Ilwaco is alive with ‘The Sound of Music’

Published 4:00 pm Tuesday, November 5, 2002

The Hilltop Elementary School will be alive with “The Sound of Music,” as Ilwaco High School drama club opens a run of nine performances starting Thursday night.

This is the first-ever production by Ilwaco High School of the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, which is based on true events and spawned one of the most beloved movies in American history.

The play, which tells the true story of Maria Rainer, a nun sent to live with a family of seven children and a widowed sea captain who does away with all things joyful in his house and avoids his children because they remind him of his deceased wife. When Maria arrives, she brings with her the love, laughter and music that had been missing and in turn falls in love with the captain, all set against a backdrop of the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938.

One several unique elements of this show is the inclusion of non-high school performers.

“We wanted to go in the direction of involving more then just high school students,’ said high school drama director Travis Ruhter. “And we decided that this would be a good transitional piece involving some young children. The script called for it and it’s just a lot of fun. It stretches the actors and makes them work with different styles, different people. It gives the high school actors a different perspective of what everything’s like.”

An invitation was extended to children that were recommended by the elementary school music teachers, those that were thought to have the maturity and vocal levels required for performing. They ended up auditioning 35 to 40 children for the five parts of the Von Trapp family children (those parts that could not be played by high school students).

“The children are the centerpiece,” said Ruhter. “They’re the centerpiece of lots and lots of musical numbers. And they’re the centerpiece of why the Captain and Maria fall in love. They have a lot of intricate choreography, a lot of intricate singing parts. They had to be very talented people. They’re pretty amazing. Stamina is an interesting issue, but it’s because they’re young.”

Another interesting feature of the production is the two Marias.

Two actresses, Michelle Fithen and Johanna Hazen, were cast in the lead role of Maria to help with practices and to save the girls vocals, as the role is very song intensive, with the character performing 80 percent of the songs. The girls will be swapping every other show.

“Johanna has been involved with us since she was a sophomore and she’s played a variety of different roles,” said Ruhter of Hazen. “She first started with us in ‘Grease’ and she played Marty and had a solo in that. Then she moved on to doing all kinds of different comedy, dark comedy, and serious drama.

“For Michelle, this is her first role ever on stage,” said Ruhter. “She was a technician for me last year in both of our productions. It is her first role but she is doing very well.”

Ruhter said that the girls auditions made it hard to cut it down to just one girl.

“She [Michelle] came in and auditioned and just wowed us,” said Ruhter. “She read the part really well. She has a lot of character in and of herself anyway, both of the girls do. Both Joanna and Michelle are very animated young women. They are very strong and that independence and that freedom really pops out for Maria. Because Maria, really, you know, was right around the same age that they are when the story took place.”

Now one would think that this could lead to in-fighting amongst the two, but quite the contrary – it has actually helped their preparation, and their friendship.

“Its hard to get the same amount of practice time in,” said Fithen, of sharing time with Hazen in the lead role.

“It’s really hard because I’ve been doing a lot of the singing practice and Michelle’s been doing a lot of the acting practice, and I haven’t had enough time on the stage,” said Hazen.

“And I haven’t had enough time singing,” replied Fithen, ” But we support each other.”

“Yeah we do,” said Hazen, “Like when I’m on stage and I forget a line, Michelle tells it to me.”

“Or if I don’t know something, she’ll run in and knock me over,” jokes Fithen. “We have extra practices, the two of us with like the music director or Ruhter. But we’re always practicing our lines.”

“Yeah, like between classes and stuff.” said Hazen

“I’ve never been in a show before,” admits Fithen, “So I had a lot of insecurities and I still do. It takes me a little bit longer to get confident on the stage. But, I don’t know, I’m getting better. I’ve gotten a lot of support from the cast and everything.

“I’ve always been in choir ever since I was little so I’ve always loved to sing.” said Fithen, of her musical background, “And ‘The Sound of Music’, ever since I was little, has been my favorite musical, so that kind of gave me a little bit of a push towards it. And Mr. Ruhter and I have worked together in travel club and ASB and a whole bunch of other things, and he kind of inspired me to try it and I did, and here I am!”

