Experience Theatre’s opening show “I Hear Abel Singin’ in the Fields” by playwright Jess Syratt premieres Apr. 21-25 in the Casa Community Room.
Owner and founder Jesse Thibert Bear Child says Experience Theatre is a brand-new theatre company based in Lethbridge. “We started talks about it in September and we launched this year. We are coming at Lethbridge hard with original works from local theatre artists.”
Syratt notes the production is a one-act play inspired by other Canadian works. “The show itself, I wrote a couple of years ago. Jesse had read it and we talked on and off about doing it. It’s a story about connection, division and I’d like to think, redemption. For me, I’ve tried to tie intrinsically into this relationship I know people, in this region specifically, tend to have with the land.”
“The story is about our relationship with the land from my perspective, as somebody who grew up in Lethbridge,” adds Syratt.
Bear Child adds the goal of Experience Theatre is to give people a chance to become a part of the local theatre community. “I attended the University of Lethbridge for six years. Throughout my six years, every time I watched a graduating class leave to another city they adamantly were open about how there is no work here or there’s very little work here, ‘I want to go to Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto. That’s where the work is.’”
Bear Child’s thought process was why not build something in Lethbridge. “There’s nothing wrong with starting our own company. For six years at university, I worked hard to talk to different students and up-and-coming emerging artists to encourage them to give it a chance to make their work here. To really try and blow it up here.”
The theatre business, Bear Child adds, is going to be expanding. “We start with theatre, but we’re going to be focusing on theatre, film, music, stand-up comedy and visual arts. All forms of art. We’re a very close and collective group.”
“For our first show, there are nine of us. Our second show, we’ll add another 13 people to the team and our fourth show, is another 14 people. It’s an exciting time to give 40 different artists in a year the opportunity to do what they want to do with the reins off,” says Bear Child.
Anyone who is an artist in Lethbridge and is interested in working in the arts can contact Experience Theatre.
“Whatever art form you are working on. Right now, I’m working with an individual that wants to start his own comic book series. I think that’s brilliant. Everything is interesting, as long as it’s art, it’s interesting to us,” says Bear Child.
For more information or to purchase tickets online visit xptheatre.ca. Tickets will also be available at the door.