Supporting 'The Sound'

The kids take the stage. But behind the scenes at any youth theater production, parents take care of much of what's needed to put the show together.

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Northern Light Junior Theater Director J. Althea recruited dozens of parents and other community volunteers to put "The Sound of Music" on stage at Northern Light United Church. The musical opened Nov. 15 and shows three times this weekend, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $5 at the door.

To put the Rogers and Hammerstein show on stage, some parents designed and sewed costumes while others collected props. Some built sets, moved lights and hung backdrops while others coached singers, put on makeup and sold tickets.

Parents of 26 cast members and other community volunteers were part of the effort, Althea said.

"This production is what it is because of the parent involvement. Never have we done a production where the involvement raised our bar so high," she said. "If I sat down and added it up, I'd say we have had over 1,000 parent hours. There was not one family who did not help in one way or another."

Retired middle school music teacher Laurie Clough volunteered to work with the chorus of nuns who sing in several scenes set in the Nonnberg Abbey, where female lead Maria Ranier, played by Clairen Stone, is a postulant.

"I worked with them on the words to their Latin songs and showed them how to put it to music," said Clough, whose daughter Wendy Byrnes plays Brigitta, the blunt-talking middle daughter of the von Trapp Family Singers. "I had done this play when I was in high school so I knew the music."

The production includes three songs sung in Latin and Clough helped the cast on mood, tone and pronunciation.

"Working with another language isn't a problem with kids," she said. "There's no reason kids can't learn it. It just takes a little more time."

Cary and Jim McCown worked on more than a dozen youth theater productions in Virginia before moving to Juneau earlier this year. Their son Justin plays Capt. Georg von Trapp, the father of the seven von Trapp family children and the play's male lead.

"The parents here have been absolutely great," said Cary McCown, who co-managed ticket sales and helped with the house lights. Her husband also helped with props and provided a wireless communication system for the technical volunteers.

McCown said she sent parents an e-mail message asking for help working the door for each of the production's seven shows.

"I expected to get a few responses and do the rest myself," she said. "But everybody was really great about writing me back and I got all my slots filled."

Some of the parents and other community members helping with the show had a history of working with previous productions of Northern Light Junior Theater and its predecessor, the Douglas Youth Drama Association. For others, such as the McCown, "The Sound of Music" was their first local production.

"The parents have been really great and the show has really turned out to be a treat," Cary McCown said.