Adelaide Festival Centre’s Performing Arts Collection Presents Now Showing!, 6/11-9/6

Wander the foyer of the Festival Theatre and explore the traditions of Vaudeville, and acts on the ‘fringe' in Now Showing! - a free exhibition presented by Adelaide Festival Centre's Performing Arts Collection from 11 June - 6 September 2010.

Cabaret embraces many different types of performance such as music hall, vaudeville, burlesque, show girls and variety. Drawing on their extensive early collections, the Performing Arts Collection illustrates these strands of cabaret using the collections of popular Adelaide vaudeville artists including Roy Rene, Chic Arnold, Phyl Skinner, the Two Maxwells, Trixie Wilson and many others preserved in this unique collection.

Items on display include:
-Life sized cut-outs of song and dance man Chic Arnold, extraordinary comic Roy Rene (later known as Mo), the dead-pan balancing act The Two Maxwells, dance act Floyd & B'Nay and talented Adelaide dancer and performer Phyllis Skinner.
-Oil painting of Roy Rene by Harold Thornton entered for the 1948 Archibald Prize, donated by Sharon van der Sluice (Roy's daughter-in-law).
-Ventriloquist dolls over one hundred years old and their original crates given to local ventriloquist Raymond De Cean.
-Skates that were used by dead-pan, slow-motion act The Two Maxwells during their ice-skating routines.
-Scrapbooks belonging to BroKen Hill born dancer Owen Laurence who was a part of the adagio dance act L'Etoile and Laurence and later Latasha and Laurence.
-Original scripts of shows by the all male troupe of entertainers The Kiwis.
-Photographs and original posters of Australian Bush, a show by the popular vaudeville act of the late 19th century Lennon, Hymen & Lennon.
-Boots worn by Floyd & B'Nay for one of their dance acts, and their original make-up case.
-Chic Arnold performance posters.
-Information and reflections on the Tivoli Circuit.

Performing Arts Collection Exhibition Coordinator Jo Peoples said: "In Now Showing! you can enjoy the talent of some of Adelaide's brilliant specialty acts that graced Australia's stages in this era, as part of the Tivoli Circuit.

"I found it interesting to compare a vaudeville program to this year's Cabaret line-up, where you can see a diverse program of specialty acts encompassing everything from German & French Cabaret to blues, jazz, pop, satirical revue, Broadway favourites and a bit of drag, illusion and comedy in between."

For more information, visit online at www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au.

 

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