For Smillie, Hagen, and Hendricks, 1991—an important time due to the uneasiness between the 2SLGBTQ+ community and Alberta’s government as the Vriend v Alberta case progressed through the courts—was the perfect time to launch the province’s first queer arts event. With eight writers, two days of rehearsal and no press attention, previews, or media, the one-night show completely sold out.

The annual event became such a big hit that by 1994, a second night was added to the Cabaret to accommodate the growing number of submissions and to keep up with the demand of sold-out crowds. As one of the few safe artistic queer spaces in Edmonton, many of the people involved were first-time writers and performers, and performances represented an increasing variety of plays, monologues, stand-up comedy, and poetry readings.

One particularly beloved play from Loud & Queer’s early years was Peter Field’s The Unrestrained Homo. Based on the Jerry Falwell quote, “nothing happened, over and over again,” the hit play frequently recurred at the Cabaret over the years. “You’d see ‘the unrestrained homo’ at the grocery stor[e], or getting a parking ticket. … It was a brilliant example of minimalism,” Hagen recalled.

1995: ITV “Coverage” and the “Dark Year”

During its early years, Loud ‘N Queer was mostly known only to the local 2SLGBTQ+ community and its allies. That all changed in 1995 when Loud ‘N Queer received its first televised coverage and ensuing controversy. Instead of the promotional story that had been expected for the now five-day event, ITV reporter Boni Fox featured the story in a segment called “You Paid For It!”, falsely claiming that Loud ‘N Queer was funded by public tax dollars. Edmonton Journal arts columnist Liz Nicholls described the gotcha television segment as a “murky mixture of homophobic innuendo and garbled misrepresentation of the complex funding issue.” The ITV story even included an interview with Jason Kenney, then President of the Canadian Taxpayers Association, who stated:

Nobody has the right to a government grant. We do have a right not to be discriminated against on certain bases enumerated in the Charter, but that doesn’t include the right to throw $30,000 tax dollars away on a ridiculous excuse for a theatre.

In the politicized media clips, a text reading “gay actor” ran across the screen – never mind that the actors featured were straight! In the script, the play featured on the segment joined “several other plays written by gay and lesbian thespians”, a line Smillie felt misrepresented the practices of Loud & Queer and Catalyst theatre. “I made it clear to [Boni Fox] that anyone can submit material for the cabaret regardless of their sexual orientation,” Smillie said, explaining that Loud & Queer had featured works of writers and actors who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, or heterosexual, “They are hired on the basis of their professional merits, not sexual orientation.” Sexual orientation was still not a protected ground of discrimination in Alberta in 1995, and Albertans still ran the risk of losing employment or housing if they were identified publicly as gay, regardless of how they identified themselves.

Ruth Smillie, who was still Art Director at the time, wrote an angry letter to ITV, incensed that the station never clarified that the interviews and footage she helped provide would be featured on “You Paid For It!”. “Withholding this information from us was not then an oversight,” Smillie wrote, “but rather a wilful misrepresentation of ITV’s intentions and a stunning example of unethical, homophobic journalism.” She was also furious that ITV’s language along with footage of actors in rehearsals “effectively “outted” [sic] more than 30 writers and the cast members,” whether those actors were queer or not. Smillie received a response from Executive Vice-President Wally Kirk, who apologized for the coverage and stated that the reporter had indeed been in violation of the company’s code of journalistic ethics and was disciplined. A small victory for the damage done.

1995 was Ruth Smillie’s last year as the Artistic Director of Catalyst Theatre as she was scheduled to move to Regina to become the new Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre. Following Smillie’s absence, the new artistic directors decided against continuing Loud ‘N Queer resulting in the “dark year” as the event quietly disappeared for a season. Thankfully, Jacquie Richardson, the general manager for Workshop West Theatre, got together with Guys In Disguise to produce the Cabaret and in 1996, Loud ‘N Queer was back in full swing.

1997: Workshop West

In 1997, the now consistently two-night event was held at the 3rd Space on 108th Street and once again hosted by Darrin Hagen, who had recently published his book, The Edmonton Queen: Not A Riverboat Story, based on his play of the same name. That play had its roots in Loud ‘N Queer two years earlier as a short story about his drag mother, Lulu LaRude. The five-minute sketch, Nice Jeans, which grew into the 45-minute Fringe performance of The Edmonton Queen, was Hagen’s first foray into writing. “I wanted to keep it casual and light,” Hagen explained, “But director Ron Jenkins–a genius!--kept pushing me to go deeper.” Little did Hagen know at that first Loud & Queer performance that he would be holding the published Edmonton Queen in his hands within two years!

