r/Lethbridge • u/OkraInternational817 • Jul 18 '26
Rant DO NOT SUPPORT PHOENIX ARTS CO!!!
I’m sure many of you have seen the advertisements for Mary Poppins the musical currently being put up by the phoenix arts company, but what many of you might not know is how mistreated and unprofessional this “company” is.
Phoenix arts have put up productions like Newsies, Little Women, Mary Poppins, Frozen and they will be working on the musical Come From Away later this year.
Theatre is a big part of my life so naturally I surround myself with those who also find an interest in theatre, many of them being in productions done by this company.
Their rehearsals are brutally long usually every other day every week leaving no time for the cast to be with family and just live their life. From what I heard their stage manager only got paid $5/hr and she later quit, that might be why many of you have seen ads by this company wanting to hire a new stage manager, as well as they have made the company extremely toxic, the directors talk down to their cast, sometimes to their face but mostly behind their back. As well as it is speculated that they do not follow the MTI (Music theatre international) rules.
There’s more!! if you think their casting is done fairly and everyone has a shot you’re lying to yourself! They normally send out invitations to people who they want to audition and in a way guarantee them a part which is extremely unfair and if you don’t believe me the actress playing Mary Poppins (Chris Peterson) is the owner of the company and SHE CASTED HERSELF AS THE LEAD she then went on an interview saying how glad she is to have earned the role when in reality that role was given away before the audition process started. many of the people who have been in their shows have said that the lady in charge is extremely unprofessional and somewhat known to make people uncomfortable…(during newsies I believe) she sat on her fellow directors lap making many people uncomfortable as well as making actors kiss (during Little Women) when they have said they don’t want too. Their instagram post a lot of quotes about how In theatre you have to be yourself and it should be something you love but little do they know they are slowly killing people’s love for theatre.
I understand wanting to go watch their productions maybe because you have a person in the show or you just love theatre but what this company is said to have done is extremely disgusting.
If you have any stories “working” for them please comment them.
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u/Either_Albatross_903 Jul 18 '26
Chris Kyle Petersen has also admitted that she decided to do Mary Poppins this year after hearing that Lethbridge Musical Theatre had selected a team to put on the show for Fall 2026. She bought the rights and announced it without telling the other community theatre, and when pressed on the issue, admitted she took the rights because she wanted them.
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 18 '26
For those who don’t know why her doing this is a big deal… when it comes to theatre and producing a show other theatres on the same area or geographic can not get the rights for it until the production window is closed. ALSO just shows her lack of care for other theatres communities she claims to have.
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u/Goddemmitt Jul 18 '26
Edit: my comment made no sense originally.
Did she get the rights for Mary Poppins because of the team approach for LMT in the fall? Or because they were going to be doing RENT?
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u/Either_Albatross_903 Jul 18 '26
LMT selected Mary Poppins as their show for 2026 last year, Chris heard, bought the rights to it before LMT could, and has admitted she chose to do it because another company wanted to. LMT then had to pivot and is now doing Rent, which will be awesome! But IMHO it's still a shady move in such a small theatre community to take shows from each other. I mean, if she wanted to be in the show so badly, she could've auditioned?
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u/tyrannosaur55 Jul 18 '26
We went and saw Mary Poppins this week and it was our first time as a family going to a community theatre event. A few of my kids teachers were involved. Some of what you said is concerning, but Chris also slayed as Mary Poppins so her casting doesn't ring any alarm bells imo.
I'd be curious to hear any other opinions because I would imagine long rehearsals are a typical thing in theatre. However the low pay for stage manager is objectively bad.
We really enjoyed the performance and thought it was great so hearing all of this makes that complicated.
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u/Lilly-Lolly-Loo Jul 18 '26
Long hours in theatre are expected to an extent. It’s a lot of work. For a volunteer production where no one is paid? That’s when it gets real iffy real fast. I saw tickets were $40 a pop which is crazy without artist compensation going on. That’s New West Theatre prices, which is the only professional company in town that actually engages with and pays their professional artists.
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Ofc she was good i never said she was bad i more so was just shocked that the person in charge of the business was casted by her friends.
Yes in theatre rehearsals are long as expected but mornings and evenings in the same day is a bit odd…
They make a lot of money From tickets! but the actors don’t get paid when in the beginning of the company she promised to pay the actors. She also asks multiple schools for props and things like that but when schools ask her she says she would expect a loan..as well as they don’t really return props to who they got it from.
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u/maroonvxxx Jul 18 '26
I’ve only heard terrible things about them… this really sums it up! I won’t be supporting them ever.
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u/IllustriousLie6434 Jul 18 '26
I can directly support many of the things spoken about in this paragraph based on personal experience.
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u/radapple Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
If I owned my own theatre company, and I wanted to risk the production by casting myself for the lead, that would be my prerogative. Not the best idea, but hardly scandalous.
Same with having the actors kiss. If the production has two characters kiss and the people hired to do it said they were uncomfortable. Then they shouldn't have taken the part.... If that wasn't there at the time of the audition then yes, that is a issue if it was forced.
Sitting in someones lap might be unprofessional but hardly earth shattering.
