'The Sound of Music'

The Jim Thorpe Area High School Drama Club will present "The Sound of Music" this weekend.

Show time is 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the high school on Olympian Way in Jim Thorpe.

"The Sound of Music" is loosely based on the book, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers," by Maria von Trapp. The musical, which opened on Broadway on Nov. 16, 1959, at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater. It was made into a movie in 1965, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Music for "The Sound of Music" is by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. The book is by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.

The story takes place in Austria in 1938.

Performing the role of Maria Rainer, the tomboyish postulant, is Lindsay Capper. Josiah Behrens portrays Captain Georg von Trapp, the widowed father of seven children.

This will be Josiah's 17th and last performance with the high school drama club. His first show was "Grease," when he was just 3 years old.

Naturally, director Natalie Kmetz says she will miss him.

"He has been a director's dream," she says. "He does everything which you ask of him. Plus, stage crew, lights, everything."

Behrens will attend college in the fall, where he will study musical theater.

Other cast members include David Bowen as Max; Liz Strauss as Elsa; KelleeJo Kleintop as Mother Abbess; Lesley Destefano as Liesl; Dmitri Diamond as Friedrich; Olivia Fryckland as Louisa; Derrick Beckham as Kurt; Brooke McElmoyle as Brigitta; Mikayla Pruitt as Marta; Colee Fikentscher as Gretl; Stephanie Dykas as Frau Schmidt; Monique Jervier as Franz (Butler); Zac Dykas as Rolf; Renata Lawrence as Zeller and the German Guard; Molly Behan as Sister Margaretta and Baroness Elberfield; Zeb Kleintop as VonSchreiber and the German Guard; Grace Choi as Sister Berthe; Ashley Hill as Sister Sophia; Jordan Remmel as Elberfield and the German Guard; Wendy Lemons as Ursula and Fraulein Schweiser; Olivia Bartholemew, Lillian Heydt and Erin Remmel as the trio; and Trinity Murphy as the German Guard.

In addition to Kmetz, behind the scenes staff includes: Karliene Zack, Julie Romanisko, Judy Romanisko, Kelly McElmoyle, Anita Repecki, Keri Lauer, Wilma Hoppes, Lynn Haldeman, Shawn Albert, Rose Trice, John Fikentscher and Jordan McElmoyle.