MLC thespians go on search for teacher; learn lesson to appreciate others
Mountain Lake Christian (MLC) High School thespians are on the hunt as sleuths in order to uncover what happened to their missing teacher, Miss Nelson, in the play, “Miss Nelson Is Missing!,” taken from the book by Harry Allard and James Marshall.
The story will unfold during a trio of weekend of production presentations in the school’s Music Room. Show dates and times are Thursday, November 19 and Friday, 20, a 7 p.m. curtain time each evening and a Saturday, November 21 matinee, beginning at 2 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students and children pre-kindergarten and under, free. The school is located at 710 11th Street North in Mountain Lake.
As the storyline goes, the kids in Miss Nelson’s elementary classroom – Room #207 – are misbehaving again. Spitballs are stuck to the ceiling. Paper planes go whizzing through the air. She can’t get them to settle down and listen during storytime. They were the worst-behaved class in the whole school – because she is just too nice.
One day, Miss Nelson mysteriously doesn’t show up for school. The students’ substitute teacher is Miss Viola Swamp, a “hard-as-nails, detention-loving, recess-canceling, homeworkoverloading substitute teacher” who forces the children to (gulp!) be quiet and do arithmetic. She also cancels story hour and assigns them an insurmountable amount of homework.
After a few days with Miss Viola Swamp, the students get worried that they will never see Miss Nelson again. They come up with all kinds of crazy ideas about how Miss Nelson went missing. But none of them could really have happened.
Just when the class thinks they will be stuck with Miss Viola Swamp forever, Miss Nelson is at school the next day. The children missed her and from that day on the kids behaved themselves – regretting their own former wicked ways.
And . . . very interesting . . . it turns out that Miss Nelson has the same ugly dress in her closet and a wig that looked oddly like the hair of Miss Viola Swamp.
“Miss Nelson Is Missing” is a play that teaches the lesson of appreciating others.
Directing the production is MLC’s K-12 Music Teacher Aaron Petersen.
Cast
+ Lavita – Danica Dick.
+ Ramona (Raymond) – Summer janzen.
+ Morris (Mouse) – Josh Raabe.
+ Principal Humleker – Regan James.
+ George Jorgenson Jr. – Bryce Adrian.
+ Detective McSmogg – James Hamm.
+ Kimberly – Melissa Lohrenz.
+ Elvis – Seth Klassen.
+ Miss Nelson – Katelyn Fast.
+ Miss Viola Swamp – Paige Riihl.
+ Phoebe – Sara Quiring.
+ Classroom Students – Emily Schroeder, Lizzy van Beilen, Zoey Smith, Anna Toutges and Elizabeth Linscheid.
Behind the Scenes
+ Assistant Director – Carter James.
+ Stage Manager – Chloe Klassen.
+ Crew – Bren Toutges and Cheyanne Courts.
