Saturday, Nov. 13, and Sunday, Nov. 14, the members of the Comet community gathered in the high school auditorium to see one of the most well-known musicals performed by North Polk students. 

The high school theater department decided to take the challenge of putting on the musical “The Sound of Music.” While the musical is inherently difficult, lots of practice, a dedicated director and a quality cast helped pull everything together. 

This challenge was worth it noted musical director Tyler Harper, “The ticket sales for ‘The Sound of Music’ were just over 1500. That is twice as many as ‘Bright Star’ and three times as much as ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ and ‘Jekyll & Hyde.’”

Practices were located in the high school choir room and auditorium usually from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at least two times a week and increased as the performances drew closer. During these rehearsals, students went over their musical numbers, as well as blocking and line memorization. Other students also aided in sound and lights for the performance, including a live pit orchestra music. 

Musical director Harper made the decision to include two casts for the show. Cast A and Cast B had different lead actors, which performed on alternate shows.  

The lead role for the musical was appointed to Grace Smithey (A cast) and Angel Lindell (B cast) as Maria. Both Marias were nervous at the beginning of their performances, but ultimately both casts performed successfully. 

The other alternating lead roles included: Jack VandeKrol (A) and Aaron Anderson (B) as Mr. VonTrapp; Tait Heppler (A) and Jacob Blattel (B) as Rolf; Emmalea Kling (A) and Becca Beyer (B) as the Mother Abbess; Noah Lindell (A) and Ethan Meade (B) as Max. Amelia Kelsick (A) and Brooklyn Volz (B) as Gretel both Gretel’s were non-high school students.

Anderson has only positive things to say about the performance, “I was absolutely pleased with the outcome of the musical. The audience seemed very engaged, and by the end of each performance we were met with tumultuous applause! After the last performance, I remember lots of hugging, crying, and heart-to-hearts. Definitely the most wholesome I have felt during my time at North Polk so far.”

Smithey also noted, “This was a dream role so I had a lot of fun with the part, [but] my favorite part of the actual show was Lucas Bakken’s part. He brought some unintentional comedy and really tied everything together. I loved this whole musical and it was great for our school to do our interpretation on a classic show that everyone knows.”