Even Didi d’Edada need a boost of Christmas spirit.

 Theatre Outré puts their own twist on Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic “A Christmas Carol” as they welcome the family home for the holidays to perform two shows of “ A Very Didi Christmas Carol,” Friday, Nov. 26 and Saturday, Nov. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Didi’s Playhaus.

“We have a lot of our favourite local actors,” said Theatre Outré  Artistic director Jay Whitehead, who penned the original musical comedy with Kathy Zaborsky, featuring beloved drag performers Didi d’Edada (Jay Whitehead) and Castrati (Kathy Zaborsky) and a lot of Lethbridge drag favourites. Aaron Collier and Richie Wilcox also make an appearance through sound cues.

“It’s the whole Club Didi family. We’re workshopping this script with a staged reading for the world premiere,” Whitehead said.

“The whole family stops by to give Scrooge character Didi d’Edada the Christmas spirit. Didi’s heart is opened by a Tiny Tim puppet, ” Whitehead said.

The 12 member cast includes familiar faces from numerous local theatre groups including New West Theatre, Shakespeare In the Park, Impromptu and Theatre Outré.

 Whitehead and Zaborsky will be joined by Cole Olson, Erica Barr, Katie Fellger,  Ashley Thomson,  Deonie Hudson, Jordan Payne, Erica Hunt, David Gabert, Stephanie Wickham and Katrina Violet.

“But there’s costumes and music and decorations,” added Theatre Outré General Manager, David Gabert.

Playgoers of Lethbridge doesn’t want to break the streak of being Canada’s longest running Theatre Company. They’ll break 100 years in 2023, so to m ensure they reach that goal, they are putting an evening of Three-atre, Nov. 18-20.

 The evening features Elaine Jagielski”s “Loves Best by, Artistic director Rita Peterson directs  a reader’s theatre of “The Best  Christmas Pageant Eve,” and Rob Berezay brings John Carroll’s “ Oh What  A Tangled Web.

“ Because of Covid, it has been extremely difficult to  put on theatre, but we wanted to put on something,” said Peterson.

“Covid has made it  challenging to cast a full production, so we thought we’d put on three smaller productions.” she continued. 

There are a lot of familiar faces involved with the evening. Rob Berezay directed and starred in “ Where’s Oscar” in 2018.

Elaine Jagielski and Shelley David are involved in “Love’s Best By” and  “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” They are involved with most Playgoers of Lethbridge presentations.

 Jagielski debuted  “ Love’s Best By” in the 2018 One Act Play Festival.”

“We want to reach 100 years as Canada’s longest running theatre company,” Peterson said.

 The last Playgoers of Lethbridge production was “Daisy,” which closed last March, right before the pandemic hit.

All is Calm:The Christmas Truce of 1914 blends the sentiments of Christmas with the memorial of Remembrance Day, so director Fran Rude is  excited to bring the show back to the Yates Theatre, Nov. 19-21.

“It’s been on the books since 2020, but because of Covid, we couldn’t do it, so I’m excited to  finally get a chance to bring it back to stage,” said Rude, choking up with the emotion of finally being able to do live theatre again.

“ Artists were hit so hard by Covid. we couldn’t do anything,” she said.

 This production will be a fundraiser for the Lethbridge Seniors Organization (LSCO) as was the last production in 2019.

 She recruited a top notch cast of actors and singers including John Conlon, Dan Hall, Tyler Leavitt, Jonathan Northcott, Ken Rogers who is also musical director for the show, Don Robb, Josh Sherwood, Brenton Taylor, Tony Zappone, Stephen Graham, Devin Law and Jeff Steed, who play 39 different characters performing 34 a capella songs in four different languages. They have been rehearsing since mid-September.

“These are all classically trained singers,” Rude enthused.

“Three days is enough because all of the actors have jobs,” she said.

  The Peter Rothstein penned  “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce on 1914” (Erick Lichte and Timothy C Takach composed the musical arrangements) is inspired by an actual event which happened on Christmas Eve, 1914 in the middle of the First World War.

“It’s a miracle. A German soldier waving a white flag proceeded to walk across No Mans Land abut 50 miles outside of Ypres, Belgium, singing ‘Silent Night.’  It’s a miracle he wasn’t killed. A British officer met him and shook his hand. They soldiers ended up singing  Christmas carols and exchanging gifts. But the truce only lasted until the end of Christmas Day,” Rude summarized, noting all of the dialogue in the production comes from the journals, letters and poetry written by the soldiers, which makes the story all the more poignant.