Style- vaudeville

Before

Before vaudeville theatre in America it was dominated by burlesque acts which featured risqué scenes. This style of theatre wasn’t just for the entertainment but it was for men to go to drink as the audience was very male dominant because of the style. It was also aimed at middle class because of the money it cost.

After the civil

In 1881 a man called tony pastor was a ring master decided that theatre want just for men but should be made to draw a separate audience by making the show a wider variety of performance. So they began to put on cabarets and called it a vaudeville. These cabaret featured acrobats, singers, comedy and dance. They then removed all the risqué and inappropriate content to widen the audience that came to watch it. They also band drinking in theatres and made it more family oriented.

What did they find out?

They found by having a wider variety of audience that they made lots more money from each performance that was put on. They therefore put on more and more different performance which included circuses, mime, amusement parks and river boats. They also still put on the burlesque risqué style for the men who enjoyed that taste.

What was the purpose?

The purpose of this style was to be emotional and it should just be entertaining and have fun while watching it. It lasted from 1880 to early 1920’s vaudeville lasted and it was the easiest way to make people laugh. So they added more and more comedy sketches with slap stick as time went on.

The demise of vaudeville

As the years went on it became more popular and appealed to a lot of audience. They started to include different ethnicities which included Irish and black people. However black people were made to do acts which involved as a thick slave and they were very racist and was more of an act to laugh act rather the laugh with. Technology then became a competition as silent movies started to be released and they were a lot cheaper then the theatre. This meant that they weren't able to support themselves as they didn't get much money because of more people going to the cinema

What now?

New vaudeville is now reborn into variety shows such as Britain’s got talent and the royal variety performance. However they still kept comedy sketches like Morecombe and wise.

What makes up new vaudeville?

It includes over the top physicality which includes voices and they are usually a comedy sketch type performance. This has no relationship with the audience while acknowledging that they are there.

39 steps

When performing the scene from 39 steps which was set in the theatre when hannay went to see Mr Memory. In the scene I played a German sky who sat next to Hannay. When we performed the piece it needed to be at a faster pace as this is the style of vaudeville. I could have also played my character in a more flirty way as it would have made it funnier. A positive of our performance there was no connection with the audience which is what vaudeville is about.