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This article was published 14/11/2014 (2137 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

"The envelope please..."

How many times have you watched an awards show on TV and heard a winner gush, "This is so unexpected," or "I can't believe I won," during an acceptance speech? And how many times have you thought to yourself, "What a load of (malarkey)?"

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Erick Casselman poses outside the Park, which was recently named Venue of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

Well, when the Park Theatre, at 698 Osborne St., was named Live Music Venue of the Year at a Western Canadian Music Industry Awards gala at the Fairmont Winnipeg hotel last month, Erick Casselman, the Park's owner, swears he was the most surprised person in the room.

"I know it sounds cliché but when they announced my name, I was totally stunned. As a matter of fact, the presenter didn't think I was there at first because it took me so long to react," says Casselman, whose 250-seat locale was nominated alongside similar-sized halls such as the Biltmore Cabaret in Vancouver, the Exchange in Regina and the West End Cultural Centre.

The Park was a vaudeville theatre when it originally opened on Sept. 6, 1915. To win an award for best, live-act venue almost a full century later is "something else," says Casselman, 43.

"What's that saying? Everything old is new again? That's definitely the case around here."

In 2004, Casselman and his wife (now his ex) were regulars at an Italian restaurant situated across the street from the Park Theatre. The couple would head there for a glass of wine, stare out the window at the "for sale" sign on the closed cinema's marquee and scribble business plans on cocktail napkins. Casselman, a film buff who moved to Winnipeg from Snow Lake in 1989, was buying and selling homes at the time and viewed the Park as an "abandoned house, if you will."

DWAYNE LARSON PHOTO Andrew Neufeld of Comeback Kid is among those who've played the Park Theatre.

"I'll be honest, it was horrendous," Casselman says in regards to his first impression of the space, after a real estate agent took him for a walk-through in November 2004. "It had been shut for eight or nine years, I was told, and had been totally abandoned: no heat, no cooling system, leaks in the roof... to put it bluntly, it was just a piece of crap."

Despite some reservations, the Casselmans took possession of the Park one month later. Their goal was to reopen in May 2005, to coincide with their son Luke's first birthday.

"Five months turned into eight months, which wasn't too bad, considering we had to gut all 6,000 square feet, and rebuild it practically from scratch," Casselman says, noting hardly a day went by during the renovation stage when long-time residents of the neighbourhood -- people with fond memories of Saturday afternoon double-features at the historic moviehouse -- didn't poke their heads inside to wish them luck.

The Park Theatre was reborn as the Park Theatre and Movie Café in September 2005. From time to time, Casselman would run classics like Casablanca and King Kong on the big screen. But for the most part, activity was confined to the front lobby area, which housed a combination coffee bar/video-rental outlet.

"There was always a plan to do something concrete with the back-end of the building but we could never decide what that was going to be, exactly," Casselman says.

Casselman's "a-ha moment" occurred midway through his second year in business, when singer/songwriter JP Hoe approached him with a proposition. Hoe had just attended a Monty Python movie-marathon at the Park and during a break in the action he looked around and thought what a perfect spot to record his next album.

The Live Beta Project by JP Hoe & the Truly Richards was released in December 2006. A few months later, the Park Theatre changed personas again.

"Before (Hoe) we had a couple of bands play here but it was always people arriving with their own equipment and gear," Casselman says. "But in 2007, we began investing time and money into our own sound system -- to the point where acts now tell us this is their favourite venue in Western Canada, if not North America.

"A lot of times I think they're saying that to just to make me feel good. But hey, I appreciate the compliments, just the same."

Roots rocker Scott Nolan "can't even guess" how many times he's performed at the Park Theatre.

"The thing I like about the Park on a personal level is with 250 some-odd seats, I feel fairly equipped to take an audience somewhere with me in a room that size," says Nolan, whose last album -- a joint effort with Joanna Miller titled North/South -- was recorded in part at the Park Theatre.

"It's like any other area of music. We all have to pay our dues... we all have to put in that 10,000 hours sort-of-scenario," Nolan goes on. "In the early years of a room like (the Park) there were no easy answers. But I admire Erick's tenacity and his willingness to find those answers. He's always struck me as a legacy-minded man and I feel a connection with him because there are no guarantees in what I do for a living, either. The only insurance you can buy yourself in this line of work is to keep working."

Yeah, about that: by the end of December, the Park will have been booked 330 nights in 2014 -- a heady number that includes concerts, improv shows and off-the-wall productions like last week's sold-out run of Evil Dead: The Musical.

"I used to do the majority of the booking but a lot of times these days it's people coming to us, asking if we have such and such a date open," says Casselman. "I've also hired a guy who helps me keep on top of the current stuff. As you get older, you get a little more out of touch, I find."

Asked about memorable moments through the years, Casselman laughs when he recalls musicians who showed up too inebriated to perform, and the night Lukas Rossi's wife chased after female fans who were trying to snap pictures of her husband, the Toronto-born winner of the CBS reality series, Rock Star: Supernova.

But he adopts a parental tone when he discusses one of his favourite acts.

"Said the Whale was one of those bands we saw develop in this room, to the point where they're now too big for us. You feel a bit sad when things like that happen but at the same time, that's why you have a place like this: to develop bands, help them build a fan-base -- then wish them good luck when they grow past you."

Right now, Casselman is looking forward to a David Lindley show booked for Nov. 22. But past that, well, we'll let him explain.

"Lindley's going to be amazing but yeah, I'll enjoy that for maybe an hour then get right back to work. There's always a calendar to fill; you're always looking for that next hit band or for that great up-and-coming artist.

"I seem to say this every year but we just finished our strongest fall yet and we're already gearing up for what looks to be a really great spring but all you can really think of is how good you were today."

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca