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A cast of 64 will present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s beloved musical, made popular by the 1965 movie version with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The play will be performed June 19-22 at the Marie W. Heider Center for the Arts.
“We are just so excited,” said co-director Amy Hanson. “People will love it, whether you’re a senior citizen or a little kid. They are just really going to enjoy it.
“It’s just a wonderful classic, and we’re so excited to put it on.”
“The Sound of Music,” set in 1930’s Austria, centers on the fun and love a postulant-turned-governess brings to a military-minded family. Maria is not doing well in her attempts to become a nun and is soon assigned to be a governess for the children of the widowed Captain von Trapp.
Being a military man, the Captain has raised his seven children with strict discipline, but, often being away, the children have become mischievous and have been resentful toward previous governesses hired. However, through kindness and understanding, Maria breaks through those barriers and eventually wins the hearts of the children. Ultimately, she and Captain von Trapp fall in love, although the looming Nazi invasion stands to threaten all their newfound happiness.
Hanson returns for her ninth year of directing the West Salem Summer Musical, and she is again teaming up with co-director Rhonda Andres for their sixth summer musical and seventh play overall.
Hanson said one of the reasons they chose “The Sound of Music” was due to the large female cast this year. The play offers a number of female roles as well as good opportunities for singing parts.
“‘The Sound of Music’ has a nun choir and (the play is) really a chance for the girls to step up and shine,” said Hanson, the high school music teacher.
A unique opportunity for this year’s summer musical was that elementary students were cast. Typically the summer play is open to just middle and high school students and recent graduates, but because “The Sound of Music” has children parts, youth at the elementary level are involved. The youngest cast member is 5 years old.
Andres said it has not only been fun to work with the young actors and actresses but a pleasure as well.
“It’s been really fun because they’re very talented and they have stepped up to the plate,” Andres said. “I don’t feel like I have to treat them any different than the high school kids; they fit right in.
“A lot of that has to do with the experience and help from the high school kids. We just become this one big, happy family.”
Molly Jensen, who plays Maria, said she, too, has enjoyed working with the children. She said her role has been a natural fit — she is even a nanny over the summer — and the children call her “Mom” during rehearsals. One youth even gave her a present for Mother’s Day.
“I’ve always loved children, and it’s been fun for me to come and play with them everyday,” said Jensen, 18, who recently graduated. “Although it’s acting, it’s still fun to get up there with the kids, so it hasn’t been too difficult getting into character.
“I just have to remember when the kids do something funny that I can’t giggle too much because I’m on the stage.”
Jensen, who has been acting since the sixth grade, said “The Sound of Music” is one of her favorite musicals, and she remembers the first time she watched it on television with her mother. As a youngster, Jensen said she always wanted to play the part of Liesl, but, now older, she knew she wouldn’t fit the youthful part and is very happy with the lead role.
“It’s one of the first musicals I saw when I was little,” she said. “I’ve always just loved it.”
Cast and crew have been rehearsing since the end of April, and practices have generally lasted four hours five days a week since then. Hanson and Andres said rehearsals have gone well, and Andres noted an enjoyable aspect has been seeing the kids take on and become their characters.
“One of the funnest things is to just take kids and change them into the actors and into the parts and into the people they play,” said Andres, who teaches alternative education at the high school. “I don’t see them as the school kids I know any more. I see them as the von Trapp family, the singers, the singing nuns, as Maria and the Captain.
“They transform from the neighborhood kids to the actual persons in the show. It’s just an amazing transformation.”
Ross Bradley, another recent West Salem graduate, takes on the part of Captain von Trapp. He said it has been a fun learning experience for him in take on the persona of the Captain because the character is different from himself in real life.
“I don’t know if it’s something that I would necessarily describe myself as being with just the mannerisms and being upstanding and orderly; that’s not really who I am,” said Ross, who has been in summer musicals since 2001 and has been involved with community theater. “But I thought it was something I could understand and know how to become. For me, it’s just something I just really get written in the script and I can understand the motions.”
Bradley also says most of his lines become memorized during rehearsals — which can be a little nerve-racking for fellow cast members at times.
“I tend to learn the lines at rehearsals, so it can be scary maybe to have me just learning them at rehearsals,” he said. “But by the week of final practices I’m good to go.”
Hanson said audiences can expect the summer musical of “The Sound of Music” to be very similar to the movie version, and many familiar songs will be sung — such as “My Favorite Things,” “So Long, Farewell,” “The Lonely Goatherd” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen.” She said the play version has a few songs in different places than the movie, but there are a couple additional songs that weren’t included in the movie.
“The music is very recognizable,” Hanson said. “I just think (the audience) will be truly entertained. It is just so magical and one of the most beautiful productions.
“It really entertains people of all ages. It’s a family show, it’s colorful and it’s fast-paced.”
Andres agreed and hopes people will come out to see the production.
“I just think that once again West Salem is going to put on a wonderful summer musical that people will enjoy and talk about for a long time,” she said. “This stuff becomes enchanting.”
“The Sound of Music” will be performed at the Heider Center at 7 p.m. on June 19-21 and at 2 p.m. on June 22. General admission is $6, and tickets are available at the door or the district office. Doors open one hour before production.
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