Scratch Night

A New Performance Testing Ground

A night of brand-new experiments by local queer performers. Scratch Nights - staples in UK performance scenes - allow audience members to be embedded into how artists develop new works. Each performer is given 15 minutes of stage time with just two requirements:1) A performance. 2) A discussion with the audience.

Hosted by Louie Lang Norman. Scratch artists to be announced!

When Louie first started making new performance work in Victoria, he asked around: “Hey, where is the local scratch night? I’d love to get some audience feedback on an idea I’m playing with!” He received unanimously blank looks.

Scratch nights are low pressure environments in which artists are encouraged to experiment, play, take risks, and try new material in front of an audience of fellow performers and performing arts lovers. Want to see the earliest stages of new local works in development? Want to support experimental work where failure is celebrated just as much as success? Scratch Night is for you!

Four artists come prepared with a performance to share, and questions to ask the audience after. Audiences come prepared with a spirit of curiosity and a desire to be part of the creative process.

Low tech, low pressure, highly generative. From emerging cabaret acts, to new script readings, to interdisciplinary experiments and beyond, a Scratch Night is a testing ground that supports artists in the creation of new work while valuing the importance of audience feedback as part of that process. Feedback is delivered by questions exchanged live between the artists and the audience, or can be sent anonymously afterwards via online form.

About the Artists

Louie Lang Norman (he/him) is a trans performance artist, drag queen and occasional independent scholar based on unceded Lekwugen Territory, Victoria BC. He was Intrepid Theatre’s OUTstages 2024 artist in residence, where he remounted his solo show A Car Crash, and in 2025 his drag persona - Ket Bush - co-created experimental drag-theatre show Mouthfull with collaborator Vivian Vanderpuss. He has been presenting work at performance festivals in the UK and Canada since 2015 (including SPILL International Festival of Performance, UK; Runnymede International Literary Festival, UK; DISKURS, Germany; INKONST, Sweden; OUTstages, Canada), and his most recently published academic work - on Fantheatre - can be found in Theatre Fandom: Engaged Audiences in the Twenty-First Century (University of Iowa Press, 2025). Louie has a BA in Performance Arts (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) and a MA in Poetic Practice (Royal Holloway).

Stay tuned for the artist lineup!

Accessibility

Sensory warnings: Loud noises, sudden loud sounds, audience interaction/participation

Content warnings: Adult language, adult content, partial nudity

Free Youth OUTreach Tickets

This Youth OUTreach initiative provides a limited number of free tickets to HOMO: A Queer Cabaret, as well as shows at our 2025 OUTstages Festival, for self-identified LGBTQ youth and allies under 25. Intrepid Theatre believes strongly in creating an accessible environment for queer youth to experience the festival, to engage with the work and artists presented at OUTstages, and to cultivate a new generation of theatre-goers and theatre-makers.

To book your Youth OUTreach ticket, select the show, scroll through tickets types and select "Youth OUTreach Ticket". There is no promo code necessary. You can then click "add to basket" and proceed to checkout fully, as if you were purchasing a full-price ticket.  

Pay-What-You-Ten Tickets: 10% of tickets are available for $10, in an effort to make theatre more accessible to equity-seeking groups, newcomers, artists & arts workers, and anyone for whom cost is a barrier. We believe the arts have something to offer everyone and we want to reduce financial barriers to our programming. No registration, forms to fill out, or questions asked. Just select the PWY10 ticket when booking online.

Arrival at the venue: The doors will open  30 minutes ahead of showtime. Masks are welcomed inside the theatre and available at the box office. Refunds: If you are not feeling well or have any symptoms, please stay home to help keep everyone safe. We are able to discuss refunds on a case by case basis due to health reasons before the performance. Please contact tickets@intrepidtheatre.com. We are unable to arrange refunds after a performance has occurred.

• Event Types - Multidisciplinary
• $0.00
• February 6, 2026
• 90 minutes
• 21:30
• Intrepid Studio
• Intrepid Studio
• Adults Only
• 
  Sensory warnings: Loud noises, sudden loud sounds, audience interaction/participation Content warnings: Adult language, adult content, partial nudity