Long before he realized his dream of opening Open Space Event Studios, Charlie Thiel was a community theater actor and photographer who was well aware Bend lacked a midsize facility that could function nimbly as a versatile event center.

“My first and foremost priority was to create a space, as the name says, that is open and adaptable to just about anything anyone wants to do — whether you want to have a corporate event here, or you want to put on a theater production or a pop-up shop — that we could adapt to that use,” he said. “For someone looking for a medium space/venue to do something creative, I wanted it to be the place that’s like, ‘OK, you need less space, you need more space, we can open this up, we can close that off, provide you these chairs, tables, whatever — to kind of be that venue.”

Prior to moving to Bend seven years ago from Charleston, South Carolina, he’d worked as a professional photographer

“I’ve always drooled over these big rental photo studios that are beautiful, contemporary spaces,” he said. “I came in here and I was like, ‘That’s what I want to make … something that is industrial but contemporary.’”

With the help of capable contractors who understood his vision, he completely renovated the building at 220 NE Lafayette Ave. in Bend’s Central District and known to many locals as the former home of 2nd Street Theater, which closed in 2018. The fixed theater seating was removed, and the muted, dark interior was transformed into the bright and airy Open Space Event Studios, which opened in May and has three spaces available for use, including the largest room that had served as 2nd Street’s theater.

Arriving here was not a quick and easy process.

“We dealt with a lot of bureaucratic hoops that we had to jump through to make this space happen,” Thiel said, perched on a couch near the building’s south-facing entrance and windows, the mid-December sun beaming in brightly.

Getting a permit for that demolition work had not been a problem — gutting of the interior began in January 2019. But that was followed by a year of trying to hack through the red tape surrounding the intended change of use.

“Quite honestly, what made it work was coming to realize that we really could fit ourselves under (the description of) theater, since that’s what this was before. That short-cut a lot of the process of change-of-use with the city. But it took us a year to figure that out.”

Open Space has already hosted several productions by outside theater groups in the months since opening. Thiel is still an ardent supporter of, and participant in, community theater — he has a role in an upcoming Thoroughly Modern Productions show in early 2022 — but having that background in it meant he also knew there would be a lot of dark nights, and a lot of time spent chasing grants, if that had remained the space’s sole purpose.

As is, Open Space has more of a soul purpose, as he sees it.

“The tagline is if you are trying to do something creative, whether that’s in business, culture or the arts, we want to be the venue that not only serves as a venue for your project, but also, when you walk in, you go, ‘Yeah, this feels good. It feels creative,’” Theil said. “It is a place that people walk into, and they get inspired by the space itself.”

With the pandemic still a part of daily life, nothing about 2021 was easy for Central Oregon residents. But there were triumphs, large and small, and bright moments worth noting.