Directed by Dr. Kristin O’Malley Ricci, Oakcrest Visual and Performing Arts Master Teacher, and under the musical direction of Virginia Tilley, Oakcrest choral music teacher, The Sound of Music cast and crew was made up of more than 50 Upper School students participating both on stage and behind the scenes. Science teachers Heather DeLisle and Dr. Kat Hussmann worked alongside Dr. Ricci and Ms. Tilley to produce the show as technical director and choreographer. 

“As a whole, our strengths and weaknesses tend to play well toward each other,” Dr. Ricci said, adding that Dr. Hussmann used her strong sense of creativity to combine the iconic moments of the musical and really made them her own through her choreography. For example, she recreated the iconic “So Long, Farewell” choreography from the movie but added her own style to “The Lonely Goatherd” with an intricate pillow toss sequence that required precise timing. In these and other numbers, the Oakcrest Upper School students delivered excellent performances.

Ms. Tilley was able to use her background in sacred music to ensure that the nuns’ choir, which has a much larger presence in the show than in the movie, sounded beautiful and authentic. The Mother Abbess also has a more important role in the musical than in the movie, and Bianca N. ‘23, did an outstanding job with the challenging vocal performance.

Among the students, Dr. Ricci said there was also a great sense of cohesive work throughout the production of the play.

“There was lots of mentorship among the upperclassmen and the lowerclassmen,” Dr. Ricci said. She noted that she would often see the students go aside on their own and work together on songs and scenes. “They were really musically guiding one another and helping each other grow as artists.” 

Ms. Tilley added that each of the students took direction very well and were eager to improve throughout rehearsals in order to produce the best show possible. “It was a pleasure to work with our hard working and talented upper school students,” she said. 

Monica B. ’24 who played the role of Maria Rainer, said that she was grateful to the entire cast and crew for all their work putting the show together. “I am really grateful to have been in a community that made such a big feat seem far less overwhelming,” she said. “It was amazing being able to work with so many talented people and I am so happy that we were able to share such an inspiring and beloved classic with our community.”

In selecting the musical, Dr. Ricci said she hoped to round out the students’ theatrical experiences. “From an education perspective, for the four years that our seniors have participated in the Upper School theatre department, they’ve performed two magical realism shows and one Greek drama. This was their first golden age drama, a realistic musical and plot line, in the style that is foundational to how we understand musical theatre today,” she explained. 

One aspect Dr. Ricci said she did not fully anticipate beforehand, but what ended up being a good challenge was the task of portraying a story that was real, especially with all the evil that happened during that time. “It’s easy to portray a villain that isn’t real, but when you’re acting out a show that is based on truth and history, it’s more difficult to wrap your head around,” she said, adding that the students really had to grapple with the question of what it meant to portray a character who was not only bad, but incredibly destructive in history. 

“Through that all, they were realizing that when you’re telling the story of history you have to be willing to perform both the good and the bad to give people a full understanding of what happens… We like to remember the heroes in history but we forget the challenges,” Dr. Ricci said. 

The result of all this diligent work was that The Sound of Music gave our community an uplifting and joyful performance that will be remembered as one of the very best in Oakcrest theatre history.