Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9408020004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Or Captain von Trapp? Or Liesl? Or Rolf? Or little Gretl, for that matter?
Problems. Problems. Problems.
Jeff Walker was wallowing in the essence of community theater, with the faces and voices of 160 adults and children spinning around in his head, all of them amateurs, and all of them auditioning for a part in one of the most loved of musicals, "The Sound of Music."
As it turned out, solving the problem of Maria - the lead role immortalized on Broadway by Mary Martin, and on film by Julie Andrews - was easy for Walker. He turned to his fiancee, which naturally screams of casting-couch favoritism or, in this case, engagement ring bias. But more on that later.
First, the question that needs to be answered is why? Why would Showtimers, Roanoke's community theater, attempt to tackle the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic as its summer musical? Why would Walker?
The easy answer is that "The Sound of Music" is a proven money-maker. "There are a handful of shows that are in everybody's vocabulary," explained Walker, the show's director. "Everybody in the world has probably seen Julie Andrews spinning around on that mountaintop."
OK, maybe not everybody, but certainly enough to draw packed houses at Showtimers' small, 132-seat theater, where "The Sound of Music" opened this weekend. And also enough to make it a daunting production for an amateur theater to mount.
After all, to think that Showtimers, or any other community thespian group, can match the magic of a swirling Julie Andrews in the Alps is a stretch, like trying to bridge the Atlantic Ocean with Silly Putty.
Showtimers has never attempted the 35-year-old musical before.
But from the start, Walker had some idea he could probably cast the show. He was confident there was enough talent around to fill the major singing parts, and he knew people would come out of the woodwork to audition, although even he wasn't prepared for the response.
The 160 people who came out for "The Sound of Music" was more than has come out for any other Showtimers production. Typically, the theater's auditions draw fewer than 50 people.
Why the response? In a word: kids. "The Sound of Music" boasts seven parts for children, more than most of the big musicals. Of the 160 people who auditioned for the show in May, 135 were children.
Walker also cited the appeal of its music.
The hills are alive with the sound of music... How do you solve a problem like Maria... Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright coppers kettles and warm woolen mittens... Doe a deer, a female deer... I am sixteen going on seventeen... Climb ev'ry mountain...
The songs are memorable.
And the plot is intriguing, based on the true story of Maria von Trapp, a nun candidate in World War II Austria who becomes the governess of a widower's seven musical children, falls in love with the widower and marries him before the family flees the Nazis by scaling the Alps.
Obviously, as the central character, Maria is the critical link to the whole show. Without a strong Maria, well, let's just say the hills wouldn't come quite so alive.
For Maria, Walker didn't have much of a problem. He had Doray Feeser, his fiancee, which brings us back to the issue of preferential treatment, which would be a real issue if Doray Feeser couldn't sing a lick.
But alas, she can. She sings like an angel, or at least enough like a nun.
Feeser, 30, was trained in voice at Shenandoah University, formerly the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. She works as a music therapist at the Adult Care Center of the Roanoke Valley.
She prepared for her audition by practicing beforehand with the show's musical director, Ruth Ann Hannah, and by singing along with Barbra Streisand's "Back to Broadway" album in her car everyday on the way to work.
Maria is a role Feeser always wanted to play.
At Showtimers, she has had supporting roles in several previous musicals, but never a lead. Walker said she asked him questions about the auditions. What was he looking for? What kind of song should she sing? Questions, Walker said, anybody was free to ask.
His advice was simple: Come prepared and sing something that shows range.
He approached the auditions with an open mind. Certainly, Feeser would be a candidate, but if someone else better came along, then fine. In the end, it was an easy decision.
"We really only had two women who were anywhere near appropriate for the part," Walker said. "And one was older and one was Doray."
Still, Feeser admitted it was a tough spot for her future husband. If she got the part, then she said people would say it was because she slept with the director. If she didn't get the part, then she said people would have said that was no way for them to start off a marriage.
"He'll get it either way," she said.
Likewise, Walker said playing Maria is a tough spot for Feeser, or for anybody. It goes back to the daunting prospect of taking on such a defining role. "A lot of people said who's playing Julie Andrews, rather than Maria," Walker said.
Casting the male lead opposite of Feeser, Captain von Trapp, posed an entirely different problem. Finding men to audition for musicals at Showtimers always poses a problem.
Ian Lowden had never auditioned for Showtimers before, and his only theater experience goes back to his days at Roanoke College, where he graduated in 1976. But he sings in the Roanoke Valley Chorale Society and with the Roanoke Chamber Singers.
Lowden had long harbored a desire to get back into theater. He said he wanted an artistic outlet to counter his day-to-day work as a dentist. Also, his two daughters wanted to audition, so the time was right.
He auditioned with "Edelweiss," the captain's big solo from the show.
Walker was impressed with Lowden's singing. He knew him previously from the Chorale Society. And Lowden, 39, fit the profile. He was tall. You can't have a Captain von Trapp shorter than some of his children, Walker explained.Also, there weren't many other choices. There was really only one other possibility for the role, and he didn't sing as well as Lowden.
"I knew it would work out," Walker said.
Casting the children posed the opposite problem from finding a suitable captain. Instead of limited choices, sometimes it seemed to Walker that every child in the Roanoke Valley had auditioned.
To handle the numbers, Walker didn't give the kids a chance to sing prepared songs, like the adults. Rather, he took them in groups and had them sing "Happy Birthday To You," first together, and then individually.
His first consideration was whether they could sing. "Happy Birthday" was a good test. "`Happy Birthday' has some particularly difficult intervals that most people who don't know music don't realize," he said.
"You can tell in thirty seconds or less."
Walker tempered these auditions with goodwill, good humor and a stone-faced neutrality, even in the face of some laughable moments. "I just imagine if I were in their shoes for a second and try to go as bland as possible."
He also asked the groups to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
"Everybody now, stir patriotic feelings in my heart. Hit it."
Here, he wanted to rate their diction. Were they clear? Confident? Did they smile? Could you hear them beyond the front row? Did they seem interested? "I had a lot of kids who came and got up on the stage and they didn't look like they wanted to be there," he said.
About 30 of the children were called back for a longer look, where they were asked to sing songs from the show and sing along with other kids. Walker also took a closer look at their sizes - with a tape measure. The seven von Trapp children are supposed to be stair steps.
Then, in a series of review sessions, Walker met with Hannah, his musical director, and Sharon Capps, his assistant director, to pare down the field. These sessions could get brutally honest, where sometimes the intangibles had to be weighed against the talent.
"She is real bizarre. I mean, I don't want psycho child."
"Stage mother, DE-luxe, sparkles in the hair."
"This guy was in another country, forget about another key."
"When she opens her mouth, she's like yee-haw."
"He'd bring brownies once in awhile."
"And she might have a party at her house, and she's got a nice house."
Finally, there was the task of choosing a Gretl, the youngest of the von Trapp children. Walker had two "doll babies" under consideration, but they were young, only 5 years old. Maybe too young, and Walker weighed his options. "People will throw money if they're cute," he said on the one hand. On the other, he said: "They might need Mommy, who knows? It's just such an unknown."
He ended up picking two 7-year-olds, who will alternate playing Gretl from night to night. He said he shouldn't have to worry about them as much. He would have enough to worry about as it was.
Starting with rehearsals.
Coordinating the schedules of some 30 people for rehearsal time poses a whole new set of problems, akin to scaling those famous Alps, when compared to the cake walk of auditions.
"I can solve a problem like Gretl or the first nun on the left," Walker said, "but I can't always solve their schedules."
"The Sound of Music" continues at Showtimers in Roanoke County through Aug. 14. 774-2660.
by CNB