The fourth show in the Ennotville Summer Theatre Season is called Vaudeville.
It’s an anthology of all the best and brightest from the golden age of popular entertainment in North America, opening August 13.
Before television or radio, but after the whole continent was made easily accessible by railway, there was vaudeville. It was popular entertainment, and no attempt was ever made to pass it off as high art. Shows were a medley of singing, dancing, stand-up comedy, silly sketches, and novelty acts, all intended to make the audience laugh. There was plenty of room for individual talent to shine, and since the focus was purely on making a profit, shows were often thrust onto the stage with little or no rehearsal time, and the performers had to generate a fair amount of their performances on the spur of the moment.
Vaudeville thrived until it was driven out of the theatres by cinema.
The Ennotville show will attempt to recapture some of the magic of that era, with old-fashioned songs and dances, as well as a generous dose of the comedy that formed the backbone of the genre, and maybe even one or two novelty acts for old-time’s sake.
Vaudeville opens on Aug. 13 and runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm with 2pm Saturday matinees until August 29. Tickets are available by calling 519-780-7593, or grinderproductions.org.
