Vintage Vaudeville comes to life this weekend at the Surrey Arts Centre thanks to the Vaudvillians. Not just your average singers, dancers, and comedians, this troupe ranges in age from 70 to 94. At more than 30 shows performed a year, its one dedicated group.
For the past 12 years Vaudeville has made its way to the centre to raise funds for bursaries for students in the performing arts at Douglas College. This year’s show, which runs at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 and 15, will reach the milestone of $100,000 raised.
A total of 27 students have been supported by the funding.
It was a project started by Jim Trimble, known as Diamond Jim the master of ceremonies. Though Trimble cannot perform, he will be in the lobby to greet people.
The songs will be familiar from an era of the past, but the humour and presentation has been brought up to date. Tickets are $22 and are available at the box office at 604-501-5566 with proceeds going to the Jim Trimble bursary.
UK honours
Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and Langley resident Ian Weir wrote one of the 10 Canadian books (included in the 160 books in total) to be long listed for the 2016 Dublin International Literary Award. Books were nominated by libraries in 118 cities in 44 countries and Weir’s Will Starling was among them.
Described as a tale of death and redemption, readers can journey with Will Starling into the heart of London in 1816.
The shortlist for the award will be announced in April.
Held over
Two popular plays have been held over due to sellouts and lengthy waiting lists.
The Langley Playhouse performance of Dinner with Friends has added three additional performances of the true-to-life play detailing the looming divorce of one couple and the questioning minds of the other.
Additional performances by the Langley Players Drama Club will be on Thursday, Nov. 26, Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28. Tickets are available at langleyplayers.com.
The second play, Calendar Girls at the Surrey Little Theatre had a waiting list of 75 when the theatre’s board decided to add three more shows.
One is already sold out but there are still tickets available for Sunday, Nov. 15 and Wednesday, Nov. 18 by email through reservations@surreylittletheatre.com.
The play is a tale about middle-aged women who pose nude in a charity calendar to raise funds.
Dinner theatre fun
The entertainment of the 1920s makes its way to Cascades Casino’s Summit Theatre on Wednesday, Nov. 18 in Giggle Dam’s production of Flappers, Funnies and the Roaring ’20s. The dinner theatre experience of Giggle Dam brings music, comedy and dancing to Langley.
Tickets are $45 for the 6 p.m. show and can be purchased in person at casino guest services, by phone at 604-530-2211, or online at TicketWeb.