Calgary women’s wedding dresses in the spotlight in new stage show – Calgary | The Canadian News

This is a question that many women have faced: what do you do with your wedding dress once the big day is over?

Now dozens of Calgarians are helping to explore that issue as their dresses play the centerpiece of a new production at Alberta Theater Projects (ATP).

The playwright / artist Louise Casemore presents her one-woman show Undress.

“The show is rooted in a pretty practical dilemma, that is, what do you do with a wedding dress after the wedding?” Casemore said.

“I’m trying to look at redeployment so people can get some use out of the dresses after the big day.”

ATP asked women to donate their wedding dresses to be used for the set Undress.

“We were expecting maybe seven, eight – maybe 10 dresses in total,” Casemore said. “And within 10 days we dropped almost 75 at the threshold.”

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Taylor Matheson was among those who donated a dress.

“It seemed like the perfect thing to do,” Matheson said. “My husband and I actually broke up a number of years ago and that’s why I wore the dress around and like ‘What am I going to do with it?'”

The larger than expected number of dresses provided many creative opportunities for set designer Lane Shordee.

“I made this chandelier from about 20 to 30 wedding dresses, so it’s kind of an accumulation of all those stories popping up all over the place,” Shordee said. “That’s kind of the main focus of the show.”

The dresses came from some surprising places.

“Some of the dresses were worn all the way from Montana.” Casemore said. “We had mothers and daughters who came in together to donate each of their gowns, people who offered inherited items.”

There was enough that Shordee could place dresses in various places around the set.

“I was very excited to get so many of them,” Shordee said. “They have a life and they deserve respect.”

Undress runs at ATP until 13 February.

“I’m glad my dress can last and do something good,” Matheson said. “It’s the most suitable send-off for this dress.”