The Zion Opera Workshop Junior will present "Willy Wonka Kids" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $5, and can be purchased from any cast member, or from Carbon County Music and More on Second Street in Lehighton.

The show transports the audience to the mysterious Wonka Factory, where Willy Wonka (played by Lehighton Area Middle School eighth-grader Roger Pomposello) announces for the first time that he will be retiring from the chocolate business and looking for a replacement. Meanwhile, Charlie Bucket (played by fourth-grader Mylee Hauser) and his family, live in a small shack when Charlie's mother (eighth-grader Hannah Smith) and father (fourth-grader Sarah Schlough) read in the newspaper that Wonka is going to be having a contest for five lucky people to win a tour of the factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate if they find one of his Golden Tickets in a candy bar.Later that day, Charlie joins his friends after school who are buying candy from the Candy Man (eighth-grader Abigail Buffington), who offers Charlie a lollipop "on the house" because he cannot afford one.Candy Man Kid soloists are played by Nicole Kester and Ava Bongo. Other Candy Man Kids include Elizabeth Buffington, Allison Foeller, Colleen Gilsbach, Kate Newsted, Amanda Gowin, Lauren Sheckler, Ilana Schweitzer, and Delaney Erickson. They inform him that two of the Golden Tickets have already been found.Ticket winners include Augustus Gloop (fourth-grader Zane Zimmerman), Veruca Salt (fifth-grader Susan Gilsbach), Violet Beauregarde (fifth-grader Allesandra Marciante), and Mike Teavee (fifth-grader Lillian Heydt).Parents of the children are played by Olivia Erickson, Layla Bravo, Emma McCormick and Liliana Nuzzo, respectively. Charlie is convinced after receiving a candy bar with no ticket for his birthday that he will never find one.On his way to school the next morning, however, Charlie runs into the Candy Man and finds a nickel buried in the snow. Charlie uses the nickel to buy a Wonka Bar, and it turns out that the final Golden Ticket is inside. The family decides that Grandpa Joe (played by sixth-grader Jared Oswald) should accompany Charlie to the factory. Other grandparents are played by Antigone Gonzalez (Grandpa George), Hannah Schweitzer (Grandma Josephina), and Maya Schweitzer (Grandma Georgina).Wonka greets the ticket winners and their parents at the gates of the factory and the tour begins. Each room is a temptation to one of the winning children and they begin to disappear from the tour one by one. Factory workers, called Oompa-Loompas, teach the audience not to follow the example of each child who disappears from the tour.Even Charlie is tempted in the Fizzy Lifting Drink room, but he and Grandpa Joe manage to escape unscathed and join the tour before Wonka notices they were gone.At the end of the tour, Charlie is the only child left. He thanks Wonka for giving him the tour and confesses that he drank some of the Fizzy Lifting Drink and breaking the rules. Wonka tells Charlie that the tour was a test of character and that he was the only child to succeed. Wonka appoints Charlie to take over the factory and invites him and his family to live in the Chocolate Factory.The Oompa-Loompa chorus is made up of Sophia Foreaker, Katryna Keck, Guadalupe Gonzalez, Heidi Dages, Gabrielle Hoffman, Abigail Ehrig and Serenity Foreaker.Squirrels are played by Gavin Hoffman, Jezelle Stribula, Selene Stribula, Estella Bongo and McKenna Hannon.ZOW Technical Directors Pati and Duane Reichard are helping with props and set pieces for ZOW Junior, as well as ZOW Costumer Nancy Keiser.Zion Opera Workshop veteran Laura Cressley has taken the directing reins for the group's first ever Children's Theatre production, under the name of Zion Opera Workshop Junior, joined by fellow ZOW veteran Adam Reichard as the stage director.After about six months of planning and preparation, ZOW Junior auditions were held in mid-March, and the rehearsal process began. More than 40 children auditioned for a part.