Elgin Opera House does magic tricks beyond pulling a bunny from a top hat.

This tiny company of volunteer actors and stagecraft people continually amazes me. The most recent dropping of my jaw happened during Terry Hale’s staging of the musical “Big Fish” this spring. It was wonderful in a thousand ways, with some excellent voices, great costumes, totally professional choreography by Hale’s daughter, Abigail Grigg, and extremely creative projected scenery devised by Hale.

I felt the only substantial difference between how Elgin put this show together as compared to a Broadway production is that Elgin used a pre-recorded music track to accompany the vocals. Broadway would have had a pit orchestra, of course. However, the large cast handled live singing to a recorded music track as if they had invented the technique. I was stunned with how polished this show was and I saw it twice to help me absorb everything.

I was equally impressed a year ago when director Grant Turner got on the computer at home and courted English actress Imogen Stubbs to make a visit to Elgin. She has great acting credits, and her Desdemona in the Royal Shakespeare’s 1989 “Othello” can be viewed for free on YouTube, even now. The show was directed by her then-husband, Trevor Nunn, who is on the short list of very active film and stage directors in England.

Stubbs didn’t do any acting at Elgin last year, nor did she lead any workshops; she was there as an example of a working theatrical artist and participated in a couple of informal receptions where she responded patiently to questions.

Another remarkable quality about Elgin is they will put up a production of a Shakespeare play that has been cut down a bit, and perform it for an audience of about 10. Last year I saw “Richard II,” with Turner in the lead, and I counted about six folks in the audience. That is a most unusual theater work ethic, and it’s not that the show wasn’t selling, it’s just a small venue.

Elgin’s popular children’s theater program has already sold out for “Lion King Jr.,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is set for Sept. 21-Oct. 12. The cast list is huge.

The tiny Jewel Theatre will host the big and brash “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” Oct. 4-26.

I want to see both shows.

Everything they do is just about perfect.