Going out for a few of my favorite things
BKW climbs ev’ry mountain with The Sound of Music

BERNE — This weekend, the Hilltowns will be alive with The Sound of Music.

With shows on Friday and Saturday night and a matinee on Sunday, this year’s Berne-Knox-Westerlo musical cast features about 55 students in sixth through 12^th grade and 10 crew members. 

“They’ve been an outstanding group of kids to work with,” said Coriellen Travis, who will direct her sixth BKW production.  “I know how talented they are, and I’m excited for an audience to be able to see that.”

Brian Corey, BKW’s elementary principal and a former music teacher, will again conduct the orchestra.

Travis said she chose The Sound of Music because she had the right kids for the cast.

“I knew I wanted to be able to still use some of my talented middle-schoolers.  After doing The Wizard of Oz last year, I knew I had a lot of talent,” she said. 

The Sound of Music tells the story of Maria Augusta, a nun, and Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp, a man with seven children, falling in love against the backdrop of war-torn Austria.  It was Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s last collaboration.  Based on Maria Augusta von Trapp’s memoir, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, the musical was made popular by a 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

The von Trapps’ children — The Trapp Family Singers — toured Europe and, later, the United States.  After Germany annexed Austria in 1938, the von Trapps fled from their home and later settled in the town of Stowe, Vt.

This year marks the second year in a row BKW has produced a show that is also a well-known motion picture. 

Travis said of meeting the expectations of those familiar with the film, “Last year, I found it very difficult with The Wizard of Oz because it’s on every year and people know the movie, people know the lines from the movie, and it’s a different kind of expectation when an audience comes.  And, after doing it last year, I became more comfortable with it. 

“This is a great musical for a high school to do,” said Travis, “but it is more difficult to do one that is a movie.”

Apart from audience expectations, the biggest challenge, she said, has been with the ballroom choreography in the first act because she wanted to keep it very close to the movie and to what people see on screen.

This weekend, Justine Crevatas, 16, will play Maria. 

“I’ve been singing, like, my whole life at church and…my mom sings a lot at church, and she used to do a whole bunch of musicals in high school,” she said, “so I guess she got me started.” 

Her big brother, she said, has also been really involved in music and musicals. 

Crevatas, a junior, has been performing in musicals since sixth grade.  This past summer, she acted in The Great Gilly Hopkins at the New York State Theatre Institute in Troy.  She is also involved in Chamber Chorus and, since sixth grade, has played her flute and sung in All-County with a group of student-musicians in the surrounding area.

“I’m not going to lie,” said Greg Mulson, a senior who will play Georg von Trapp.  “I haven’t sung in school since probably somewhere between fourth- and sixth-grade chorus.” 

But, he said, he was in DramaFest for his drama class last year. 

“And I really love getting on stage,” said Mulson.  “I had a great time.  I love the energy.”

“He did a really good job last year,” said Crevatas.

“It was really intense, really awesome,” said Mulson.

And, he said, one of his best friends, Bobbi Patrick, played the part of the wizard in last year’s show. 

“So, I just wanted to have a good time this year.  Go out my senior year with a bang,” said Mulson, who has played Varsity soccer, basketball, and baseball and been involved with the student clubs Students Against Destructive Decisions and Students Serving Society.  He said Travis did a great job of working rehearsals around his basketball and baseball schedules.   

Neither Mulson nor Crevatas has seen a live performance of The Sound of Music.

“Only on YouTube,” said Mulson.  “I actually took a peak online at plays that other schools have had across the country.”

Crevatas said, “I know they’ve done The Sound of Music, I think, in two different high schools this year.  I kind of didn’t want to go and see it so I wouldn’t critique myself.  So I could do my best.” 

Mulson and Crevatas have been working on their parts since January.  Their favorite scene is Landler, a dance scene in the first act. 

“It was kind of awkward in that scene,” said Crevatas, “because we’re dancing and then, all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Wo, we’re, like, really close to each other.’”

 Maria, dancing with a man who is engaged to another woman, is asking herself, “Aren’t you supposed to marry Elsa?”

“So it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’” Crevatas said.   

Maria then leaves to go to back to the abbey and, when she returns, he asks, “Why did you leave?”  They then have pretty much figured out that they’re in love, Crevatas said. 

The most difficult part of the musical, Mulson said, is remembering cues and incorporating songs with his character’s roller coaster of emotions.

“Changing of their characterization, kind of,” said Crevatas. 

Is it difficult to play love interests in front of other people?

“At times,” said Crevatas. 

“It definitely takes…some time to develop a level of actor chemistry, not just emotionally, but physically as well,” said Mulson.

Seven singing children

Captain von Trapp has seven children.  On Tuesday, they were dressed in matching blue costumes and excited for this weekend’s shows.  The actors — Lauren Wilson, Alon Willing, Keely Duffney, Maclin Norray, Alex Luciano, Rebekah Richardson, and Alena Chamberlain — are between the ages 12 to 16.

Their favorite number in the musical?

“So Long, Farewell.”

Alena Chamberlain, now a seventh-grader, acted in BKW’s production of Treasure Island when she was in fourth grade.

“I was a pirate, sang, and I had two lines,” she said. 

Chamberlain plans to continue acting.  “I enjoy it a lot,” she said. 

Lauren Wilson, a junior, was in Alice in Wonderland in sixth grade and, in seventh grade, played Annie in BKW’s production of Annie. 

“I love music,” said Wilson.  “It’s my passion.  And we’re all in chorus.”

Members of the group said they are like a team and a family, and that they don’t get mad at one another and have become friends.

“The ice breaker”

Sam Viscio, a senior, will play Max Detweiler.  Viscio is not in chorus or band and has never before acted or been in a drama class.  He said he definitely regrets not acting in the past. 

“In past years, I’ve always gone to plays,” said Viscio.  “I’ve never done a play before this…I’d just, at the end of the play, watch everybody cheer for them, and I just kind of wanted to be that guy.  It was my senior year, you know, so why not try it out, try out something new?” he asked.  “And I’m most certainly glad I did it…It’s really great to be a part of something like this.”

Viscio plays basketball and runs track.  This year, he also went out for the first time for soccer.  After graduation, he plans to attend a community college, studying liberal arts. 

He said of his character, “Max Detweiler is definitely the comedy part of play.  He’s kind of the ice-breaker…They call him Uncle Max.”

Viscio said he hadn’t seen the movie in five or six years.  To prepare for his part, he watched the movie and studied his character.  Travis, he said, helped him mold his character.  He said he couldn’t thank her enough. 

Singing, he said, is a challenge.  Staying in character, Viscio said, is also a challenge.

“A lot of people put a lot of hard work into it,” he said.  “It makes you appreciate it a lot more.  People who don’t do a play don’t realize how much time…and effort it is to make it.” 

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Berne-Knox-Westerlo’s production The Sound of Music will be playing at the BKW middle-high school auditorium on Helderberg Trail in Berne on Friday and Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m.  Tickets are $8 for adults, $7 for students and adults over 55, and $6 for children 12 and under.