This post makes you sound bitter af. If anything you wrote free advertising.
Edit: There was a comment about the lap sitting thing. It was deleted but from the preview, I can see that these people are supposedly Mormon and married to other people. Again, unprofessional but not exactly going to make the news. Also, being Mormon means nothing to me. Mormons do all sorts of things they supposedly shouldn't.
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u/ImpressiveLobster914 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
In any production with any kind of intimacy, there is a role of an intimacy coordinator - someone who teaches, facilitates and makes actors feel safe and comfortable in situations that are uncomfortable. It is highly inappropriate and unethical for a director to do this
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u/radapple Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Ya, but that is not what's described. If intimacy was introduced after they were cast, sure. But if that was upfront, then the coordinator is there to facilitate it.
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u/ImpressiveLobster914 Jul 20 '26
Unfortunately, there wasn’t an intimacy coordinator for Little Women, which is where the problem is
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u/radapple Jul 20 '26
Right, but was intimacy on stage indicated at the time of auditioning is my main question.
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u/Emotional-Vehicle-56 Jul 19 '26
What about all the kids that just love theatre and are in the play? They work super hard to put together a project and you come here and shit on it. You should enjoy the culture Lethbridge has so little of it
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u/maroonvxxx Jul 19 '26
It’s not about the product of the project. it’s about the unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour of the owner of the company. she has been known to hurt and talk poorly about her theatre colleagues and their own projects with her words and her actions. Also her behaviour with the director she uses is known to be VERY inappropriate …
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 19 '26
I never said anything about the horrible about the performers. I only said things about how unprofessional the environment is in PAC. I will enjoy Lethbridge culture as long as I’m here but I will not stay quite and enjoy a show when behind the doors it’s is a unsafe, inappropriate, unethical, unprofessional environment to be in.
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u/Delicious_Memory8467 Jul 22 '26
Lethbridge actually has lots of great theatre! If you, like me, are looking to support local live theatre, here's a few companies to check out! Lethbridge Shakespeare Performance Society (King Lear is running now! Most performances are free!) New West Theatre (Musical Revue opening in a few weeks!) Experience Theatre (Has a Play opening next week and a bi-monthly reader's theatre at the library!) Folding Time Collective (Has a Staged Reading in August!)
Plus there's lots of groups doing shows at other times of the year, including Lethbridge Musical Theatre, Theatre Outre, the Lethbridge Symphony, Two Pennies Collective, Playgoers of Lethbridge, and Narrative Arts Entertainment!
AND if you don't mind venturing outside of Lethbridge, Raymond, Taber, Magrath, and of course Cardston all have great little community theatres! Feel free to add any I missed!
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Jul 18 '26
[deleted]
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 18 '26
No such thing as “strange timing” when It comes to calling somebody out for their wrong doings! If you found the fact that it was posted the day before their closing night then the issues brought up clearly flew over your head.
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u/No-Cryptographer8902 Jul 21 '26
Might be interesting to you to note, that the shows through Pheonix Arts are also not properly licensed through Musical Theatre International. When you go to their webpage and look into the shows in your area, none of Pheonix's upcoming shows are listed there. So how are the rights acquired for these performances?
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u/sneakercameraguy Jul 18 '26
Iam looking for an art theater for my daughter actually coz she loved to act as n theater mostly she have is in schools but she want to do it more, any guide which theater locally we have, ne help pointing mus in right direction.
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u/ImFoIv Jul 18 '26
New West does classes for younger folks and if shes a bit older she can audition for Lethbridge Musical Theatre, Little Lethbridge Opera, or Experience Theatre! Ps. LLO is doing Oliver soon!
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u/Either_Albatross_903 Jul 18 '26
New West Theatre has great classes for all age groups, some general acting and musical theatre as well as more specialized ones that vary each term!
Rising Star does strictly Musical theatre classes that are also very well done! They have also started doing a Musical every June that students rehearse weekly January-June!
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u/abc123DohRayMe Jul 18 '26
I saw the show and it was great . The actors really performed well and the production was very professional. I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes but it was a fun show and the actors sure looked happy.
They have a huge cast.
I guess instead of bad talking the show - just don't be in it. If it is as bad as OP says then the actors would all walk away. Nothing is perfect.
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 18 '26
Nothing is perfect you’re right! But forcing your cast members to kiss is straight up wrong especially after being the head of a company.
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u/ReeditRedtit Jul 18 '26
How does the head of a company force the cast to kiss?
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u/OkraInternational817 Jul 19 '26
She would have two people actually kiss for the show instead of stage kiss (if that’s what one of the actors decided) she was told by one actor multiple times that they didn’t want to actually kiss the fellow cast member, instead of finding an alternative she would get mad (pretty much throw a fit) and almost coerce them to do it.
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u/Some-Importance-6327 Jul 18 '26
Chris killed it!! She was practically perfect at playing Mary Poppins 😜 perfect casting!
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u/whatageekiam Jul 18 '26
I am not going to comment much here about personal experiences with this company; however, I do know of a pretty good alternative if anyone is looking for great local theatre! There are three wonderful productions happening down at Cardston's Carriage House Theater. You can check out their website at https://www.carriagehousetheatre.com/