As summer drifts away one certain thing to look forward to is the start of a fresh theatre season come fall. Calgary’s Third Street Theatre has announced its 2014/2015 line up, which entails two well-received shows as well as two new queer playwriting development initiatives.

Mid-September will see the company bring to stage transgender artist Sunny Drake (originally of Brisbane, now residing in Canada)’s X, ‘a magical multi-media feast’, followed in February by Uof C drama student Kyall Rakoz’s award-winning solo show Ludwig&Lohengrin, which made whitecaps at last year’s Calgary Fringe.

"Of course I am biased to love our main stage productions for many different reasons including their intelligent use of humour, surprising production values and magical whimsy to highlight two contrasting periods in queer life: 1800s Bavaria and contemporary Australia," says new Artistic Director for Third Street, Jonathan Brower. Brower took over the position previously held by co-founder Paul Welch when Welch decided to resign earlier this year to pursue his career in acting.

"I’m also really looking forward to resurrecting This is How I Left two years later, seeing as trans rights and protections have come ever more to the forefront," he adds.

Third Street is offering two special presentations this season: the first, Dear Mr. Klein, a read work by Bruce Chambers, revisits 1998, when the Alberta Government debated using the Notwithstanding Clause to override a Supreme Court decision that protected housing and employment rights for gays and lesbians. Steve Gin, of Teatro Berdache, the queer theatre ensemble who first produced this work in 2004, will host a panel to follow the reading, which takes place November 6th at Contemporary Calgary.

January 28th will see the 2013 Queer Theatre Creation Ensemble’s triumphant This is How I Left return to stage following a rework by a dramaturge. The work was nominated for the 2013 Calgary Critics Award for Best New Script.

Award-winning playwright and LGBTQ activist Pam Rocker’s new, and mysterious, untitled play will receive its first reading as part of the inaugural queerRites reading series initiative in March, followed by Brower’s own script, Oblivion, in April. Oblivion chronicles Brower’s personal battle between evangelical Christianity and homosexuality.

YOUth Riot is the other new initiative Third Street is backing this year. Starting in May, 2015, the 12-week program will see queer teens tell their own stories through self-written 10 minute plays. The initiative culminates when the youth are granted opportunity to perform their works in a public reading festival, staged by professional actors and directors from the Calgary Theatre community.

"It’s our hope that these programs will increase the visibility and interest in queer theatre coming out of the Calgary scene and hopefully making waves in other national centres, eventually," Brower says. "I’m curious to see if our audiences will grow in the LGBTQ area of supporters. We have had amazing numbers and support from lots of the community but have seen the largest number of attendees identifying as allies."

Brower says he looks forward to seeing how the community responds to Third Street’s year round presence, and what kind of sponsorship might spring from the woodworks so to speak. The company’s second run of their Stars of the Stage & Screen Annual Fundraiser, May 29th, will mark the end of this season, when the next year’s line up will be announced.

All of Third Street Theatre’s upcoming shows, events and special initiatives can be found on their website.