Karen Planden

Nee Planden is a theatre professional of over 30 years. Juggling her passions between acting, producing, directing, designing, writing, and being an arts administrator, Karen is also the proud owner of the historic Sunset Theatre in Wells BC which she purchased in 1999 on her credit card while still the Executive Director of the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Besides producing a total of eight years of Fringe Festivals, Karen has also worked in theatres across Canada including Toronto, Stratford, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver where she now calls home. She even spent some time in Nashville, living in a tent pursuing a career as a country and western singer. Karen has worked for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics as the Manager of Village Plaza Events, and was the Manager of Ceremonies and Culture for the 2015 Canada Winter Games where she produced an 18 Arts and Cultural Festival. Karen has worked extensively with the First Nations community and most recently creatively facilitated and directed a fusion of Theatre, Ceremony, Concert, and Storytelling with First Nation's Juno Award nominee, Marcel Gagnon.

Among her many passions, acting is Karen's first love, and since Black Roses has managed to perform in a number of small productions and films, in between being a mom, theatre owner and producer, jewelry maker, artist, and bread-winner.

Along with her husband Dave, Karen has helped raise two stepchildren, Daniel Jeffery (who is on this site as a filmmaker, actor, editor, and Michaela Jeffery, an award-winning Playwright - WROL, The Listening Room), and their two younger children, Kelk Jeffery, who is attending UBC in violin performance, and Lucy Jeffery, who has managed to do more films than her mother, is an incredible singer-songwriter and will be attending Studio 58 theatre school in the new year.

Watch Free Range by Daniel Jeffery. It's a hilariously dark snap-shot of life around the Jeffery Clan.