MELODRAMA is the historic theatrical genre so popular in America from the colonial period into the early part of the 20th century - using music to heighten the emotional impact of predictible scenes, and to provide vaudeville type entertainments between acts. Audiences are invited to fully participate in the story as good versus evil, and, though calamity and catastrophe ensue - with the hair-raising, obligatory "chase scene" - good always triumphs in the end as the villain gets his "just desserts." Now, isn't that refreshing in this modern society!
Familiar chords with ominous flavor sound when villains appear, and all proper audiences justly "boo" them. Heroes are "cheered" and heroines are to be "sighed and cried" with as they suffer through outrageous and improbable plot twists full of hilarity and hijinks - old-fashioned fun! Currently, Melodrama is a popular family friendly theatre entertainment in the American West family vacation destinations.
Writer, director, producer, Kathryn Ross, brought Melodrama to the East Coast and Southern New Jersey with a select handful of talented young people establishing the Pageant Wagon Players - beginning in the spring of 2005 with The Great Estate. Melodrama 2006, A Fortunate Indiscretion, Melodrama 2007, The Ballad of Maggie Maloney, and Melodrama 2008, Mayhem at Montague Manor, gained enthusiastic new fans, rounding out five great years with Melodrama 2009, Showstoppers at Starr's Theatrical Emporium OR "The Villain Vaudevillian." The Pageant Wagon Players blossomed in skill and creativity over the years, contributing more and more in the pre-production process of character and plot development, musical arrangements, choreography, and staging.
Click below for photo reviews of our past Melodramas and meet the Pageant Wagon Players up close and personal:
Some fun shots of the Pageant Wagon Players onstage and off!
And that's not all, folks!
The "Just Desserts Bar" is presided over by Pageant Wagon's own Clementine Jones, as he invites everyone to "Belly up to the bar, folks, where everyone gits thar 'just desserts'!" Clementine serves up some real goodies to compliment each show such as "Madeline Wooster's Cherries Jubilee" or "Widder Bailey's Apple Dumplin's" and yummy beverages like "Tweeter's Sarsaprilla Surprise" (that's root beer float to you and me)!
The Pageant Wagon Players find a summer home in the Chapel Playhouse at the Calvary Chapel Vineland facility 930 Main Road just south of Oak in Vineland, New Jersey. We couldn't ask for a better staging facility to accommodate the intimate nature of a melodrama performance and are very thankful to our supporting friends at Calvary Chapel Vineland for their generosity in lending us facility use.
Thank you to all our audiences who supported Pageant Wagon Productions' Old Fashioned American Melodrama Summer Family Theatre with your family through our five year run! Presently, we are taking a hiatus as our founding troupe of performers are pursuing college and career demands.
Stay tuned for more news about fresh directions for Pageant Wagon Productions Family Friendly Theatre coming in NEW YEAR 2010!
