Hollywood movie making of the 1930s will...

Hollywood movie making of the 1930s will get a good ribbing today at El Camino College with a matinee performance of “Once in a Lifetime,” a comedy about a trio of down-and-out vaudevillians who break into the newly invented talking pictures. Crash might be a better word, because they manage to turn a big movie studio on its ear.

A production of the college’s theater arts department, the show features a cast of 30 from throughout the South Bay. There also is a 15-member backstage crew. Today’s matinee is at 3 p.m. in the Campus Theatre. Other performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Director Ron Scarlata calls the show “a satire on a lot of different levels. It satirizes the early days of Hollywood, but also the craziness of the movie industry and of any big business (in which) someone in charge wants to make money.”

Aside from providing entertainment for audiences, director Ron Scarlata said the show “is a learning experience” for the performers, who range from college-age people doing their first or second show to older performers with professional experience. “They all help each other,” he said, adding that eight weeks of rehearsal went into the show.

The college stages four plays a year, and Scarlata said “Once in a Lifetime” is the most elaborate of the season. Full-stage sets designed by Chuck Turner include a train, the backstage of a theater, a ballroom and a movie sound stage. “It has the size and spectacle of a Broadway musical,” he said.

El Camino is located north of Torrance at Crenshaw and Redondo Beach boulevards. Tickets, at $6 and $8, are available at the door. Information: 329-5345.