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Way Way Off-Broadway Theatre Company brings popular musical to stage
By Christina Stock
Vision Editor
After more than two years, Way Way Off Broadway Theatre Company (WWOB) returns to the stage of the Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell Performing Arts Center (ENMU-R PAC). The non-profit theater company specializes in high-tech, professional musical performances such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Peter Pan,” “Newsies,” “Mary Poppins” and it’s 20th production, the last pre-pandemic offering in November 2019, “Chicago.”
“It’s been a very long two years,” Summer Souza wrote in an email. Souza is WWOB’s artistic director and the show director of the upcoming production of “The Sound of Music.”
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“When the shutdowns began, we were only one week away from opening our spring musical, ‘Matilda.’ We all thought that we would have to postpone the show’s opening for a few weeks, but we never imagined it would be two years,” she wrote. Ultimately, WWOB had to cancel the production of “Matilda.”
Tony Souza, who serves as the production’s assistant director, is Summer Souza’s husband. She wrote that part of Tony Souza’s responsibilities is to keep the cast and crew safe and compliant with any health-related measures while the risk of COVID-19 is still present in the community.
Tony Souza is the EMS (emergency medical services) division chief for the Carlsbad Fire Department, and his experience managing COVID-19-related policies makes him an ideal choice to oversee the safety of the cast and crew throughout the rehearsals and the upcoming performances of the musical.
“Safety was our No. 1 priority,” Tony Souza said. “We didn’t want to expose anyone to any unnecessary risk while … putting a show together. We worked closely with Dr. Shawn Powell and the team at ENMU-R to make sure we were following all the rules, which was challenging. Honestly it’s not easy or fun to sing and dance in a mask.”
“We had to schedule ‘fresh-air breaks,’” Summer Souza wrote. “After rehearsing several scenes we would spread out or go outside and remove our masks and just take a few minutes to breathe. That’s why we were so happy to hear that face coverings were no longer required.”
When regulations eased up last year, Summer Souza wrote that she and Tony Souza felt it was the right time for a new show.
WWOB chose the iconic musical production of “The Sound of Music” to begin the new season. According to Summer Souza, Cydni Vandiver is cast as Maria Rainer and Bryan Hunley plays the strict father, Cpt. Georg von Trapp.
“Vandiver and Hunley, both educators, have interesting perspectives on working with the children in the cast, especially after such a long time away from theater,” Summer Souza wrote.
“One of the best parts about being a teacher is the fact that you get to interact with kids and that you get to impart things,” Hunley said. He is the choir director for Roswell High School. “Especially (for) me as a musician and one who directs choirs, it’s really rewarding to get to share music with them and to teach them music, and help them become better performers.”
Vandiver, who teaches at the New Mexico Military Institute, said, “I think for me it was important that the kids felt comfortable on stage. I work with a lot of kids who struggle with communication and putting themselves out there, especially after COVID. Theater forces them to put themselves out there and feel vulnerable, which ultimately is good for them.”
Summer Souza wrote that both Vandiver and Hunley have performed with WWOB previously. “Hunley played Beast in the 2017 production of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and Vandiver played Sarah Brown in ‘Guys and Dolls,’ also in 2017,” she wrote.
Asked what Vandiver missed most during the pandemic, she said, “With the theater being dark for two years, it wasn’t so much that I missed being on stage as much as I missed my (theater) family.”
“It’s huge,” Hunley said when asked how it felt to be performing after the widespread shutdowns. “Being locked down and isolated and not getting to perform is difficult for us (performers), so it’s really, really fulfilling.”
For those not familiar with the musical, “The Sound of Music” is based on the real story of Maria Augusta von Trapp, her husband Cpt. Georg von Trapp and their children during the onset of World War II in Austria.
The story follows a young Maria, considered too “wild” to become a nun, who is sent to the strict Austrian naval officer von Trapp, a recent widower. The captain needs a governess for his seven children. Maria, with her enthusiasm and joy for music, encourages the children to have fun and enjoy their childhood, which clashes with the strict regiment of their father. However, it doesn’t take long until the father starts to mellow and he falls in love with Maria. Just when everything seems perfect, the family has to face that their home country Austria is falling under the influence of Nazism. The family has to decide what to do when the captain is offered a commission in Adolf Hitler’s navy.
The stage musical “The Sound of Music” was the last collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein in 1959. An instant success with songs such as “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Mi” and “Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” the musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The album earned a Gold Record and a Grammy Award. The motion picture version of “The Sound of Music” was released in 1965 with Julie Andrews as Maria. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and is often considered the most popular movie musical ever made.
The public has two weekends to see “The Sound of Music” at ENMU-R PAC, March 4 to 6 and 11 to 13, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. For more information, visit waywayoffbroadway.com or its Facebook event page.
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February 27, 2022 at 08:00PM
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