Curtain closes on Vaudevillians seniors entertainment troupe in Surrey<\/p>\n
Published 10:30 am Thursday, April 23, 2026<\/p>\n
Pat Trimble doesn\u2019t want to hang up her tap shoes just yet, but time marches on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to quit when you have a passion for something,\u201d laments the Surrey senior, a founding member of The Vaudevillians.<\/p>\n
Launched in 2000, the seniors entertainment troupe has disbanded following the death of Dan Minor, its energetic artistic director, choreographer and accompanist. Minor died in hospital March 21, two weeks shy of his 86th birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout Dan it is really difficult to carry on,\u201d Trimble noted. \u201cHe was our everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a fun 26-year run for The Vaudevillians, the legacy of which continues with a $127,000 bursary for college students in the performing arts.<\/p>\n
The troupe often performed old-time music, dance and comedy bits for fellow seniors, and hosted an annual Bursary Show at Surrey Arts Centre to raise money for the Society for the Preservation of Vaudeville Bursary at Douglas College.<\/p>\n
The bursary was established in honour of Trimble\u2019s beloved husband, baritone-voiced show emcee \u201cDiamond\u201d Jim Trimble, who died in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Trimbles were core members of The Vaudevillians along with Minor, who wasn\u2019t involved at the start but got busier over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe kind of took over all these positions when people left for various reasons,\u201d Trimble said. \u201cHis life was music, the arts, dancing, singing. He was always upbeat, and he loved it. He said to me once, \u2018If I couldn\u2019t be doing this, it wouldn\u2019t be worth living.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n At one point the Vaudevillians had two dozen golden-aged performers on stage for Bursary <\/a>Shows<\/a>, but in recent years the numbers dwindled to around 10 active members for rehearsals at Surrey Free Methodist Church on 96 Avenue.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes we\u2019d perform three times a month (at seniors residences),\u201d Trimble recalled. \u201cIt\u2019s sad that the group is no longer doing that, because it was such a rewarding experience to go and bring joy into these people\u2019s lives, sometimes people who never get out of the residences. It was wonderful, and kept us active, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Show highlights included dance duets featuring Trimble and Minor, who entered and won several Surrey Festival of Dance competitions starting in 2012.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d heard of Dan before I ever met him,\u201d Trimble recalled. \u201cI knew who he was, then he showed up at a Vaudevillians rehearsal one day and joined in, in 2008, I think. He was really well known in the arts community for a long time, way back.\u201d<\/p>\n While a funeral for Minor is in the works, the remaining Vaudevillians recently gathered in Fleetwood to pay tribute to their friend and musical leader.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody came,\u201d Trimble said. \u201cWe spoke our thoughts about Dan, put up pictures and posters, the room was all decorated for lunch. I could really feel the love in the room, really special.\u201d<\/p>\n One day, perhaps a Vaudevillians-like troupe for seniors will start again in Surrey.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully that happens,\u201d Trimble said, \u201cbut I, for one, am finished. I\u2019m just finding it harder all the time. I broke my ankle a year and a half ago, and I didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d able to dance again, but I did get back and dance. Performing the shows wasn\u2019t hard, it was carrying costumes, all the other stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we lost Dan,\u201d she added, \u201cthat sort of made it for sure, that we\u2019re finished, and I know that several of the others are feeling the same way that I am. It\u2019s been a good run.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Curtain closes on Vaudevillians seniors entertainment troupe in Surrey Published 10:30 am Thursday, April 23, 2026 Pat Trimble…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-623900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}