Sault Opera started the year off with the fable of Broadway based on the story and characters of Damon Runyon, "Guys and Dolls" in mid-May, directed by Steve Ballantine who moved to the Sault from Toronto, music directed by Frank Elliott, and choreography by Kim (Greco) Boston. The show featured an all-local cast of 30 accompanied by an 18-piece pit orchestra. Sault Opera veterans Luise Morano, Terry McPhee, and Larry Whelan made up the leads, along with Francine St. Jules making her debut as a primary lead. Visiting director Gordon Gresko was engaged in the position of play polisher with the support of a Theatre Ontario grant. Even though the total attendance was about 1500, the show had a net loss of over $1500 due to increased production expenses.

Sault Opera also sponsored the upstart of The Sault Summer Youth Theatre, managed and directed by Steve Ballantine during the summer months under the auspices of the federal SEED program with six paid students and over a dozen volunteer participants in the plays performed by this group. Two plays were produced and a series of workshops were organized, of which the volunteers took part.

"1837 Farmers' Revolt" was performed in the beginning of July on the Canada Day weekend in the Bellevue Park Amphitheatre and a total of 16 performances throughout the summer in front of the historical Old Stone House. Approximately 1500 people attended the performances and admission was pay-what-you-can with the box passed around after each show.

John Gray's "Keep on Truckin'" musical "18 Wheels" was performed on Rotary's Community Day, July 23, in an open-air flat-bed trailer stage in the Memorial Gardens parking lot; August 1 in the Bellevue Park Amphitheatre; four performances as a dinner theatre package at the Ramada Inn in mid-August; at the St. Joseph Island Cornfest open-air arena on August 20, and at the Algoma North Shore Fair open-air arena later that same evening. Total attendance for all performances of "18 Wheels" was approximately 4000.

A lot of enthusiastic comments about the energy and fresh approach of presenting new Canadian musical plays by the Summer Youth Theatre have been heard and recorded in writing. Director and manager Steve Ballantine was paid from the net proceeds of this project.

At the beginning of November, Sault Opera presented Donizetti's light-hearted Buffo Opera "The Elixir of Love" (L'Elisir d'Amore) in Korah Collegiate Theatre. Arno Ambel was once again back in the forefront producing the show, designing the set, directing the staging and music, and conducting the 20-piece pit orchestra. Guillermo Silva-Marin, artistic director of the Toronto Operetta Theatre and soloist with the Canadian Opera Company, was engaged to play the lead tenor role of Nemorino. As an added bonus, he assisted Arno with the staging and blocking of the opera. Other lead performers were cast locally, including veteran performers Wendy Guzzo, Ted Hallin, and Sonya Masoti. Geoff Martin made his Sault Opera debut in this opera. 900 people came to view this opera over its three-night run and the show was an artistic success; unfortunately, the show ended with a rather large deficit in excess of $5300 as classical opera productions do not attract the same audiences as the popular musicals.

Although 1988 was not a financially successful year for Sault Opera, there were new ventures formed and new plays planned for the next year. Steve Ballantine made it clear that he was in the Sault to stay with the launch of the Sault Summer Youth Theatre.