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Nursery Road Elementary School 5th grade students piece together entire original opera

The opera will have its opening night Monday, April 3 at 6 p.m.

IRMO, S.C. — Costumes, artwork and design. A group of fifth graders at Nursery Road Elementary have created an opera of their own.

It's been a whole school year in the making. 

Nursery Road Elementary School students, fifth graders specifically, have done all the leg work to put together an opera and it's almost showtime.

"They could be from writer, to performer to composer to lighting designer, to electrician, makeup artist, costume and they applied for a job and then they came to a job interview," Magnet Lead Teacher Lisa Brooks said. "They were hired in our company, so by about the end of August, we had our company formed, so we came up with a name. We are the Nursery Road Champions, so we're called the Champion Productions Opera Company and the writers and composers got to work."

Owen Chan, a student on the public relations team, got to help his classmates put together the playbill and make calls.  

"I get to do what I do best and make art and I get to call people and it gives me a great opportunity for in the future, like a future job that I could get. Like, I could be a graphic designer for a big company," Chan said.

Nicholas Mayes learned about costume design.

"I learned about patterns and colors and hems and putting buttons on," Mayes said.

Gage Brusin and Ndamukong Rhodan are working behind the scenes as stage managers.

"Make sure everyone's doing what they're supposed to and where they're supposed to be and just keep it under control," Rhodan said.

12 pages of dialogue, six original songs, calling cues, running lights, making music, memorizing lines, all by ten to eleven year old students.

The opera performance dates are:

  • April 3 at 6 p.m.
  • April 4 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The performances will be at Nursery Road Elementary, 6706 Nursery Road. 

You can find tickets here.

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