As Loud ‘N Queer continued to grow over the years, the Cabaret enticed the public with new and varied themes each year. In 2001, with the event landing on the same weekend as the Grey Cup, the Cabaret celebrated its first “Gay Cup Weekend,” even making bleachers and goalposts for the sold-out event. For the festival’s tenth anniversary, a third night was added to the festivities, deemed the “Gaymes Night,” which featured drag queen bingo and “Crisco Twister,” all hosted by Lulu LaRude. That year, Darrin Hagen was also joined by a new co-host — Kristy Harcourt, from Gaywire, Edmonton’s longest-running 2SLGBTQ+ radio program on CJSR. “I’d written before,” Harcourt recalled, “but never for other people to hear,” not until she first submitted her short story Tryst to Loud ‘N Queer.

2002 saw the debut of another Edmonton success story, Nathan Cuckow’s “explosive, multimedia one man/many characters experience,” Homologues, which would later hit the Fringe stage as STANDupHOMO. This ten-minute monologue at Loud ‘N Queer was the result of a new program to support emerging queer playwrights and artists. The Guys In Disguise became Guys UnDisguised and took a backstage seat as mentors and producers for new talent. STANDupHOMO–a name suggested by Darrin Hagen–began as “an experiment” for Cuckow. Cuckow returned a newly reworked version of STANDupHOMO to Loud ‘N Queer in 2003, and continued to delight Edmonton audiences at Fringe and The Roost with new innovations on his play “about tolerance that starts with its punchline, gay Mormon stand-up,” through the early aughts. Cuckow would soon gain international recognition for his collaboration with Chris Craddock and the off-Broadway hit, BASH’d! A Gay Rap Opera, originally written for the Loud ‘N Queer Cabaret.

Loud ‘N Queer busted out the cowboy hats in 2003 for a rodeo themed-edition of the Cabaret. The preparation for the rodeo hijinks was cheekily reported in the Edmonton Journal by Liz Nicholls: “Feet are being coerced into pointy boots. Kerchiefs are being tied in strategic places. And — horrors! — there's gingham.” In 2004, the Cabaret was held at La Cite Francophone (8627 91st Street) for the first time. Darrin Hagen directed instead of hosting that year, stating in an interview that “Mummy needs a year off! I’ll preside over the proceedings from my balcony behind my mighty organ,” and instead, Kristy Harcourt joined Lulu LaRude as cabaret co-hosts.

Inspired by the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada, and following right on the heels of the Klein government finally accepting the marriage ruling in Alberta, Loud ‘N Queer proudly hosted “My Big Fat Loud ‘N Queer Wedding” in 2005. The wedding theme featured host Kristy Harcourt as the groom and Lulu LaRude as the blushing bride, whose bridal party was made up of The Munts, three diminutive puppet bridesmaids. Hagen remarked in a preview:

It’s interesting, in the time that Loud ‘n’ Queer has been happening, we’ve seen these steps forward in the Alberta situation that are so encouraging–to even move forward an inch. We’ve probably been on the planet as long as the Klein government, and I’d like to think that we exist to be that thorn.

Beyond the wedding decor and the clinking of drinks in toast he imagined for Loud ‘N Queer’s 13th year, Hagen was also keen on incorporating real married couples in the festivities. “Julie Lloyd, of course, who’s the lawyer who pushed the whole thing forward,” he said in reference to Lloyd’s pivotal role in the Vriend v. Alberta case less than a decade before, “Her and her partner got married this year at the Folk Fest. And Julie’s a big supporter of Loud ‘n’ Queer, so I’m hoping that she’s going to be there so we can make her and her partner kiss… just ‘cause.”

2007: Loud ‘N Queer Exposed

In 2007, Loud ‘N Queer was held in the TransAlta Arts Barns (10330 84 Ave), as part of a brand new arts and culture festival in Edmonton — Exposure. Exposure began after Michael Phair, Alberta’s first openly gay city councillor, emailed some members of the queer arts community, asking if there was interest in the festival. With the Loud ‘N Queer Cabaret as one of the festival's main features, Exposure was created to help “build and strengthen artistic and queer communities in Edmonton, [and create] awareness about the contribution of queer artists and cultural producers to the art world in Edmonton and beyond.” The festival remained an annual event for five years and was supported by various academics, artists, and community organizations such as HIV Edmonton, Pride Centre of Edmonton, and University of Alberta graduate students and faculty members.

