Seniors in Chemainus are getting ready to showcase a variety of talents and a big secret dance with their annual stage production later this month.
Following last year’s successful show of Way Out West, volunteers from the Chemainus Seniors Drop-In Centre are taking on a new but old theme with this year’s production — An Old Fashioned Music Hall and Vaudeville Variety Show.
A cast and crew of more than 30 members will present a two-hour program featuring 20 different acts of comedy, music, skits, dancing and singing March 27 to 29. There will be three big production dance numbers and many short, funny acts, as well as performances by talented singers and musicians.
“It’s going to be an old-fashioned English musical and vaudeville,” explained producer/director Ken McEwan. “Music halls in England were much like vaudeville in North America with lots of numbers. We have a big finale, comedy acts, musicians and singers — solos and group — just like any vaudeville or music hall show you’d see.”
One couple has an original script of George Burns and Gracie Allen that was done in 1929, and they’re going to re-create that, according to McEwan.
“There will be a lot of things we think people haven’t seen before,” he said. “We hope people will be walking out singing the songs and laughing about the things we do.”
“We have a great crowd at the Chemainus Seniors Centre who have done entertainment before; some are still in choirs and entertained in their previous lives,” he added. “We have one major production each year around this time and other entertainment throughout the year.”
A notice went up in September, and members of the Chemainus Seniors Drop-In Centre held their first meeting about the production in October. For the second year in a row, Cathy Schmidt from Duncan, who has been a choreographer with the Cowichan Musical Society, has volunteered a couple of times a week to come to Chemainus and, as McEwan describes it, “put us through our paces.”
“We’re very pleased with that,” he said. “We have other people who can do choreography, and she works with them. We have a great team.”
Shows will be held Friday, March 27 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, March 28 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 29 at 2 p.m. at the Chemainus Seniors Drop-In Centre at 9824 Willow St.
Tickets are $15 each for reserved seating only and can be purchased at the Chemainus Seniors Drop-In Centre Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. McEwan says tickets are selling fast, and the shows may sell out soon.
The production is a fundraiser for the Chemainus Seniors Drop-In Centre, and everyone involved is volunteering their time.
