The hills are alive with the sound of singing children. At a late June rehearsal of North Georgia Community Players’ production of The Sound of Music, the von Trapp kids are singing their lungs out as they yodel their way through “The Lonely Goatherd,” one of many memorable songs in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s immortal musical.
The show, which will run for nine performances in Dillard over three weekends from August 8th through the 24th, features familiar young faces from previous NGCP shows, as well as the indefatigable director of all the company’s recent musicals, Rebecca Bilbrey.
A timeless tale of music, love, and resistance
Based on the true story of an Austrian near-nun, Maria; the Austrian admiral who becomes her husband, Baron Georg von Trapp; and his seven children from his first marriage, the musical tells the story of the now-famous family that escaped the Nazi “Anschluss”—the 1938 German annexation of neighboring Austria that was the first Nazi cross-border aggression leading to World War II. The beloved musical, as a film, is one of the top-grossing shows of all time and is Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s most successful collaboration.
Some of its many songs, “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and the heart-rending “Edelweiss”—the last song the duo ever wrote together—are considered classics of musical theater, and have been recorded by dozens of other artists, in many different styles, from operatic to jazz.
The story, for the 11 readers who may be unfamiliar with it: Maria, a postulant—prospective nun—near Salzburg, Austria, is initially sent out of her abbey for a bit of real-world experience, as her mother abbess is not sure the restless young woman is suited for a nun’s life. She is assigned to help the stern, hyper-disciplinarian and widower von Trapp raise his seven children. The captain, a celebrated German naval officer in World War I, is being pressured to resume his military career—this time under the authority of the party led by one Adolf Hitler.
Spoiler alert
The captain has an equally distinguished girlfriend—the Baroness Elsa Schraeder—who is initially suspicious of Maria, but is comforted by learning she will soon be returning to the abbey. Maria does leave, but doesn’t stay away for long (cue romantic music). The former future nun instantly bonds with the von Trapp children, dressing them colorfully and teaching them the rudiments of music, which became the family’s lifelong passion.
The nuns in the abbey are a big part of the story, as they ponder (among other big questions, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”
Ultimately, the plot turns on the pressure the Nazis are applying to force von Trapp to resume his military duties. His original fiancée and his friend, Max, both consider the Germans’ triumph inevitable and beg him to submit. But Georg and his new bride endeavor to evade the Nazi menace and save their children from the Nazi domination of Austria and Europe (spoiler alert: the good guys win).
Double-casting the von Trapp kids
Director Rebecca Bilbrey was overwhelmed by local actors’ response to the auditions in May; more than 40 people of all ages turned out, including many family groups. She decided to double-cast all the kids’ roles, which included older teens down to a six-year-old as the youngest von Trapp.
“I chose the show because I wanted to give the younger talent in the community a chance to shine,” Bilbrey said, taking a breath this week between rehearsals. “I’m thrilled with how I was able to fill the cast; the kids are so gifted, and everyone is working so hard.”
Among the younger characters are Captain’s oldest girl, Liesl, and a local messenger boy, Rolf, whose romance serves as a subplot and generates the charming duet, “You Are Sixteen, Going on Seventeen.”
Stage veterans bring depth to iconic characters
Lucy Barry is all of 22, and playing Maria is her first time in a full-on romantic lead. She’s played the title role in “Annie,” Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde,” and most recently the high-energy Rosie in the NGCP “Bye Bye Birdie” in 2023.
“I love this show,” Barry says. “I watched it incessantly while I was growing up.” Interestingly, Barry has a little bit of exposure to the lifestyle Maria surrenders: “My aunt, Christine, is the only cloistered nun I’ve ever known.” In “real life,” Barry is a zip line guide and dog groomer, but she has always loved the stage.
Lucy’s “stage husband” is Anthony Schandel, 23, who’s been very busy on stage lately, including a big role in “9 to 5” in Dillard, and “Pirates of Penzance” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” at Habersham Community Theatre, among others. But he called playing the Captain his biggest stage challenge to date.
“It’s quite an evolution he goes through,” Schandel says. “He’s so emotionally closed off at first, “but he gradually opens up more in each scene. It’s very tricky to reveal that slowly.”
Schandel particularly likes the moment when his firm, military reserve cracks as he dances with Maria for the first time, to illustrate to his children how it’s properly done. The lesson generates a bit more heat between the incipient couple than they intended.
In the rest of his life, Schandel manages a career every bit as hands-on as the captain’s; he sells automotive parts at Jefferson Ford in Jackson County.
Bilbrey brings families and talent together
Schandel and Barry both said their favorite element of the show is the joyful kids—two septets full—who are not only key to the plot but will win over the audience’s hearts. The kids are featured in several of the show’s best-known songs, including the charming “Goatherd” song, and, of course, “Do-Re-Mi.”
Director Bilbrey has become an NGCP institution; she’s directed every one of the company’s musicals since performances resumed after the Covid shutdown. These have included such audience favorites as “Little Shop of Horrors,” “9 to 5,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” and the song and dance numbers at the theater’s recent spring gala fundraiser.
Said Bilbrey, “I think it’s everybody’s favorite, and for me, I’m delighted that I’ve been able to cast whole family groups—moms, dads, and kids together.”
Some of the other familiar names and faces in the cast: Cecilia Barry (Lucy’s sister), and Makenna Bilbrey (the director’s niece), who share duties as Liesl von Trapp; Amy Smith, who is both music director and Sister Berthe, one of the nuns; Sam Warren and Mont Wood, who share the role of Liesl’s love interest, Rolf; Dannyale Williams as Baroness Elsa Schrader; Peyton Wood as Admiral von Schreiber and Baron Elberfeld; Rilyn Bilbrey—the director’s daughter—as Louisa von Trapp, and Lauryn Baltimore as Frau Zeller.
Tickets now on sale
The North Georgia Community Players (NGCP) production of The Sound of Music opens Friday, August 8, and runs through August 24. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7 p.m., and Sunday matinees are at 3 p.m.
Tickets are available online through the NGCP website or by calling (706) 212-2500.
The NGCP theater is in the Old Dillard Schoolhouse, which also houses Dillard City Hall, at 892 Franklin Street in Dillard, Georgia.
