Frequently Asked Questions

The theatrical genre of Melodrama utilizes theme-music to manipulate the spectator's emotional response and to denote character types. The term combines "melody" (from the Greek "melōidía", meaning "song") and "drama"(Classical Greek: δράμα, dráma; meaning "action"). While the use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in a melodrama these musical cues will be used within a fairly rigid structure, and the characterizations will accordingly be somewhat more one-dimensional: Heroes will be unambiguously good and their entrance will be heralded by heroic-sounding trumpets and martial music; villains are unambiguously bad, and their entrance is greeted with dark-sounding, ominous chords.

Melodramas tend to be formulaic productions, with a clearly constructed world of connotations: a villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the heroine) and there is (generally) a happy ending. However, the term is also used in a broader sense to refer to a play, film, or other work in which emotion is exaggerated and plot and action are emphasized in comparison to the more character-driven emphasis within a drama. Melodramas can also be distinguished from tragedy by the fact that they are open to having a happy ending, but this is not always the case.

For more detailed information visit the Melodrama wikipedia entry here.

We at the Gaslight Melodrama do our best to bring the genre of traditional Melodrama into the 21st Century. While we still encourage you to boo the villain, cheer the hero and awww our sweetheart and all of our productions and characters are way over the top we try to put the melodramatic spin on a wide variety of show from more traditional westerns to modern adaptations and spoofs of some of the most beloved theater, television, radio, and cinematic pieces known. We've spoofed the wild west, radio drama, King Arthur, space, fantasy, sports, mystery and more.

All of our shows are followed by a Vaudeville Review, a thematic, comedic and musical romp that features song and dance numbers, jokes, and comedic sketches. We feel it's the perfect end to a great outing to the theatre.

We are not directly affiliated with the old Oildale Melodrama or the Great American Melodrama in Oceano but the closing of the Vaudeville Express Melodrama in Oildale did us to bring the Melodrama expreience back to Bakersfield audiences in 2005.

The Gaslight Melodrama has been in full production of eight different shows a year since mid 2005. We have had the good fortune to have actors that have graced the stages in Oildale and Oceano take the stage at the Gaslight and are proud to include them in the ever growing Gaslight Melodrama Family.