BENNINGTON — The Green Mountains are alive with the Sound of Music.
Beginning Dec. 21, Monument Arts & Cultural Center in Bennington will be hosting a six-night run of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music,” a story based on the von Trapp singers who were living in Austria during the brink of World War II.
The timeless classic, which includes memorable tunes like “My Favorite Things,” “I Am Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” and “Do-Re-Mi,” was chosen by Kristine Lewis, executive director of MAC Center and the show’s director and choreographer, for its holiday feel and for the opportunity the play presents to combine professional performers with local talent.
Leading the production will be Metropolitan Opera singer Oren Gradus and actor Corinne Holland.
Gradus was invited to make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2002-2003 season and has since performed in leading operas throughout North America and Europe. He will be playing the widowed Naval Captain von Trapp who chooses to flee Austria with his family rather than serve under a Nazi regime.
Holland is a professional actor who has landed international and regional theater roles, as well as television roles. She will be playing Maria, the postulant nun who becomes governess to the seven von Trapp children.
Local talent includes the Mount Anthony Union Choir, Jessica Dela Peppa, Lynn Sweet, Daryl Kenny, Lauren Biasi, Maureen Cossey, Vincent Tatro, Victor Callirgos, Mark Blank, Evan Pringle, Thomas Saunders, Joseph Masalsky, and Sam Dowd.
The von Trapp children are being played by local students Natalie Conroy, Sadie Eggers, Asher Cooperman, Aliyah Ivey-Leake, Fiona Huttle, Greyson Sorbello, Abigail Weedon, Mimi Rivers, Lila Marion Jones, Isla Dowd, and Delores O’Connell.
Special guest Sam von Trapp, grandson to Maria and Georg von Trapp, will be holding a Q&A session on opening night. Along with his stories, he will be bringing von Trapp beer from the family’s brewery in Stowe, which will be on sale at the concession stand before the show.
Lewis, who has been doing theater her whole life, took the position of MAC Center’s executive director earlier in the year. After a brief visit to the site, she said she fell in love with the venue.
“It’s a beautiful theater,” Lewis said, describing the 315-seat Edith Memorial Theater. “There’s not a bad seat in this place.”
Lewis and the MAC Center’s Board of Directors are working hard to create a space for everyone in the community, noting the organization’s biggest challenge is letting people know they are open again after a five-year shutdown.
“We’re trying to reinvent the theater,” Lewis said. “It’s for everyone. If you don’t like musical theater, you’re going to come to hear a band. If you don’t like the band, you’re going to come and see TED Talks.”
Lewis and the MAC Center Board of Directors will announce the 2024 season schedule in January. Already in the line-up for February is Bennington County’s Got Talent.
As for the production of “The Sound of Music” – auditions, scheduling rehearsals, introducing the musicals classic songs to the younger actors, promoting the show – Lewis takes it all in stride.
“With theater, there is no surprise,” Lewis said. “Something happens and you fix it.”
Monument Arts & Cultural Center is a non-profit organization located at 44 Gypsy Road in Bennington. Tickets for The Sound of Music, which runs Dec. 21-23 and Dec. 28-30, are on sale now at monumentcentervt.org.
