Corinne Lea

July's featured speaker is entrepreneur, producer, and CEO of The Rio Theatre Corinne Lea who will generously share her insights and perspectives on creativity through the lens of the global theme TRUST.

Founder and CEO of The Rio Theatre, Vancouver’s award winning multimedia Independent theatre and cultural anchor of East Vancouver. An entrepreneur and producer with over twenty years experience producing and promoting events. Working directly with distributors, she leads the team responsible for the theatre’s diverse and award-winning programming.
In January 2012 Corinne Lea became well known for changing the BC laws for movie theatres throughout the Province and received a Governor General's Award for her efforts. In 2018 she launched a successful fundraising campaign attracting support from celebrities like Kevin Smith, Ryan Reynolds and Seth Rogan. Her campaign raised $8 million to purchase the property and save the theatre from developers. She is also the founding member of Room 228 Productions featuring their team's first short film ‘‘Tiger By The Tail’, and an Executive Producer on an independent comedy feature film ‘Outrunners’; the indie feature ‘Snake in The Grass’ and ; with several other projects in development.

As usual, we asked Corinne some probing questions to give us a deeper glimpse into her life and relationship with creativity:

How do you define creativity and apply it in your life and career?

I am one of those people who has a math/art brain, so for me creativity has a very broad spectrum. It's not just about making "art" - creativity is about invention and trusting our instincts to come up with new ideas in all facets of our lives. Creative ideas are the main staple that keeps me going in life and an essential element that has helped me overcome all the obstacles in my career running an Independent theatre.

Where do you find your best creative inspiration or energy?

I think my best creative inspiration is when I'm facing adversity. That's when I am most pressed to think outside the box and come up with solutions that may not have been tried before.

What’s one piece of creative advice or a tip you wish you’d known as a young person?

I learned an important creative lesson when I was young from a watercolour painting I made in art class that I over worked to the point that I made a hole in the paper. I was so upset because I ruined the whole thing. The lesson I learned is that creativity needs space, you can't force it, and sometimes you need to walk away and come back to find the answer. The moment you feel the need to overwork or force something WALK AWAY, take a step back, do something else and come back to it later with a new perspective.

Who (living or dead) would you most enjoy hearing speak at CreativeMornings?

John Waters!

What did you learn from your most memorable creative failure?

My story above of overworking and trying too hard to fix my water colour painting until I made a hole through the paper as a child was one of the best lessons I ever learned about the creative process.

What fact about you would surprise people?

That I'm a big math nerd. I was in the math enriched program in Jr high with all the nerds and even though I showed up late to class and acted like I was too cool for math class, I hung out with criminals at the arcade and looked like an 80's Rocker chick with my electric blue eyeliner, black leather jacket and hair sprayed feathered hair. But as soon as the teacher put an algebra equation on the board for the class to solve I was all in. I couldn't help myself. I was just as keen as my nerdy classmates. I love solving math problems!

How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?

I always describe my work as a programmer like this: I am a pop culture seismologist - I track pop culture tremors and follow volcanic activity building in art, film and current ideas so that we have an idea of what people are excited about.