Stern is Alive with the Sound of Music: A Backstage Look at SCDS’ Newest Musical

Since before the start of the school year, the Stern College Dramatics Society has been hard at work on a production of Rodgers and Hammersteins’ “The Sound of Music,” which will be playing on November 19th and 20th (for women only). From rehearsals to costumes, props to set, lighting to sound, and singing to dancing, everyone involved has been working towards putting the distinct elements into a cohesive, memorable show.

Director Sami Ginsburg (’16) and vocal director Libby Josephs (’15) held audi-tions in the first week of September. After all the parts were cast, rehearsals be-gan in earnest.

According to Ginsburg, the actresses really took to their characters and trans-formed them from written characters into living people.

Most outsiders and newcomers to SCDS know that rehearsal involves running lines and blocking scenes. What people often don’t realize is that rehearsals are, more than anything else, a bonding experience.

“We are literally a giant family,” said Joey Jaroslowicz (’16), who is playing Sister Margaretta and is in charge of hair and makeup.

Shayna Kayla Lis (’15), who is playing Liesl von Trapp, added, “If I come to re-hearsal exhausted or tired or just not wanting to be there, I know that I will leave happy.”

However, there is much more to a show than just rehearsals and having a good time. Ahuva Miller (’16), the stage manager, oversees everything that goes on behind the scenes. “I am in charge of basically everything that goes on stage,” Miller said. “That’s everything from the set design to costumes and props, the curtains and lights and everything else.”

Set Designer Sarala Pool (’16) has been working since this summer on the set, which will include three backdrops.

“The main backdrop is one of the hills and Alps in the background—the very iconic image of The Sound of Music,” Pool explained. “On the left side of the stage is a backdrop of the abbey, and on the right side of the stage, we have a backdrop of the mansion. These three segments of the stage are where most of what is happening in the play takes place.”

Because the set needs to be taken in and out of Norman Thomas High School, where the performances will be held, Pool made sure to keep the set pretty simple and easy to assemble.

Then there are the costumes.

Costumes involve both gathering existing costumes and sewing new costumes. The costumes team, under the direction of Sara Leora Wiener (’18), has been browsing through SCDS’ costumes, YCDS’ costumes, and everyone’s friend’s closets to find the costumes for the play.

“Whatever we don’t find, it’s my job to decide what is the best way to make it and to sew what needs to be sewn,” said Evie Denemark (’16), the head seamstress on the costumes team. “It’s an interesting challenge and quite fun to try to take the costumes that we have and adapt them for our show, even though they were intended for a different show.”

Denemark added that out of the seventy-five costumes necessary for the show, only seven costumes had to be made from scratch. Thankfully, there is a sewing team in addition to the costume team, so if someone on the general costumes team finds something that needs alterations, Denemark can delegate the job to someone on the sewing team and focus her attention, instead, on the costumes that need to be made from scratch.

Unlike costumes and set design, the one team that will not be working up until right before the show is the graphics team, which needs to print its materials in advance.

Leora Veit (’14), head of the graphics team, and her assistant Raquel Miller (’16) are in charge of designing fliers, program, and tickets for the play, in addition to any graphics that need to be done for Facebook or other online platforms. Veit noted that she and Raquel felt confident with the design of the show and with how the team used graphics to represent the SCDS production.

Through the joint efforts of cast and crew, SCDS members see the production gradually come together.

“It’s really incredible to see how in the end, all of the completely separate parts come together into one cohesive show,” Ahuva Miller remarked. “By the time we get to tech week [the week of the show], we’re rehearsing with lights, sound, costumes, props—everything. And it all goes together seamlessly.”

Malka Sigal (’15), president of the Society, echoed Miller’s sentiments. “The audience gets a show that really reflects how hard everyone worked,” she said. “In the end, both the audience and the members of the show have a great time. And that’s what we’re working for—a night that literally everyone can enjoy.”

Tickets for the show can be purchased at tinyurl.com/SCDStickets or at the door on the nights of the performance.