Olympic Peninsula Academy’s drama class to stage ‘Mary Poppins Jr.’

With a cast of more than 30 and a familiar character coming to the stage, Olympic Peninsula Academy’s young students are once again putting on a stage show for the Sequim community — for free.

The academy’s drama classes present OPA’s annual production, this year bringing Disney and Cameron Mackintosh’s “Mary Poppins Jr.” — a musical based the stories of P. L. Travers and the Walt Disney film — to the Sequim High School auditorium stage, 533 N. Sequim Ave., at 7 p.m. Friday, June 1, and 1:30 and 7 p.m. Saturday, June 2.

A cast of 31 actors and actresses in grades 6-10 are “all working together to thrill audiences with a story and songs that everyone will know and love,” production organizers say.

For the two productions, OPA’s younger drama class opens with a short play titled “The Gingerbread Girl” — a continuation of “The Little Gingerbread Man” — featuring a cast of 23 from academy students in grades 1-5.

OPA drama classes are designed to help students “learn the skills of theater arts, confidence and poise, as well as helping them learn to work with a whole team of students with varying ages and abilities,” OPA officials say. Each student gets a part in OPA productions.

No admission is charged, though the academy’s drama program is supported by donations.