“I’m really glad we did this together,” said Hazen of Fithen. “Because I think we grew as friends.”

Another new element of this production are the costumes, rented from an outfitters’ in the Midwest.

“We’re renting the costumes from a theater company called Norcosco,” said Ruhter. “And they specialize in theater needs and they just have the show, ‘The Sound of Music’. And you send them all your measurements and they ship them all too you. You don’t have to wash them or anything. You just put them back in the box and ship them back.

“The costumes are so specialized, we would be spending hours upon hours upon hours making them,” said Ruhter. “And the cost would be probably around $3,000 for us to buy all the material to make them. And plus track down all the excessories and shoes and everything. Here, all we had to do was buy the shoes and get costumes. They’re right around $4,500. But then if you add manpower to making those costumes, it’s just a much better value for us to do what we’re doing.”

The musical director is once again under the watch of Bob Walter, who is the choir director at the high school. Walter has put together a small group of musicians that will serve a sort of mini-orchestra, including a piano player, a flutist, a percussionist and himself on acoustic and bass guitars.

The sets for the show are created under the supervision of Steve Newell, a residential carpenter who has volunteered with the drama club for the past five years.

“His daughter Lindsay was a freshman when I first started teaching here,” said Ruhter of Newell. “And she asked him to come down and volunteer to build the first set that were using – and he just never went home. He’s been helping us ever since.”

The play’s crew work with Newell to create the sets, with the students finishing up by designing and painting all the backdrop scenery.

Possibly one of the most important additions in such a dance-intensive piece is that of choreographer Cindy Flood. This marks Flood’s first experience with a high school production.

“It really pulls the show all together,” praised Ruhter. “Before we didn’t have a professional choreographer, and now we have one who’s doing it all volunteer and it just really makes the show sparkle.”

The show opens on Thursday, with performances Friday through Saturday with a matinee on Sunday. This continues the following week, Friday through Sunday. Tickets for the show can be purchased at the high school and at Peninsula Pharmacy, and it is encouraged that tickets are bought early as they expect the shows to sell out, as Ruhter says, “When we did ‘Grease’, the second weekend we had a couple of shows that were sold out. And we’re expecting it to be bigger and better than that show was.”

Cast and Crew for “The Sound of Music”

Maria Rainer – Michelle Fithen, Johanna Hazen

Captain Von Trapp – Burton Walters

The Von Trapp children

Liesl – Bethany Suprunowski

Friedrich – Zach Wiegardt

Louisa – Janna Goodwin

Brigitta – Rayna Goodwin

Marta – Brooke Flood

Kurt – Eli Schenk

Gretl – Michelle Rosi

Max Detweiler – Gene Wright

The Mother Abbess – Rachel Mohler

Franz, the butler – Matt Hopkins

Frau Schmidt, the housekeeper – Megan Saunders

Rolf – Nate Wiegardt

Elsa Schraeder – Megan Alexander

Ursula – Natasha Nesbitt

Herr Zeller – Jed Campiche

Baron Elberfeld – Chance McCelland

Admiral Von Scheiber – Cory Bardonski

Sister Berthe – Hannah Markham

Sister Margaretta – Ashley Martin

Sister Sophia – Angela Kimbrough

New Postulant – Jami Landeros

Technicians

Kate Lovett

Dorothy Frace

Kendra Miskin

Katie Freese

Kristina Freese

Casey Brewe

Robyn Unruh

Stefanie Watson

Katie Holmes

Jennifer Inserra

Director – Travis Ruhter

Musical director – Bob Walter

Assistant director – Dan Schenk

Choreographer – Cindy Flood

Show Times

ILWACO – Ilwaco High School will be performing “The Sound of Music” in the Hilltop Auditorium in Ilwaco on the following dates: Thursday, Nov. 7 through Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m.; Thursday, Nov. 14 through Saturday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 17 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available at Ilwaco High School (642-3731); Peninsula Pharmacy in Ilwaco (642-3133); in Long Beach (642-3200) or Ocean Park 665-5181.

Tickets purchased in advance will be $10 for adults and $6 for seniors and children. (At the door they will be $12 for adults and $8 for seniors and children.) Come enjoy!