Jessica Brady ’18: The Episcopal Academy’s production of The Sound of Music will delightfully charm EA community members and fans of the beloved musical in late April. Like past EA musical and theatre productions, the combined efforts of the actors, the tech team, and the directors play a significant role in the musical’s success.
“Doing the musical is about seventy percent of my job. We have to worry about production and work with Kelly Bertucci to design and build a set. We have a costume designer and students who are working tech and they build and gather props,” explained Dan Clay, Director of Theatre and Dance. “The actors have to learn complicated dances with Cara Lavallee, complicated musical numbers, we want to make the scenes believable so we really have to rehearse and figure out where those characters are coming from. We have to advertise, we have to do ticket sales, and all the little things that go along with it. For students, it’s time-consuming especially around production week.”
A challenging musical to produce, direct, and choreograph, The Sound of Music is a daunting production. The musical has difficult singing repertoire, acting scenes, and other requirements including finding and auditioning EA Lower School children to play the two youngest von Trapp children.
“We try to do a variety of musicals each year, and we haven’t done a dramatic one in a while, so we chose this. We also wanted to do one that was more classical, and it’s The Sound of Music’s 50th anniversary this year, so that made our decision,” stated Clay.
Even though the musical requires a lot of hard work, those who showed interest in partaking in The Sound of Music were encouraged to audition.
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“This is an educational institution, so you’re not supposed to know how to act and sing and dance before you come out to do a musical. We tend to cast the students who have past experience and are trained, but there is really no experience level that we expect. We are really supposed to teach you things about acting and singing and dancing,” explained Clay.
“I know everyone can sing, but some kids are more self conscious about it and just need some training. One of my goals here at EA is to have people feel comfortable with their selves,” added Jim Erwin, Music Department Chair and Choir Director. “Part of our job as teachers is to show them that they can do it.”
For senior Caroline Jacoby ’15, this year’s musical is her first. “After an injury prevented me from rowing in the spring, I wanted to get involved with something for my last months of high school. I picked the musical because I’ve never done anything like it before,” said Jacoby.
Under Erwin’s musical experience and Clay’s acting guidance, the cast of the show promises to be a strong, talented team. Emma Smith ’15 will play The Sound of Music’s female lead Maria. “Maria is spirited, innocent, warm, determined, and kind,” said Smith. “I admire and relate to many of her qualities. I especially admire her bravery and assertiveness.”
Erwin notes that “the nuns in The Sound of Music actually have four parts, so they’re like a girls’ chorus. It takes a lot of time to train them because at least half of them haven’t been in a choir before, so it’s really just enforcing the different parts.”
However, the directors understand the impact the musical has on an EA student’s already busy schedule, with rehearsals lasting around eight weeks.
“It’s a big commitment, but we try to make it so people can participate in a variety of ways. We have a faction of students who are really serious about it and want to put a lot of time into it, like a varsity team, and they do the musical as a fitness option,” said Clay. “But, we also have a lot of students who want to experience musicals but also want to do a sport, so we have an option for them, too, where we meet Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons.”
“It’s all worth it though, because it leaves you with great memories,” concluded Smith. “Looking back on my EA theater career, there are so many things I’m going to miss. At the top of my list are the people. Although not a huge number of kids participate in the shows, the kids that do are some of the kindest, funniest, most supportive kids I know. Of course, I will also miss the incredible support we get from the dedicated theater faculty.”