V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette The sanctuary at Providence Presbyterian Church serves as an auditorium for "The Sound of Music." Click photo for larger image

By Christopher Rawson
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Audio Slideshow: Small cast makes big 'Sound of Music' Click photo for slideshow.

High school musicals come in many sizes, just like the high schools that produce them. But small doesn't always beget small.

Robinson Township Christian School is about as small as they come, with something like 30 high school students, but its production of "The Sound of Music" was big of heart.

And it wasn't as small as you'd expect physically, either. The entire school, K-12, has about 140 pupils, and of course "Sound of Music" requires the casting of elementary schoolchildren, too. But even using the occasional sixth-grader in an adult role, the cast of 25 and ample crew meant that just about every high school student was involved.

Nor was the set small, though its chief attraction was clever design. The school performs in the sanctuary of Providence Presbyterian Church, 77 Phillips Lane, Robinson, to which it is attached physically and institutionally.

This limits the range of lighting and other technical effects, and the performing platform is shallow. But it runs the full width of the church, so there was considerable lateral space in which to arrange the performers, and the church aisles were useful for comings and goings, Maria's wedding procession and the final flight from the Nazis.

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Maria (Cydnee Masquelier) charms the von Trapp children, and the audience, by singing "Do, Re, Mi.". Click photo for larger image.

There's nothing small about "Sound of Music," either, with its rich and familiar score by Rodgers and Hammerstein and elaborate book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse. Director Lisa Boelcke and musical director Natalie Shaw, who also designed sets and costumes and seem to have been the chief creative forces, did it without cuts. At least, I didn't notice any. At more than three hours, it clearly didn't stint.

Is there any musical comedy story better known than "Sound of Music"? But what you tend to forget, amid Maria and the children and "Do, Re, Me" and "Favorite Things," is the fullness of the Elsa subplot and Nazi menace.

Elsa is the antagonist of the first act, the Nazis of the second. But, all along the real conflict is between Maria's vivacity and the Captain's coldness and repression. That business with his whistle is just symptomatic of his emotional distance.

But who can resist Maria, who comes into the Captain's life like a heaven-sent apostle of music? And the story ends with the Von Trapps forming the perfect emigrant family, fleeing political oppression.

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Andrew Wright (Max) and Sara Seethaler (Elsa) surround Captain von Trapp (Adam Shaffer). Click photo for larger image.

As in just about any "Sound of Music"' the chief attraction was the seven Von Trapp children, here a perfectly graded visual ascent from 5-year-old Gretl (Anna-Marie Kuenzle, as cute as Gretl always is, but with a welcome touch of vinegar) to sweet-16 Liesl (Ariana Gubba), believably on the brink of womanhood).

Jamie Stuart's prankster Louisa added a lovely voice, and Rachel Struble gave determination to Birgitta's truth-telling. Mary Elizabeth Irwin was a plucky Marta and Nathaniel Thompson and Samuel Stucky added spice as Friedrich and Kurt.

Cydnee Masquelier played Maria with a winning earnestness, gradually adding spunk, and even a spark or two, in her unconscious sparring with Elsa. Adam Shaffer was properly remote as the Captain, making his unbending and his pleasant voice all the more welcome.

The liveliest support came from Andrew Wright's wise-cracking, self-regarding Max, and the most natural, from Alena Landon's Frau Schmidt. Sara Seethaler's Elsa was properly brittle, looking as if she'd been sucking a lemon when she sized up her competition, Maria.

Trisha Scott's Abbess didn't have a big voice, but she conveyed the role's sympathetic dignity. A strength of the Robinson cast was its chorus of nuns, who got the musical off on the right foot with a vocally capable "Preludium."

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Cast and crew join in prayer before the show. Click photo for larger image.

That cleverly designed set centered on a small nest of platforms that could be re-stacked to create various staircases in or outside church or castle, as well as the Abbess' office desk. Above it was an opening that turned into a variety of doors as well as a stained glass window. And the flats surrounding the stage pivoted to show interior walls or exterior stone for either Abbey or castle. Only Maria's cherished mountains, represented by additional flats at either side, stayed unchanged.

Occasionally, the set's adaptability became an end in itself, as Kathleen Struble's mini-orchestra of seven extended musical bridges to cover set changes (by an assiduous if not speedy crew) that weren't always necessary. One took longer than the simple crossover scene it was for; this care cost the show some momentum.

The lighting design was conventional: For every song, the stage lights would dim and two spotlights would focus on the singers. "Sound of Music" doesn't have much choreography, but "16 Going on 17" included a cute little dance in which Liesl's maturity took the lead from Rolf (Justin Shaffer).

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Director Lisa Boelcke says she chose "The Sound of Music" for its musical and dramatic challenges, as well as the values explored in the play. Click photo for larger image.

The thought that went into the production extended into the lobby, where stuffed animals and other souvenirs on sale replicated all of those "favorite things," including girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, brown paper bags tied up with string (and stuffed with candy) and "Doe, a deer." Even the chocolates were in mode, shaped like guitars and musical notes, and there was a whole meadow of edelweiss keepsakes, such as frames, boxes and jewelry.

You've got to love a school musical that gives away punch, cookies, brownies and cake at intermission.

Even the program showed overall thought, albeit in individual cast pictures taken by a photographer with a relentless penchant for faces resting in hands.

Robinson Christian is a little school with big ambition. Only a few years into its school musicals, it's already playing with the big fellas in the Gene Kelly Awards competition.

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette Trisha Scott warms up for her role as Mother Abbess by singing along to a tape recording. Click photo for larger image