As Loud ‘N Queer approached its second decade, the Cabaret began to represent queer history in the making, in more ways than one. While queer artists and stories had been integral to the Cabaret since 1991, it also became a venue to animate and activate local queer histories. An excerpt of Darrin Hagen’s Witch Hunt at the Strand–based on the true story of the persecution of gay men in Edmonton’s theatre community in the 1940s–appeared at Loud & Queer in 2008. By 2010, Loud & Queer hosted an excerpt of Undercovered, a play about the 1981 Pisces Spa Raid by Nick Green and Nathan Cuckow. “Queer communities are getting interested in their histories; there was a queer world before activism,” said Hagen, explaining the importance of such local, retrospective work in the “cultural urban amnesia” of the city and the province at large. “Alberta created me, so Alberta can deal with me. It’s my home.”

Eventually, the Cabaret was officially renamed to “Loud & Queer,” partly because no one could ever put the apostrophe in the right place and because some had already been spelling it as such. The final curtain came down in 2011 after twenty years, six artistic directors, and over 300 works, all supported by the ever-present Guys In Disguise. Darrin Hagen immortalized the incredible legacy of Loud & Queer in an anthology called Queering the Way, which shared its title and launch with the festival’s 20th and final year. Today, this work serves as a permanent record of a pivotal time in Edmonton’s queer history.

Conclusion: Queering the Way

Loud & Queer mounted one final epic encore performance in 2014, staged at Westbury Theatre as part of Workshop West’s 36th season. Held over two nights, the final show was called “Let Me Be Perfectly Queer” and featured more than 30 performers. In the two-plus decades that the “bright, sassy and welcoming” cabaret had entertained Edmontonians and propelled artists to new heights, contributors had a lot to say about what Loud & Queer meant to them. For Laurie McFayden, Loud & Queer was one part of a 30-year coming out process. “I’m used to doing my own stuff,” McFayden remarked, “…Seeing actors perform it is such a thrill for me.” Berend McKenzie had the opposite experience: “I never thought I could write,” he said, “I thought of myself as someone waiting to be in someone else’s show, not a creator.” McKenzie, who wrote numerous pieces for Loud & Queer as well as the Edmonton Fringe, and credited the Cabaret and Darrin Hagen’s mentorship for his success. “If it wasn’t for L&Q, none of this would have happened. I’m so grateful. I came out of a difficult period in my acting career. And I found a safe, encouraging environment.”

Loud & Queer was also the perfect ground for artists to practice their skills and try something new and unexpected. “I will say unequivocally that L&Q launched my writing career!” enthused Nick Green:

That first year was so inspiring and having the deadline every year has started me on a ton of projects. ...The success of Buddha Boi is a prime example. Getting a shot to work with pros, you have the perfect opportunity to develop confidence and hone your abilities.

Likewise, filmmaker Todd Anderson gave credit to "the odd think-tank that is Loud&Queer” to stumble into the experimental documentary form that defined his career. These were "something I couldn't have imagined before, something I'd never have thought to do," Anderson elaborated, “...[Loud & Queer] taught me I could jumble it all together and shake it up. I've been trying to blend my work since then."

Perhaps no one appreciated the impact of Loud & Queer on Edmonton’s theatre scene than co-hosts Kristy Harcourt and Darrin Hagen. Harcourt reflected:

[Loud & Queer is] the perfect place to try something out. A safe place, where the audience is predisposed to get the jokes and be encouraging. You can write in your own idiom. It’s a thrill the first time you experience a live audience reacting.

The experience of creating and participating in Loud & Queer, according to Darrin Hagen, “created everything I am as an artist.” While the impacts on his own career were obvious, Hagen did not fully realize the importance of the Cabaret until years after he had first answered the call from Catalyst Theatre:

Loud & Queer was not just nurturing but creating writers, just by being there. For me, it’s like the Fringe. Unjuried. First-time writers rub shoulders with writers that have been published 18 times: It’s part of the thrill… In a way, that was the beginning of my activism. Suddenly stories mattered, because they were said out loud. They went out into the world …and art changes the world. What I’d gone through wasn’t just about me. Loud & Queer taught me that.