By Kyle Weinberger
The shine of the bright lights in your eyes, a sudden surge of fear and anxiety as you try to remember all your lines a tinge of nausea as you walk in front of the crowd. This is the live theatre experience and a local group is bringing it to you up close and personal.
This local organization was founded in 2023 by Jesse Thibert Bear Child, Director, and CEO of Experience Theatre. For Bear Child having his own theatre production company was always a dream and after many of his friends left the city to pursue acting careers, he decided to start his own here in Lethbridge.
“I figured I should just start making jobs for people like that was very much the goal in all of Experience Theatre was to give an opportunity to local artists to have the ability to share their stories.”
Through his efforts Experience Theatre has grown from a single man operation to an expansive team of artists ready to share their visions. But dinner theatre is not all that Bear Child has to offer for the City of Lethbridge.
“This summer we’re hoping to partner up and start having a video game tournament since video games are very much an excellent art form.”
With Experience Theatre continually growing a plethora of its actors are branching out and planning their own shows. Grayden Mckay, a recent graduate of the University of Lethbridge drama program, plans to continue working with Experience Theatre in different forms.
“I am going to be directing one of the next pieces that’s going to become with a combined bill with another show and my show is called Rotting Roots.” He goes on to say, “it is going to be a much different piece than this, but that’s kind of what we love here at Experience Theater.”
Allowing local artists to show what they can do is what Experience Theatre was created for, and they have big plans for upcoming shows. Such titles include: A Shackled Heart, Rotting Roots, Create and a Murder Mystery. But none of these productions would be possible without support from the community.
“The food was amazing, the actors were great, overall, it was very well done.” Said Rebecca Ceily, a parent of one of the actors.
Ceily is an avid theatre enthusiast, she has been going to the theater for many years but with an increasing price she had to cut back.
“It just wasn’t sustainable; I loved watching these shows come to life but I just couldn’t afford it.”
Experience theatre is hoping to relive that stress as most of their shows are on the cheaper side. For Bear Child he has an interesting endeavor that he wants to take on in the summer to bring more awareness and money to Experience Theatre.
“I want to make a event for graffiti artists, where we get pieces of wood and they paint them for us,” says Bear Child
With Experience Theatre wanting to make bigger and better productions, local support is highly requested. To find and support future shows go to xptheatre.ca where you can buy tickets and learn more about the upcoming productions.
