The hills are alive in Waterloo tonight.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
Kelly Witter, playing Maria, sings during the beginning of “The Sound of Music.”
Kelly Witter, playing Maria, sings during the beginning of “The Sound of Music.”
The Seneca Community Players will perform “The Sound of Music,” the classic musical of love and liberty in World War II Europe, at Waterloo High School through this weekend.
The show tells the story of Maria, an aspiring nun who takes up teaching the seven children of Austrian navy captain Georg Ritter von Trapp. As Maria loosens his authoritarian grip on his children, she also falls in love with him. But his engagement to a baroness - as well as the pressure on von Trapp to join the Nazi party in war - threatens his growing affection for Maria.
The Seneca Community Players' performance closely follows Andrew Lloyd Webber's 2006 revival of the musical, which integrates facets of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1959 show and the 1965 film it inspired.
“I really wanted the actors to take hold of their characters,” said director Kimberly Brown.
That challenge falls hardest on Kelly Witter, who plays the role of Maria immortalized by Julie Andrews in the film. Witter will also perform with the additional challenge of being five months pregnant.
“It was a costuming challenge,” Brown said. “It'll be interesting to see if anyone notices.”
Witter's pregnancy also serves a family-oriented theme Brown finds in the production. She said the show represents a return to the all-ages direction that defines community theater.
“We wanted to bring everybody together,” Brown said.
Several last names recur in the cast and crew list on “The Sound of Music.” Grandfathers and granddaughters, mothers and daughters and brothers and sisters come together in the Seneca Community Players' production. Brown's husband, a historian, even advised her on the proper use of props and military gestures in the musical.
Shari Del Favero and her three daughters - Sarah, 15; Michelle, 13; and Aimee, 11 - join the show from Auburn. The three young women will sing in the nun and Nazis ensembles.
“I like singing so much, and we get to learn a lot of new moves,” Sarah said. “The nuns have to learn a lot of harmonies.”
Sarah has performed in one musical theater show previously, the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse's production of “The Music Man” last summer. Her two sisters, however, will make their musical debuts tonight.
“I like singing, dancing and meeting a lot of people,” Aimee said.
Learning the all-Latin soundtrack of “The Sound of Music” hasn't eased the challenge of her and Michelle's first musical.
Shari also performed in “The Music Man” with Sarah. That performance marked her first in several years. Shari, a graduate of Mynderse Academy, performed with the Seneca Community Players in several productions before taking a hiatus to bring her three co-stars into the world.
Brown hopes the families both seeing “The Sound of Music” in Waterloo and those performing it will walk away having learned from its message about the importance of choices. When von Trapp must decide between his personal beliefs and cooperation with the Nazis - and when Maria must chose between her love for von Trapp and her love for God - both choose what feels right.
“There is a higher morality, when you have a tough decision to make, just follow your conscience,” Brown said.
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you go
What: “The Sound of Music”
When: 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Waterloo High School
Auditorium, Waterloo
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door
For details: Visit www.senecacommunityplayers.org
The show tells the story of Maria, an aspiring nun who takes up teaching the seven children of Austrian navy captain Georg Ritter von Trapp. As Maria loosens his authoritarian grip on his children, she also falls in love with him. But his engagement to a baroness - as well as the pressure on von Trapp to join the Nazi party in war - threatens his growing affection for Maria.
The Seneca Community Players' performance closely follows Andrew Lloyd Webber's 2006 revival of the musical, which integrates facets of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1959 show and the 1965 film it inspired.
“I really wanted the actors to take hold of their characters,” said director Kimberly Brown.
That challenge falls hardest on Kelly Witter, who plays the role of Maria immortalized by Julie Andrews in the film. Witter will also perform with the additional challenge of being five months pregnant.
“It was a costuming challenge,” Brown said. “It'll be interesting to see if anyone notices.”
Witter's pregnancy also serves a family-oriented theme Brown finds in the production. She said the show represents a return to the all-ages direction that defines community theater.
“We wanted to bring everybody together,” Brown said.
Several last names recur in the cast and crew list on “The Sound of Music.” Grandfathers and granddaughters, mothers and daughters and brothers and sisters come together in the Seneca Community Players' production. Brown's husband, a historian, even advised her on the proper use of props and military gestures in the musical.
Shari Del Favero and her three daughters - Sarah, 15; Michelle, 13; and Aimee, 11 - join the show from Auburn. The three young women will sing in the nun and Nazis ensembles.
“I like singing so much, and we get to learn a lot of new moves,” Sarah said. “The nuns have to learn a lot of harmonies.”
Sarah has performed in one musical theater show previously, the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse's production of “The Music Man” last summer. Her two sisters, however, will make their musical debuts tonight.
“I like singing, dancing and meeting a lot of people,” Aimee said.
Learning the all-Latin soundtrack of “The Sound of Music” hasn't eased the challenge of her and Michelle's first musical.
Shari also performed in “The Music Man” with Sarah. That performance marked her first in several years. Shari, a graduate of Mynderse Academy, performed with the Seneca Community Players in several productions before taking a hiatus to bring her three co-stars into the world.
Brown hopes the families both seeing “The Sound of Music” in Waterloo and those performing it will walk away having learned from its message about the importance of choices. When von Trapp must decide between his personal beliefs and cooperation with the Nazis - and when Maria must chose between her love for von Trapp and her love for God - both choose what feels right.
“There is a higher morality, when you have a tough decision to make, just follow your conscience,” Brown said.
Staff writer David Wilcox can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you go
What: “The Sound of Music”
When: 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Waterloo High School
Auditorium, Waterloo
Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door
For details: Visit www.senecacommunityplayers.org
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