A new theatre group is ready to bring something different to the Lethbridge stage.
 Theatre Outré has their first local show, Feb. 14, in a new space affectionately called the Bordello, on the third floor of the building which also has the Owl Acoustic Lounge and the Potemkin art gallery  (411-3rd Ave South) .
“ Theatre Outré is a new idea to bring experimental and alternative theatre to the Lethbridge area that is an alternative to what is being offered by other theatre companies,” summarized Jay Whitehead, who decided to organize the theatre after clicking creatively and personally with recent arrival Richie Wilcox and after seeing the success of events like “Pretty, Witty And Gay.”

“It’s material that is darker and more provocative,” added Wilcox noting most of the shows will definitely be adult orientated and may feature themes of sexuality and nudity.
“But not always,” Whitehead added.

 Their first show is “Love Stinks: A Valentines Day Cabaret” a drag cabaret starring several high profile Lethbridge actors like Jocelyn Haub and Kathy Zaborsky, plus Doug MacArthur, Yvonne Maendel, Rob Bechtel and  Whitehead’s “twin sister” Didi who will explore the upsides but mostly downsides of love.

“We’ll also invite people from the audience on stage to share their tales of heartbreak,” Whitehead said adding they may be asked to sing as well.

 He noted Theatre Outré will focus on using Lethbridge and Southern Alberta talent.

Noises Off! has been described as the world’s funniest farce by the New York Times, so Playgoers of Lethbridge expect to do it justice at the Yates Theatre Feb. 6-9.

 Noises Off! is a backstage farce written by Michael Frayne, which explores the backstage shenanigans of a travelling troupe of actors putting on their own backstage sexcapade called “Nothing’s On.” They miss lines and cues, they fight, and fall in love and lust with each other, slam a lot of doors and drop their drawers.
  But life is definitely not imitating art with the Playgoers of Lethbridge production.

“ We don’t have any of the fights onstage that the actors in the play do,” chuckled Kate Connolly, who plays the actress Dottie Otley, who plays the sardines obsessed Mrs. Clackett in Noises Off.

 She performed in a production of Noises Off about 20 years ago with a group called Theatreworks along with Eric Low, who plays the director Lloyd in Playgoers of Lethbridge’s production.
“I played the lovely Brooke before, now I play the old bag in this one. I’ve always loved the play. It’s very cleverly written. And it’s had a huge resurgence in London last year and on Broadway as well,” Connolly observed.

 She is excited about her role of Dotty Otley.

“ She helps to finance this not very good production of a second rate sex farce, so she has a big stake in it,” she said.

“She is also having an affair with a young man, Roger, who plays Garry. Garry is a bit of a psychopath, he’s a real estate agent who pretends he owns the house,” she described adding her character is also having an affair with the director who discovers her affair with Roger.

“So things fall apart and mayhem ensues,” she described.

Lethbridge improv group The Drama Nutz looked happy in their new “home” in the NAAG Gallery, Feb. 1 where they entertained a good sized crowd, most of whom brought their own chairs as requested.

 The outstanding cast of Mark Ogle, Erica Barr, Jonny Kirsch, Dave Gabert and Hanna Rud and Ryan Shiskowski on guitar  laughed their way through a number of entertaining improv games, some from popular TV show Whose Line is It Anyway. They gladly took suggestions, no matter how outrageous from the enthusiastically laughing audience of approximately 50.

They started off strong with  “Slide show, ” a game in which Erica Barr had to  give sideshow presentation of  a holiday in a sweatshop while the other performers had to act out the slides.
 Hanna Rud sported a pirate outfit , while David Gabert put on a Viking’s helmet for it.

As they did at their 30-Hour improv challenge in November, they had the “Table of Contents,”  set up which allowed the crowd to buy costumes  and wigs for the performers to incorporate.

But there was an added twist as the audience could also “cripple” the actors by making them blind, deaf or dumb for various games, which added to the mirth, especially when Hanna Rud had to perform one of several singing games without being able to hear the song or the subject.