Galt Museum exhibit celebrates Theatre Outre, Lethbridge's queer theatre company

A new museum exhibit is celebrating Theatre Outre, Lethbridge's leading queer theatre company for the past decade.

Since raising the curtain on their first performance in 2012, Theatre Outre has highlighted and represented and explored the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Lethbridge through productions and other events.

To recognize the groundbreaking company's work and dedication to the city, the Galt Museum and Archives has created a new temporary exhibit, Acting Out: Celebrating a Decade of Theatre Outre.

"It means so much to see all that we've accomplished through the years put in this beautiful display. It's really touching me," said Theatre Outre co-founder Jay Whitehead.

The exhibit shows off their history, from the early days above The Owl to their last day at Didi's Playhaus and everything in between.

It also includes set pieces, costumes and props used over the years.

"Theatre Outre has been very scrappy and always put things together so there are several props and objects that have been highlighted here that have been made from little-to-nothing or found out of their own projects," says guest curator Jason Ranaghan. "That's one of my favourite aspects of the exhibition."

Tomorrow evening at 7pm, join us for the launch of our Acting Out exhibit! Over a decade of Theatre Outré history is on display in this fantastic project and the exhibit launch event will feature the voices involved in making it happen.

Learn more: https://t.co/lXflcADe88 pic.twitter.com/JSNIsmFIbZ

— Galt Museum (@GaltMuseum) August 23, 2023

"Jason had asked me to put together 10 or 15 pieces and I had 50," says interim artistic director and resident designer Deonie Hudson. "I had to kind of narrow it down to some pieces that could be exhibited here."

Outre has made a point of representing all aspects of queer life, from family relationships to queer takes on classic tales.

Whitehead says it's amazing to see how far the company has been able to come in 10 years.

"It started out with a small room above The Owl acoustic lounge that seated about 30 people," he said. "We've come a long way since then doing full seasons of three to four plays per year, touring our shows across the country and internationally – and it keeps growing from there."

Didi's Playhaus was home to the company's theatre productions, but it closed early this year.

"For the near future, we're going to be existing as most other theatre companies exist, in that we don't have a physical location," Whitehead said. "But we'll be using various locations to do our performances and things like that."

The Galt Museum exhibit is now open and runs until February 11th.

With files from Sean Marks