Melodrama, a cabaret-style play with music built around a hero, a heroine, and a villain, gave gold miners entertainment and escape from the harsh realities of their lives. Troupes of actors and musicians traveled from camp to camp, setting up canvas theaters to perform, and melodrama flourished in the mining camps as one of the staples of miners' social events. A venue that began in the heyday of the gold rush still exists today as live melodrama: the Golden Chain Theater, representing entertainment of that bygone era, opened with its first play, "The Drunkard," in July 1968 at the Oakhurst Community Center, moved to this location, formerly the Snowline Bowling Alley, in 1974, and is the oldest continually running melodrama in California.