![]() There is none for this production of “Sound of Music.” Little Theatre will utilize pre-recorded orchestral tracks supplied by “Sound of Music’s” publisher. And it's a wonderful thing I think I'm going to take away from this pandemic: how important what you say with your eyes is, because we've lost that that sense of communication we have with our whole face.”Īnother casualty of social distancing is the live orchestra. ROGERS LITTLE THEATRE HOW TOWe have learned a lot about how to communicate with our eyes. Still, the actors’ mouths are simply not as visible as they would be without masks of any kind, which made Chuck Rogers realize “how important it is to see people's lips, when you can't see a person's mouth. It covers the lower half of the face, but it's really clear and it doesn't really reflect light very well, and it's great for microphones.” Everyone in the cast is individually miked. ![]() We have a terrific new type of clear mask that that we are using and it is virtually invisible to the audience. “And ironically, I didn't see anybody's face until last week. The cast members have worn face masks since the auditions, Rogers said. She’s a “newbie.” “And,” added Chuck Rogers, “she's going to become a star in their own right as soon as she gets older! But it's wonderful to see these seven young people create their own dynamics and their own new sense of family and all of tha-all while masked!” ![]() All, that is, except Loralei Blevins, who plays Gretel, the youngest Von Trapp child. The seven young actors playing the Von Trapp children range in age from 8 to 18, most of whom most of them are Springfield Little Theatre veterans and have grown up in SLT’s Education Series. Hey, if fifth graders can get into the romantic aspect of the story, everyone can! So that was a good sign.” He said the kids “ooh’ed” and “ah’ed” appreciatively during the love scenes. Jarrod Cate, who is one of our instructors over at (SLT’s) education facility, is Captain von Trapp.He is very familiar to our audience, is he was in ‘Forbidden Broadway Greatest Hits.’ And the chemistry with him between him and Erin… we had all of our fifth graders from our magnet school at the show last night, and they were just enamored of Maria and Captain von Trapp. And again, it's why ‘The Sound of Music’ is so relevant and is continually performed over and over and over again because it's always relevant to the way we perceive our society, the way we perceive family. And it's not that she's a ‘recreation’ of Julie Andrews or ‘classic reinterpretation.’ She plays (Maria) as a strong, independent young woman that I think is irrelevant to our day and age. “Erin Payne, who is a recent graduate from the Evangel Music Theater Department, showed up at auditions and she is every inch Maria. But he was gratified by the response and assembled an excellent cast. For one thing, SLT had “no idea going into it what type of response we were going to have” in terms of people auditioning for the show. I asked Rogers about his cast for this production, and we talked extensively about the challenges of doing live theater during a pandemic. ![]() “Their work is primarily to further the story between Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews.” ROGERS LITTLE THEATRE MOVIEA wonderful showcase for two very talented leading performers.” The actors in either role in the movie don’t sing at all. There are two songs, actually, in our production that are not in the film. ![]() “The characters of Max, Captain von Trapp’s best friend and the (Salzburg) festival coordinator, and (von Trapp’s) soon-to-be fiancee, Elsa Schrader- those roles are much expanded in the Broadway show from they are in the film. “There are two songs specific to the movie that are not in the original production, and that is ‘I Have Confidence’ that Julie Andrews sings, and the song in the second act called ‘Something Good’ that Captain von Trapp and Maria sing.” Rogers didn’t want to speculate as to whether either song should be in the stage version of “Sound of Music,” but he went on to mention another big difference between stage and film. Chuck Rogers says there are actually some major differences. We talked about the differences between the stage version and the familiar mid-1960s film adaptation with Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. And, you know, it's just great to be bringing this this classic wonderfully comfortable show back to the area in this in this day and time.” “We've been in rehearsal now for about 10 weeks, and we had a tremendous preview last night with good audience response. “It’s great to be opening the show,” Rogers said. Chuck Rogers of Springfield Little Theatre joined KSMU’s Randy Stewart on “Arts News” to talk about “The Sound of Music,” SLT’s new production opening tonight (Jan 29) and running through February 14 at the Landers Theatre, 311 E. ![]()
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