Service Dogs in a Theater

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About

Service Dogs in a Theater refers to a viral photograph of a group of dogs seated in the audience of a performance of the stage show Billy Elliot. These service animals are taking part in a "relaxed performance", which is designed for theatergoers with disabilities and other special needs.

Origin

On August 12th, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @gmeanwell tweeted the photograph with the caption "Service dogs at a relaxed performance at @stratfest." In less than two weeks, the tweet received more than 13,000 likes and 1,300 retweets (shown below).

Spread

Following the post, some began captioning the photograph, joking about how the dogs might react to being in the audience or to the show. For example, Twitter^[2] user @darth tweeted, "'so what is this film about anyways pup' '…cats, apparently' 'wtf?'" Within one week, the tweet received more than 1,300 likes and 170 retweets (shown below, left).

Two days later, on August 15th, the Stratford Festival, who hosted the event, tweeted,^[3] "We had some pawsitivly adorable audience members from K-9 Country Inn Service Dogs during last weeks Relaxed Performance of #sfBillyElliot. Our Next Relaxed Performance is #sfNeverending on October 2nd." The tweet received more than 1,000 likes and 500 retweets in less than one week (shown below, center).

They also explained "relaxed performances," writing, "Relaxed performances are designed to welcome patrons who will benefit from a less restricted audience environment. Patrons of all abilities are welcome, including but not limited to those with intellectual or learning disabilities, sensory processing conditions or autism."

The following day, on August 16th, Twitter^[4] user @crampell tweeted, "Love this photo of dogs watching a performance of Billy Elliott. They’re training to become service dogs, and they're practicing what it's like to help their handlers navigate through a theater." The tweet received more than 15,000 likes and 4,200 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the photograph, including CBC,^[5] Mashable, ^[6] HuffPost,^[7] USA Today^[8] and more.