This year the Mt. Ellis Academy seniors presented two performances of Tim Kelly's melodrama No Opry at the Opera House Tonight? on Nov. 16 and 18, 2006. Traditionally, the senior class holds an auction during the intermission of the Saturday night performance. This auction typically brings in more than $6,000, and the seniors use the funds to buy their class gift. This year was different though.
Not only is the senior class the smallest since 1954 (with 14 seniors), but 11 of the seniors had 45 minutes after Saturday night's performance to change out of their costumes, wash off their stage makeup, eat a snack and get on a bus headed for the airport in Salt Lake City to start their mission trip service in Iquitos, Peru. This left no time for an hour-long fundraising auction, so seniors asked for sponsorship from local business people.
Despite the obstacles, the class reached half of their goal for their senior class gift, which is smart boards and projectors for the math and science classrooms.
The English department sponsors the play each year. Students not only hone their acting skills, but they also learn about fundraising, advertising and promotion, and public speaking.
Mt. Ellis seniors presented No Opry at the Opera House Tonight? to raise money for the purchase of their class gift. Here Billy Bright (aka Johnson Turner) begs Alma Pumpernickle (aka Olivia Courser) for a moment of her time.
The villians, Lily Liverspot and Wolfgang von Wolfpack (Kaitlin Holmes and James Gustafsen) force Alma Pumpernickle and Billy Bright (Olivia Courser and Johnson Turner) to marry without meeting.
