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JUNE 27-JULY 3, 2021 WHAT'S UP! 3 COVER STORY 'Tying The Knot' Love celebrated at 70th Opera in the Ozarks BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette I n the world of Opera in the Ozarks, it's not a covid-19 bubble. It's a covid-19 jelly doughnut. That's how General Director Nancy Preis describes the plan the Eureka Springs opera company created so its 70th anniversary season could happen this year. "I never, ever thought we would all be fully vaccinated," she marvels. "So in November, we came up with a bubble concept — like the NBA did. But we called ours a jelly doughnut. The jelly was all the performers and people on campus; the doughnut was the people who would have to go out in public, to buy groceries and so forth. And they'd be separated from the jelly." It wasn't going to be a cheap jelly doughnut. Preis was anticipating motel rooms, so each performer could stay alone, and a lot of covid tests at $25 to $50 each. "And bless their hearts, the governing board said do whatever it takes. I was really kind of surprised," she marvels. With that mandate in hand, Preis reached out to faculty and staff — and almost everyone said they'd come. "However, we lost maybe half the student body," she says, explaining some had changed direction with their lives; some had been cast in "The Crucible," which was removed from the 2021 summer schedule; and some weren't willing to be quarantined. But the response was positive enough to allow Opera in the Ozarks to return to the business of training opera singers from across the nation, which it's been doing since 1950. Then vaccines started to become available in January, Preis says, which made everything easier. Changes were still required, though. Dormitory rooms Every performance is a party at Opera in the Ozarks, with fully staged and costumed productions accompanied by a chamber orchestra. The summer opera camp was founded in 1950 by Dr. Henry Hobart, former dean of fine arts at Phillips University in Oklahoma, with the support of Gertrude Stockard, director of music at Eureka Springs High School. (Courtesy Photo/OiO) See Opera Page 4