. On Nov. 2, she will return to the company as its executive director.
Western Canada Theatre announced Isenor’s appointment Sept. 3 following a national search, bringing the Kamloops-raised arts administrator back to an organization where she has already worked and to the city where her interest in theatre began.
Isenor will co-lead WCT with artistic director Kelli Fox, with responsibility for the company’s administrative and business operations. Fox has served as artistic director since May 2025.
WCT says Isenor, Fox and board president Chrystie Stewart will form the first all-woman leadership team in the company’s history.
The milestone follows another first for WCT. The company’s published artistic leadership history lists men in the role from founding artistic director Tom Kerr through James MacDonald, who left in January 2025. Fox succeeded him later that year, becoming WCT’s first woman artistic director while Matt Eger was serving as executive director.
Isenor developed an interest in theatre while she was still in high school and later studied theatre alongside marketing and communications at university, according to a 2015 interview with Murray Paterson Marketing Group.
She went on to spend more than a decade working in theatre marketing and communications, with experience at Gateway Theatre in Richmond, The Cultch in Vancouver and Murray Paterson Marketing Group.
In 2021, she returned to Kamloops to become Western Canada Theatre’s marketing and communications director. She remained with WCT until 2024, when she joined the Kamloops-Thompson School District as director of communications and board administration.
At the school district, her portfolio included board administration as well as communications. She will return to WCT with responsibility for areas including finances and budgeting, human resources, facilities, grants and government funding relationships, organizational policy and community partnerships.
Isenor arrives during another period of change for Western Canada Theatre. The company marked its 50th-anniversary season in 2025-26 and is beginning its 51st season, the first programmed entirely by Fox.
The season opens Sept. 23 with Where the Wild Things Are at the Pavilion Theatre. Little Shop of Horrors follows at the Sagebrush Theatre from Oct. 8 to 25 and will be Fox’s first WCT production as director. Isenor takes up the executive director position Nov. 2, before Son of a Preacherman opens Nov. 18.
The remainder of the season includes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Wake, Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout, Made in Italy and Guilt (A Love Story). WCT says its seven-show Super Subscriptions have sold out with a record number of seats.
Isenor will also arrive as WCT reaches the end of its current 2023-26 strategic plan and expands some of its work outside the regular theatre season.
In September, WCT announced that it will take over production of the Kamloops Wine Festival, which returns May 15, 2027. The theatre had previously been a beneficiary and collaborator with the festival. WCT plans to begin with a one-day event in 2027 and has said it hopes to grow it into a larger multi-day festival in future years.
Another major development is underway next to Kelson Hall, where WCT has administrative, rehearsal and performance space. Construction has begun on the Kamloops Centre for the Arts at 393 Seymour Street, with completion anticipated in 2029.
The City of Kamloops identifies Western Canada Theatre as one of the project’s key partners. Plans for the centre include a 1,100-seat main theatre, a 450-seat second theatre, rehearsal halls, gallery and café space, along with backstage and production facilities.
Isenor’s return brings her back to the company where she first encountered the profession she would eventually build a career in.
“Having grown up in Kamloops, this is where I experienced my first professional theatre production and where my love of theatre began,” Isenor said when her appointment was announced.
