It’s all hands on deck for Lake City Playhouse’s ‘The Sound of Music’

Originally, Damon Wood was just lending a hand.

Married to Brooke Wood, the artistic director of Lake City Playhouse, and the father of performers, he would contribute his woodworking skills as needed, making a set piece for “School of Rock” or building tables for “Rent” or constructing a sleigh for “Miracle on 34th Street.”

You know, small things.

So when Brooke needed someone to build sets for the theater’s production of “The Sound of Music,” Wood thought, having watched the film version growing up, that he could tackle the project.

He refreshed his memory of the film and started researching the Austrian Alps with the idea of bringing the mountain range to the back of the set. As someone who likes to phone a friend, as he put it, Wood also called Jeremy Whittington, program director at Spokane Arts, for advice.

He also enlisted his daughter, artist Cassie Hoialmen, for help with painting and bringing his ideas, including painting the side walls to look like the interior of a courtyard, to life. Completing the von Trapp’s mansion are dual staircases that curve up to a second floor.

So much for just lending a hand.

Based on Maria von Trapp’s memoir “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” “The Sound of Music” features music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

As the musical opens, Maria Rainer (Jolena Long) frolicks among the hills of Austria. Back at her abbey, Mother Abbess (Corliss Newman) suggests Maria spend time outside the abbey before deciding if she wants to become a nun. Mother Abbess tells her she will become the governess for the seven children of the widowed Captain Georg von Trapp (Michael Dunn).

The von Trapp children – Liesl (Ryan Lauri), Friedrich (Simon Drake), Louisa (Kylie Anderson), Kurt (Jett Jameson), Brigitta (Evelyn Long), Marta (Elizabeth Franklin) and Gretl (Graciela Padilla) – range in age from 5 to 16 years old. Though initially wary, the children take a liking to Maria after she begins teaching them about music.

A month after Maria’s arrival, Captain von Trapp returns home with Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Jessica Jameson) and friend Max Detweiller (Paul Eloe). Rolf (Preston Dunn), a teen who is interested in Liesl, enters looking for her. After he gives the adults the Nazi salute, von Trapp sends him away in disgust.

Already incensed, the captain becomes upset at Maria when he sees the children wearing clothing she made from curtains. He tells her she must return to the abbey before later changing his mind after hearing the children sing.

As von Trapp and Maria grow closer, they also worry about the Anschluss, the Nazi German annexation of Austria.

The cast also features Sherre Barnes, Sophia Partridge, Rebekah Preston-Dunn, Lauren Arakelian, Aliyah Reidburn, Stella Jones, Juliett Jerkins, Ryan Prades, Lauren Arakelian, Sam Granier, Van Leggat, Stella Jones, Navy Lauri, Jaes Jameson and Hunter Kennedy.

“The Sound of Music” opens Friday and runs through Oct. 12 at the Lake City Playhouse in Coeur d’Alene.

This show marks Long’s first time playing Maria, but she has been singing the character’s songs, including “My Favorite Things,” since she was a teen just starting out with voice lessons.

Coming from a classical voice background, Long said playing anything Julie Andrews, who played Maria in the film adaptation, has done is a dream role. Long sees Maria as someone trying to find where she belongs.

Initially she thinks a nunnery is the right place for her, but “her personality has always been too big.” She then goes to the von Trapp home and thinks she has to interact with the children on von Trapp’s terms but quickly finds that won’t work.

“The second she interacts with the children, it’s done Maria’s way,” Long said. “Throughout being true to who she is, you really see this complete turnaround with the von Trapp children and a complete turnaround with the Captain, so it’s been really fun to bring that to life and hopefully make her a character with a little bit more richness to it, a little bit more of her backstory shining through.”

Through her research, Long learned that the real Maria von Trapp didn’t marry Captain von Trapp because she loved him but because she loved the children, so she’s tried to pull from history for her portrayal and make it clear that she’s on the children’s side.

She’s especially on the side of Brigitta, played by her daughter Evelyn. Long calls Brigitta the pot-stirrer of the von Trapp family and has enjoyed seeing her daughter bring that role to life.

Jessica Jameson, who plays Elsa, also shares the stage with two of her children, Jett and Jaes.

Jett recalled watching his mom and siblings in a production of “The Sound of Music” at Christian Community Theatre at a time when he was too young to audition. A few years later, when Lake City announced they were producing the show, he jumped at the chance to audition. Jameson said Jett’s enthusiasm was so contagious, she and her older son decided to audition too.

Jett plays Kurt, a character he describes as sometimes silly and sometimes serious. Jameson plays Elsa, who she described as a confident woman who knows who she is. Her interest in the Captain is one of convenience more than love, so when things start getting more serious between the Captain and Maria, she chooses to leave.

Long said she’s always found watching “The Sound of Music” to be a jarring experience because of the juxtaposition between the first, upbeat act and the second, more oppositional one. To help the younger performers with the switch between the two, the cast and crew have talked about the more serious subjects covered in the musical, such as why people are mad at Captain von Trapp for opposing the Nazis.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions, particularly within the cast, about some of the significance of (the Captain standing his ground), and then some of the significance of what that looks like in our world today with so many different things that are happening that really require you to either be taking a stand for what you believe and what you think is right or to go along with what’s happening around you,” Jameson said.

Long said “The Sound of Music” is a lesson in taking a stance when the goodness of the world is at stake.

“All of that love and that beauty and that music and that peace, it’s uprooted,” she said. “It’s a story that we shouldn’t forget. Enjoy the beauty, enjoy the music. It’s gorgeous, but throughout all of that, recognizing that the whole point of the story is that all of this can be uprooted at any point. We have to really love it and cherish it for what it is.”