Jenna Goldade has taken to the improv stage to spontaneously call down comedy lightning for Red Deer audiences for 17 years.
The long-time artistic director for Red Deer's Bull Skit Comedy is now turning over centre stage to incoming artistic directing team Ash Mercia and Aaron Ranger.
Goldade's talent for improvisation and finding script-free laughs on demand will likely prove handy as she embarks on her next act.
"Improv just changes your brain. It makes it more playful and open and connected. It gives you different tools.
"That courageous piece is huge. You're not afraid of failing anymore because you know you can come back from it. Where a lot of people are afraid to fail in life."
Goldade will continue to perform, handle corporate bookings and generally help out but she will now play a smaller role, a change she does not downplay.
"It's a big deal," she said.
"Improv didn't exist before we started. We were able to create something here that was able to survive – and survive past COVID. I think that's a huge feat."
Goldade was a 20-year-old fresh out of Red Deer College theatre and film programs when she co-founded Against the Wall Theatre with Amy Erlandson in 2008. Producing edgy, thoughtful theatre was the plan.
But after some fundraising improv shows turned out to be a blast for both audiences and cast members, Bull Skit Comedy was born and laughter has been ringing the rafters at the downtown Scott Block ever since.
Letting her baby go has been akin to sending a child off to college, she says.
"It's 17 years old and going off to college and becoming its own thing.
"It was my first baby. Now I have two other babies," laughs the mother-of-two.
While it will be hard letting go, Goldade knows she is leaving Bull Skit in good hands. Mercia and Ranger will be joined by new executive director Jenn Best.
"I'm super-excited about the team we have in place. They're going to be awesome.
"I feel very lucky that we all just came together at the right time – and I think it is the right time. It's been my life forever and it's a new phase for me to figure out where I will land and what I will do now.
"It's exciting. But also terrifying.
"I'm like, 'Oh my God, what am I going to do with all my time?'"
For now, she has been busy doing improv shows in Calgary and will continue to pull comedy rabbits out of a hat on stage in Red Deer as she decides her next role.
