KC-area theater employs rescue dogs as stars in vaudeville show
The Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Company has been a small, but lively part of Kansas City’s theater scene for forty years. It’s helped more than a few local actors get their start in the business.
Like the name implies, Jeanne Beechwood opened her operation in downtown Martin City. She moved to the Metcalf South Mall in 2003, followed by the Mall of the Great Plains and briefly, Crown Center.
She always kept the name.
For the last seven years, Beechwood has been staging shows in an old catering facility on Blue Ridge Extension in Grandview. But her emphasis has changed somewhat. Yes, there’s still plenty of singing, dancing, bad puns and chances for an audience to hiss and boo in classic melodrama fashion.
But Beechwood has found a new kind of joy in offering special needs actors an opportunity to participate in classes and perform in shows on the venue’s wheelchair-accessible stage.
Then there’s the dogs. Rescue dogs specifically.
Beechwood “auditions” the cast-offs she’s adopted to play a variety of supporting roles in the theater’s original productions.
Lil Bit, Nitty Gritty, Oakley, Fuzzball, Fiona, Mary Margaret, Abe, Tim and Harper are all on the roster for “The Great American Melodogma,” running there on weekends through May 10.
Just don’t expect the show’s canine cast to jump through hoops of fire or swan dive into buckets. Beechwood’s “pawformers” are chosen for their ability to remain calm and collected while two-legged performers interact with them or give comedic voice to their feelings.
“I write it specifically for the dogs,” she says. “They love the extra attention. It’s just not their old “dog mama” taking care of them every day. And the audience loves it too.”
Decades after she started making melodramas, Beechwood says she’s happy that the format has “evolved”— providing her “uniquely abled“ actors and rescued dogs a chance to make families laugh together.
And sometimes cry a little too.
“The audience will come up after the show, and they’ll say, “Your dog, Charlie reminds me a little of Sparky that I lost, or my little dog at home.” That whole human and animal connection... that’s worth so much.”