CALUMET — While the members of the Board of Directors of the Calumet Theatre Company adjust to recent changes after the annual member elections, they can do so with the comfort of knowing their acting operations director and marketing manager, Bethany Jones, has the venue’s operations under control.

Jones, whose name may be familiar to many, was the marketing manager for the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Tech for the past 10 years. She brings with her more than 20 years’ marketing experience, in higher education, as well as in the public and private sector. She earned a bachelor of fine arts (BFA) from the Center for Creative Studies and Parsons-New School in New York City. The BFA is considered to be the most prestigious bachelor’s degrees that one can receive in the visual arts. After graduation, she began work at a national advertising agency in the early 1990s on Fifth Avenue in NYC.

Returning to school at the University of Wisconsin, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree, she then worked in international sales and marketing with a Madison, Wisconsin-based company publishing and periodicals distribution company, before engaging as a corporate sales and advertising analyst with the Wisconsin Lottery. A decade ago, she accepted the position of marketing manager at the Rozsa Center at Michigan Tech.

For Jones, who grew up in the inner-section of a large city before moving to New York City, then spent more than a decade living in the capital of Wisconsin, one would think relocating to Houghton County would induce some sort of culture shock. So, how does she feel in regard to working at the Calumet Theatre after having moved into the historic district of Calumet Village?

“Actually, it feels like coming home,” she said. “I absolutely love historic places.”

Jones said she grew up in inner-city Detroit, in a house built in 1915, a “grand, old, English Tudor,” as she described it.

“So, old brick buildings like this, that have a character of their own,” she said, “they breathe, they — every single old, old structure like this is so rich, even if the seats could talk, could tell a story, and that’s something that I love.”

Jones became a resident of Calumet two years ago, she said, purchasing a historic home built by the same builders and artisans who built the theater and the Vertin building and the Michigan House.

“I’m part of the Historic District,” she said. “So, I feel like this is coming full circle, and this was meant to be.”

Jones said that she knows she has a lot of experience in the Performing Arts in the Copper Country after having worked a decade at the Rozsa Center, which puts on 160 shows a year. The Calumet Theatre is an entirely new venue for her.

“I’m just excited to see just what people want to see here at Calumet Theatre,” she said.

Like so many other people who have come into contact with the theatre, Jones immediately developed a passion for it. Not only for Performing Arts and marketing, but for the Calumet Theatre itself.

“I’m brand new here. I was brought in as the marketing director and that’s because of my background in marketing,” she said, “and it was — I was just volunteering. Honestly. I said I will come and help you with marketing, I’ve done this for many years; I can do this for you. Just from my heart, I wanted to volunteer.”

At the time, there was not a job opening for her, so three weeks ago, she came to the theatre as a volunteer in marketing. While a position did open up, the board was preoccupied.

As she understands it, Jones said until the board meets to decide what position they feel they need to fill, she is functioning under the titles of acting operations director and marketing manager.

“So, they need to decide what title I’m going to have, and the new board really needs to have a chance,” she said. “They were just voted in last Monday and they have not even had a board meeting under the new structure,”

Jones said a lot of the people have just come in during that past month, and “a lot of people are aware that we have a new board, and we want to give them a chance to come in and advise us on what they’d like to see, too, in the theatre.”

While everyone is settling in and adjusting, Jones said that while the people adjust to the new board, and the board members adjust to each other, there are many things to look forward to.

“What we’re really looking forward to is launching a brand new season next year,” said Jones. “We have a brand new group of people together here working, and it takes a little bit of time to put together an entire new season.”