Students appear onstage in chorus and cameo roles, performing for their peers right alongside OFY's professional artists. Our cast arrives at each venue an hour and fifteen minutes before curtain to set up and rehearse with student performers. (The vocal music teacher prepares these students in advance, using teaching materials supplied by OFY.) The cast members teach stage movement and choreography, and coach student choristers on their musical passages and spoken lines. The cast establishes an atmosphere of camaraderie wherein enthusiasm rules the day and mistakes are simply no big deal.

Question & Answer Time is a favorite with the students. During the question and answer session that follows every performance, students ask the cast and pianist questions about the show, the set, opera, careers in the arts, and, once a student asked, "Were you really singing?"

Timetable for Performance Day

• OFY van arrives at the school approximately an hour and fifteen minutes before the performance is due to start.
• An OFY cast member comes to the school office to find out where to unload and set-up.
• The cast builds the set.
• 45 minutes before the performance, the cast begins to rehearse with the 16 kids in the student chorus.
• Showtime! The performance lasts 45 minutes.
• The cast takes questions from the audience for 10-15 after the performance.
• The cast strikes the set in about 25 minutes.