How vaudeville theatre elements are found in entertainment today - Research Paper Example

The decline of the Vaudeville genre can be traced to the rise of the cinema. Despite the fact that Vaudeville genre no longer exists in its entirety, some of the signature elements of Vaudeville can still be found in the American entertainment industry today. These elements include family entertainment, sensationalism, slapstick, and variety. As earlier stated, Vaudeville gained popularity after the American Civil War. The genre had however been introduced before 1820. At the beginning, the Vaudeville genre only appealed to the men in the society and it mainly had male performers.

It was seen as the new and cheerful entertainment that provided the society relief in the times before and after the civil war. It was not until 1865 when Tony Pastor changed this to a form of Vaudeville that included men, women, and children. This followed the opening of ‘Tony Pastor’s Opera House’ in New York. The form of theatre included performances in which objectionable words had been removed, and was thus appealing to the entire family. This form of Vaudeville genre remained in the entertainment scene for a long time.

Later, different creative artists would follow the conventions that had been set by Tony Pastor in Vaudeville theatre performances. They also began to make use of female performers to further to promote the theatre (Page, 4). The acts in the Vaudeville genre consisted of a total of up to 15 different performances that included jugglers, trained animals, acrobats, singers, magicians, and dancers. The Vaudeville genre however evolved to the point where it became a form of light musical drama. There are some Vaudeville theatres that have however retained the original format and can be found in areas such as England.

There are also some few theatres in the United States that continue to showcase the different forms of Vaudeville genre. In most cases however, there are only some of the elements of the original Vaudeville genre that can be seen in the different genres of entertainment that can be found in the American entertainment scene (Bandle 1546). The success of the Vaudeville genre was mainly because of the level of mastery that the different artists that took part in the performances showed. They (the artists) were skilled in the use of the different tools that they had.

They were also skilled in utilizing the stage to maximize the effect of their performance. The stage was set in such a way that it made use of few definite possibilities of use. The stage however allowed the use of scenery and lights to be manipulated by the writer or by the creator of the specific performances. The performers of the Vaudeville genre were focused on the enjoyment and the satisfaction of the wide audiences that were present during the performances (Gottlieb 21). There were several forms that made up the variety theatre that made up the Vaudeville genre.

One form was the original variety shows that were designed to please the male audiences. There was also the minstrel show that was a form of performance for public amusement. The minstrel performances usually begun with a walk around that had verbal exchanges between the different performers and the audiences. The content of the comedy was adapted to the different social circumstances, issues and