Dress rehearsals. Building sets. Running lines again and again. The cast of the Sound of Music is almost ready for opening night.Broughton theater department is putting the final details together for this week’s performances of the spring play. The shows will be March 2-4 at 7 p.m. in Diane Payne Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for students, $10 for adults, and $15 for VIP seating (in the first three rows).

The cast members have worked hard on weekends and during class time in order to put the show together, and they are especially excited for the surprises they have included in their show.First, there will be a few guest appearances in the Sound of Music. Broughton staff members Richard Dubois, Leah Greene, Jennifer Cates, Carol Allen, and John Rudder will all play the role of waltzers at one of the parties in the play.

Also, three students from Wiley Elementary will make their debut in the show as the youngest Von Trapp children.Another special feature of the night will be a media presentation about what life was like when the Nazis took over Austria.

Some of the cast members researched that time period in order to better understand the context of the play. The presentation will portray what happened during that time politically and what the realities of living under Nazi rule were. Some other highlights to look forward to are an amazing nun choir as well as a pit orchestra to play the music for the show.

The story starts with Captain Von Trapp, a naval officer, who needs to hire a governess to look after his seven children. Soon enough, a nun named Maria comes to take the job and ends up being a bigger part of their lives than any of them ever imagined.

The Sound of Music follows Maria as she learns to work around the Captain’s strict rules and begins to teach his children things like singing. Slowly but surely, Maria and the children begin to change Captain Von Trapp’s hardened heart, and with that, a romantic interest between Maria and the Captain develops.

The Sound of Music is an engaging story that includes romance, suspense, and great music. The Broughton theater department is excited to be putting it on as their spring play.

Junior Ben Reilly will be playing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, and he is looking forward to taking on this character’s complex role as the Captain is not very similar to his everyday personality.

“He’s very stiff and formal, and I’m not really like that. I’m very loose you could say, so that’s interesting,” Reilly said.

Other students in the production find their roles more relatable because they share similarities with their characters.

“I honestly really like the character I am, the sassy nun. She reminds me of me and probably the way I want to act sometime,” senior Alex Levine said.

The rehearsal time for The Sound of Music has been cut somewhat shorter because of the snow days that occurred in early January. Even with the level of difficulty of the play, the theater department is confident the show will turn out well.

“It’s definitely a harder play to do, and we have a shorter time to do it this year because of the snow. I think we’ll be able to pull it together,” Levine said.

Levine and Reilly both mentioned how talented their cast members are. The production will be featuring some new underclassmen, and they know that the newer members will do well and learn a lot from the experience.