I really enjoyed the play ‘Don’t Trash Your Mother Earth’ that was featured at the Monticello Opera House recently. It was an excellent children’s musical about climate control and protecting our natural ecosystems. It afforded great opportunities for our youth to display their myriad talents to an eagerly awaiting audience. We are very fortunate to have Melanie Mays, Director of MadCo, to serve as producer, director, choreographer, and arranger for this show.
While in NYC she worked as an Equity singer/actor/dancer/musician. She has worked as a teaching professional in music, theater and dance since 1982, teaching at various studios and school districts including: City in Motion, Kansas City, Mo; Music Arts Institute, Independence, MO; and Thomasville Center for the Arts; Thomasville, GA. More notably, she teaches ballet, jazz, tap, Broadway-style dance, voice, musical comedy, acting for adults, teens, and children; piano and accordion. Mind you, it’s not often that a rural town like Monticello, Florida can boast that we have persons with these high-level skills within our midst.
I spoke with my friend Melanie recently, and she says: “we do one children’s show per year and one to two shows for our Broadway series, if possible. We are always looking for volunteers who want to sing, dance, and act. We always have openings for stage manager, stage crew, set crew, costuming, props, marketing, and more”.
In addition, Melanie promotes racial, gender, and ethnic diversity in all of her performances. As a youth minister who is in touch with minority kids from under resourced communities, that is reassuring to me. To become involved with Melanie Mays shows or to contribute otherwise, please visit http://www.monticelloactingdanceco.org.
Respectfully,
Rev. Gene Hall
Board Member
Monticello Opera House