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SOUTH JORDAN — Seven-year-old Pamela Lloyd was ecstatic when she moved from Arizona to South Jordan to attend third grade, especially after she found out her South Jordan Elementary School class would be writing, producing and performing an opera.
“I love acting and singing. It’s like my favorite thing to do when I have spare time,” she said.
Pamela played the part of a vampire in her class production of "The Invasion," which her third-grade class spent the entire school year working on and performed Thursday.
The class told the story of zombies, mummies, humans, vampires, aliens and robots overcoming their differences and working together through songs, colorful hand-crafted backdrops and handmade costumes.
The production was part of a Logan-based program called Opera by Children. The program, which South Jordan Elementary teachers Scott Knight and Carolyn Richards brought to their school, has students work with their teacher to write a musical script, which is then sent to a music specialist in Logan.
After the specialist approves the script, they visit the school to help the students put the lyrics to a tune, and then to piano music. Once the tune is set, the specialist records the kids singing to the music, and then helps them rehearse and design a set for the opera.
“It’s been excellent. … It really ties in language arts, the elements of a story, dialogue, sentences," Knight said.
He believes the program is important because it teaches students skills such as dialogue and the elements of a story, but also gives children who may not excel in language arts or math a chance to "shine."
“Some kids don’t necessarily shine in the classroom with their math or reading, but they can shine on stage,” he said.
"The Invasion" production was joined by a second-grade production of "The Case of the Missing Watermelon," which was produced and performed by Carolyn Richards' class.
The story depicts a group of farmers who plant a watermelon, are excited to see it grow, and then face the devastating news that it was stolen — first by a group of Native Americans, then a group of gypsies.
After several rounds of planted and stolen watermelon, the farmers forgive the thieves and decide to share.
“It’s good because they come up with really good ideas about life and people and how they interact,” Richards said.
While some students were nervous to perform Thursday, both teachers said all their students spent the entire year being excited for the production.
"It helps them to be more outgoing and builds their confidence,” Knight said. "They’re very excited to be part of it.”
Richards agreed, adding, "It empowers them with a lot of things, it's so good for them."
Both teachers wanted to enact the program because of their personal love for the arts — Richards earned a minor in music and Knight participated in performing arts throughout high school and college.
"As years have gone on, I’ve seen how much it really helps the kids,” Knight said. “It helps improve them in all areas of academics.”
Richards added that since the program has been implemented, she has seen test scores rise and students become more enthusiastic about learning.
“If they can build their stamina in the arts, it’s just really a fine mechanism to get them to enjoy school,” she said.
Alison Berg is a Deseret News intern and journalism major at Utah State University. Contact her at aberg@deseretnews.com.
