Theatre Outre offering personalized performances

By Lethbridge Herald on September 19, 2020.

Dale Woodard

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge’s Theatre Outré will be staging some one-on-one entertainment next month when the local theatre group unveils its latest production, “Confessional,” Oct. 2-11 at Didi’s Playhaus.

In keeping with the social distancing and other protocols brought on by COVID-19, Theatre Outré has flipped the script, performing “Confessional” to one person at a time and possibly a second one depending on the ticketholder’s comfort level.

“I’ve been wanting to do a show for one audience member at a time for years and what better excuse than social distancing to make that happen,” said Theatre Outré co-artistic director Jay Whitehead. “It just seemed like the perfect time with safety restrictions in place to put together something completely unique and that nobody will have experienced before. So audiences will go through the experience of ‘Confessional’ by themselves and the actors will perform specifically for that person for a short 20 or 30 minutes. But it’s going to be jam-packed with all kinds of exciting content.

“We’re only able to sell one ticket per show. We are inviting the person to bring one friend from their bubble. So if there’s somebody in their life that they are safe to not socially distance with, for example someone they live with, they can bring them along.”

Theatre Outré will run six shows a night. The show is roughly 20 minutes with a 10-minute turnover in between, said Whitehead. Show times will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“Confessional,” led by Whitehead and co-artistic director Kathy Zaborsky, will guide the audience member through the seven deadly sins — sloth, pride, lust, envy, greed, wrath and gluttony.

Rounding out the cast is recent University of Lethbridge graduate Anastasia Siceac, designer/

collaborators Deonie Hudson and Lee Burckes and devised theatre artist Mia van Leeuwen.  

“We’re excited about the possibilities,” said Whitehead. “We have three actors, two designers and a facilitator and all of us are entrenched in the world of the play. We’re taking the audience through the journey of the seven deadly sins. Everyone is on board. It’s a devised piece of theatre, so we’re creating it from scratch and everybody is contributing and everybody is keen. So there is a lot of excitement around our rehearsal.

 “Right now we’re the process of creating. So we’ve created all the moments that are going to happen in the piece and now it’s just rehearsing it and making sure it’s ready.”

To purchase a ticket, visit http://www.theatreoutre.ca.

Ticket buyers will receive further information about the possibility of bringing a friend with them.  

“Once they buy their ticket they’ll get an email from us giving them further instructions,” said Whitehead. “We have sold quite a few so far. Sales are going quite briskly, so we encourage people to buy soon because there are limited tickets.”

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