Parsons native and 2021 Labette County High School graduate Brooke Chavez-Martinez will perform in Wichita later this month with Nickelodeon’s PAW Patrol Live: “Heroes Unite” national tour.
The shows will be at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, at the INTRUST Bank Arena, 500 E. Waterman, Wichita. Tickets start at $25 each and can be purchased at selectaseat.com or www.pawpatrollive.com.
Chavez-Martinez will portray Rocky, the recycling PAW Patrol pup, and Sweetie, the pet pup of the Princess of Barkingburg with ambitions to rule the kingdom.
“Heroes Unite” will be a 90-minute show (with an intermission) that is based on Nickelodeon’s top rated animated preschool series. The show follows Ryder and the PAW Patrol pups as they face their greatest challenge when Mayor Humdinger clones Robo Dog and worldwide chaos ensues. PAW Patrol must catch the clones and rescue Robo Dog. This is an audience participation show.
“Heroes Unite” is the third touring collaboration under the PAW Patrol banner for VStar Entertainment Group and Nickelodeon.
Chavez-Martinez works for VStar Entertainment and hopes to see some familiar faces in Wichita on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29. The show is in Tulsa on Saturday and Sunday this week.
“I’m hoping to see a lot of my community come together and give support,” Chavez-Martinez told the Sun this week, adding that she’s contacted a lot of her peers to let them know about the show. She said this show will allow her friends, family and peers to see her as part of a big production that’s within two hours of her hometown. She doesn’t know how often that will happen.
Chavez-Martinez said she has been busy since she graduated from LCHS.
She auditioned for and was accepted into the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts the summer of her graduation. The two-year program kept her busy.
See ‘HEROES,’ Page 14.
CHAVEZ-MARTINEZ
“It’s very intense. I was going to school six days a week for 12 hours a day. I had only time for school and what I was doing there. Very intense program,” she said. Her class started with about 300 students but only about 30 remained after two years to receive the associate of occupational studies degree.
“New York was a vastly different experience from being in Parsons,” she said, adding that she had to adapt to a fast-paced environment. “There is no wiggle room for anybody’s schedule. If you miss a rehearsal time or class time, they’re very upset with you all the time.”
She liked the atmosphere of New York. “I think it was easier to adapt going to a place that was very open-minded,” Chavez-Martinez said.
After graduating from the conservatory, she landed a role at Duane Park in New York City and auditioned the last semester of school for a musical in London’s West End in England and was accepted.
She played Stevie in the musical “Winner” written by Joe Barros and Nico Juber. “Winner” debuted in the London Summer Music Theatre Academy in the summer of 2023.
Chavez-Martinez said Stevie was a high school student, one of the two main girls in the coming-of-age show that takes place in 1999. The musical focuses on a high school class president election when Stevie is competing against her love interest, Autumn. The writers have the characters relive the election day over and over to try to figure out who rigged the election.
She said it was great working with Barros and Juber. “Both have really great credits and really great connections. I’ve met some really, really cool people from them,” Chavez-Martinez said.
She said she heard great feedback about her performance from the people she worked with, actors and producers.
“One thing I really took away from it is someone had told me when I’m on stage I have a presence about me that draws the audience’s eye in. And I have a very calming, grounding energy to me, and it’s really nice to be around that when there’s a lot of bright and bubbly and cute personalities that come with being in this industry.”
Back in the United States, Chavez-Martinez worked in Texas during the Christmas season in 2023. She learned about VStar Entertainment and sent her information in. In January, she sent an audition video after hearing that PAW Patrol Live! was looking for an immediate replacement.
About three weeks later, while having a late family Christmas celebration in Parsons at her father’s home, she received an email from VStar offering her a role and to fly her out to begin work on March 4. She had to learn the script and the songs and be ready to work March 4.
She originally was cast as an understudy and worked a rotating schedule as different pups in the traveling show. She said she would go on stage regularly to give actors a break from working with the large costumes. She had to learn every part of the show. She re-signed with VStar this summer for the roles of Rocky and Sweetie. Her current contract runs until June 2025.
She practiced hard to get the distinct voices and dialects ready for the characters. Chavez-Martinez said she loves the show.
“Seats are filled. The best part of the show is how the kids are able to interact with us and sing and dance along in their seats and on the floor. And just seeing their eyes light up and really being able to make this memorable moment with them and the parents. There’s not a person that goes to it who isn’t enjoying themselves,” she said.
She hopes to work again for VStar and in kids’ entertainment, and she wants to continue to travel. She’s not stopped traveling since she left Kansas at age 18. She’s 22 now and she’s been to 25 states and five countries, all tied to her work.
“It’s a very competitive business. And I’ve been fortunate enough to have been working ever since I graduated,” she said. Networking with co-workers, producers and others may open future doors for her.
“So I truly hope to continue to travel, whether I go on another tour, stay with this tour. Maybe going on a Broadway tour, which would be really amazing. I’ve also looked into doing cruise ship work,” Chavez-Martinez said.
She said she’s open to other work. “If I have a passion for it, I’m going to go for it. I’m going to work on it. If I want to do something, I’m going to make it happen.”
She loves the stage now. “I love the thrill of live theater. Having that connection with the audience. And feeling not only my coworkers’ energy on that stage but the energy of the audience is amazing. And it’s an experience that you can’t really get with any other work. I would like to maybe, potentially, get into film one day, but I think that’s a little bit more down the road.”
She said her love of the stage started in dance classes through the Parsons Recreation Commission. She participated in plays in high school at LCHS and won acclaim for her roles.
Chavez-Martinez said when she graduated high school in 2021 she didn’t have a plan. She didn’t know where she would attend college or what she wanted as a career.
In the summer after graduating, she said, “I secretly auditioned for this school in New York and, impulsively, last minute, told my parents that, ‘Hey, in a couple of months I’m moving to New York. And they were very supportive, shockingly, being last minute and no plan, and, also, I would be out there alone.”
“It was scary and it was impulsive. But I followed my instincts. I think at the end of the day a lot of it is to make sure you are open-minded and to constantly be thinking of the positives. If you’re thinking of it negatively, you’re looking at it from the wrong angle,” she said.
Trust that you’re going to figure it out, she said. Because she has always been able to figure it out.
“Be kind to everyone. Everyone’s on their own journey, and you never know who can help you out or who you can help out. And I’m where I’m at because of the wonderful people that I’ve met. So just be one of the wonderful people to meet, and, hopefully, you can meet someone just as kind,” Chavez-Martinez said.
