Corinna Lapid Munter has acquired seven kids since January.
Lapid Munter, who plays the Von Trapp children’s governess Maria in “The Sound of Music,” says the family atmosphere of rehearsals bonded her with her young charges.
“I feel like they’re my kids,” said Lapid Munter, who, like the rest of the cast, has rehearsed at least three days a week since February.
“I no longer have one child,” she said. “I have eight.”
Lapid Munter’s highly trained coloratura soprano voice is more than up to the challenge of the female lead role, which requires her to perform five numbers in the show’s first half-hour.
“I knew this was going to be a huge commitment, so I buckled down from day one,” she said.
Besides the 10 hours of rehearsal per week, Lapid Munter and co-star Royce Napolitani, who plays Baron Von Trapp, met on their own to rehearse.
“She’s a warrior,” director Ron Milton said. “She’s so strong.”
The show marks Milton’s directing debut at the Playhouse. Milton recently returned to Bainbridge from seven years of acting and directing stints in Manhattan, Paris, Houston and Los Angeles.
“I’m pretty familiar with Rogers and Hammerstein,” he said, “and ‘Sound of Music’ is a great story.
“When acting is no longer sufficient to move the story forward, you sing, and when singing is no longer sufficient, you dance.”
The musical, the last show penned by composer Richard Rogers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, opened on Broadway in 1959 starring Mary Martin as Maria. Milton holds to the stage version, but incorporates songs written for the movie version starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.
Based on the true story of the Von Trapp family’s escape from Austria after the Nazi Anschluss in 1938, the show features a large ensemble cast singing more than 20 musical numbers, including the beloved “Do Re Mi” and “Climb Every Mountain.”
Another favorite, “Edelweiss,” has become so engrained that many now believe it to be an Austrian folk song.
In fact, the poignant paen to love of country was a Hammerstein original – the final song the lyricist, who knew he was dying, would write.
Milton, who earned a master’s degree in directing and design from the University of Houston, says he has directed “Sound of Music” from the “European ensemble” point of view he learned from Jertz Zrotowski, an experimental theater designer in Poland in the 1970s, and from Harold Pinter at London’s Stage II.
“In a lot of American productions, you have the star and you have everybody else,” Milton said. “But if you have truly ensemble productions, your show is only as good as the weakest link.”
Even the small parts received careful attention from Milton. The result is a disciplined cast in a musical that can, under less propitious circumstances, make one wince.
But as the Von Trapp children, Kathy Beemer, Simon Paterson, Vanessa Williams Hall, Luke Rosenethal, Arielle Boucher, Chelsea Dunlop and Isabelle Brofsky are not just cute, but tuneful as well.
An important part of the process, Milton points out, has been forging the cast into a family.
Nita Burks, who makes her stage debut in a non-speaking role, says that the caring attitude fostered by Milton had a ripple effect throughout the cast.
“For example, only the four speaking-part nuns had names, and the rest of us just had numbers,” Burks said.
“But Marijane (Milton) researched 1930s Benedictine nuns’ names, so that every nun could choose a name.”
The bond forged by the family atmosphere improves the performance, Milton says, as the performers take care of each other as people and as actors.
The relationship with the audience is also strengthened when viewers see a company where the characters truly relate.
The space created allows the audience to trust in the experience – what Milton calls the “event social” of theater.
“The audience is asking for help in reclaiming part of their humanity,” Milton said. “Theater puts a frame around emotions we sometimes forget we have.”
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“The Sound of Music” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, directed by Ron Milton with musical direction by Diane Wilson-Simon, appears at the Playhouse May 9-24. Scenic design is by Mark Sell, costume design by Neil Vincent, and piano accompaniment by Debbie Evans.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays, with pay-what-you-can shows at 7:30 p.m. May 15 and 22.
An opening-night reception at Winslow Way Cafe follows the May 9 performance.
Tickets are $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and $9for students, available at the Playhouse or by phone at 842-8569.
