The Great American Melodrama of Oceano opened its doors to the public in the summer of 1975. The Melodrama was founded by couple John and Lynne Schlenker, and has brought laughs to the community since.
The Melodrama performs mostly original works and, to celebrate their 50th year, they put on a show called 50 Anniversary Spectacular!, which referenced different theatre styles.
“[The 50th show both honored their 50th year and highlighted past shows]. They had a bit of a speech at the end where it was like, ‘This is all the stuff we’ve done before, and then we’re going to continue to do new stuff,’” fill-in Wardrobe Supervisor Zoe Smith said.
The show featured three acts: the first two acts tried to mimic the Melodrama from the past and the third act was about the future of the
Melodrama, previewing three possible musicals for the next 50 years.
One act of the 50 Anniversary Spectacular! was exclusively for past actors that attended or worked at the Melodrama over the years.
“In the second weekend, we had a reunion for every folk that worked at the Melodrama and after one of those performances, lots of people got up on stage [to give speeches],” Artistic Director John Keating said.
As the Melodrama builds a community within themselves, they also bring together the 5 Cities.
“[The Melodrama] brings people together to laugh and enjoy. [The] big Season Subscriber base gets packages to come and see every show, [which] already creates a community because you get those repeat customers,” Keating said. “Another aspect is the traditions. Coming in and the music director playing piano while waiting for the show, and tip songs in the bar, and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.”
One of the Melodrama’s goals is to make something accessible for the whole family; to allow children and adults to enjoy the same play.
“[The Melodrama is] crazy, but fun. It’s for the whole family,” Smith said. “I will say, when I first did a couple shows there, I didn’t expect them to be as family-friendly as they are, but it’s just objectively funny for everyone.”
Being only a few minutes away from AGHS, the Melodrama has worked with a few students participating in theatre classes to give students a chance to experience a different acting style and working environment.
“A couple of times, on like a Thursday night show when there isn’t like a lot of expected ticket sales at the Melodrama, they offered tickets to the high school for [theatre students] to come and see [the show],” AGHS theater student Carly Gallagher (‘26) said. “[And when we did Murder Mystery, Mystery Murder] our director actually did tell us [to] go and watch [a show] at the Melodrama [to] see how they do their comedy.”
The Melodrama is as much a community as it is a source of inspiration. It allows actors to experiment and pursue a high level of acting.
“[Actors] don’t have a microphone on their face, so technically they need to project, and it forces them to grow,” Keating said. “[They’re] not just playing Dan from Annie, [they will] probably have three characters in play and four in vaudeville. [They will have to] come up with good character choices really fast. [That’s why we call it] ‘The school of Melodrama.’”
The Great American Melodrama has brought the 5 Cities community together over the past 5 decades and this anniversary is only the first of many, as the Melodrama hopes to stay open and accomplish even more shows in the next 50 years.
