Sound of Music Coming to Phelps After 48 Years — A First for Local Theatre

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook — Phelps Clifton Springs Community Theatre

June 2, 2025 Paul Szmal 5:50

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The Phelps Clifton Springs Community Theatre will stage its first-ever production of “The Sound of Music” this summer, a notable milestone for a group that has been putting on shows for 48 years. Performances are scheduled for July 24, 25, and 26 at 7:30 p.m., and July 27 at 2 p.m.

Artistic leadership chose the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein classic after years of audience requests. Despite nearly five decades of productions, the group had never tackled the show — something director Keith Chowld called “pretty remarkable.” He noted that no other community theatre in the area has staged it recently either, with the last local production estimated to be about 17 years ago.

The cast is one of the largest the company has assembled, with nearly 50 performers ranging from young children to adults. Auditions for adult roles were held the first week of May, followed by a separate children’s audition the following weekend. Mary Cook, a former Mix 98.5 radio personality who is performing in the show, said she’ll be playing Sister Sophia — part of what she described as “an army of nuns.” She said the first vocal rehearsal for the nun ensemble surprised even music director Jen Cornwell. “When it finally came together, all of us, including Jen, were like, ‘oh my,'” Cook said.

The production presents logistical challenges beyond a typical community show. The script calls for numerous set changes, and the team has already held three separate set design meetings to keep the runtime manageable for modern audiences. “The show was written at a time when people expected to go to the theater and spend three, three and a half hours,” Chowld said. “People don’t do that today.”

Tickets will be available soon through the theatre’s Facebook and Instagram pages via an online portal, and local businesses will serve as ticket outlets in the coming weeks. The theatre is also actively seeking sponsorships to help cover the costs of costumes, sets, and performance rights. Those interested in sponsoring can reach out through the group’s social media channels.

Read Full Transcript

Paul Szmal: Welcome back to FLX Morning, it is 7.53. I am joined in studio this morning by a couple of members of the Phelps-Clifton Springs Community Theater. Keith Childs is here. Keith, good morning, how are you?

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Good morning, thanks for having us.

Paul Szmal: And Mary Cook is here as well. You might know Mary from her days at Mix 98.5. Good morning.

And you've got a production coming up here.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: We do, end of July, July 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th at Midlakes High School and it's The Sound of Music.

Paul Szmal: You know I'm always curious as to how theater groups decide on a particular show for production. How did you come about to choose this one?

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Well I always look at the talent pool and I also like to, we try to have a varied, because we only do one big show a year, we try to vary it from year to year. And last year we did something that was a little newer, Bright Star, and so we wanted to go back to something that was classic. And The Sound of Music is the most requested show. This is our 48th year of doing this and it is the most requested show and we have never done it, which is pretty remarkable when you think of community theater being around for 48 years and they haven't done The Sound of Music, that golly oldie. And it was just time, it was time. There hadn't been another group in the area, community theater group, in our little cluster of community theater groups here that had done The Sound of Music. I think the last production was maybe 17 years ago.

Paul Szmal: Oh wow.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: High schools have done it but the community theaters haven't. So we thought it was time and people seem to love it.

Paul Szmal: Oh it's such, and it covers so many generations of age groups.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Yeah it's a great community theater piece when it comes to different ages. And it calls for a varied cast. It sure does. Yeah and we we've got a great cast. We had auditions, well the first weekend in May and then we did, had auditions for the children the following weekend. So we have almost 50 people in the cast.

Paul Szmal: Wow.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: It's a big cast. Yeah. And there are, I mean from very little to very old. As they say, we have an army of nuns.

Paul Szmal: Wow.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Yeah it's, our first rehearsal, our first vocal rehearsal for the the nuns blew us away. I mean the sound is unbelievable. It surprised us. I'm a nun by the way, that's why I say us. I'm one of the nuns, Sister Sophia. And it surprised us. I think we all just kind of, you know Jen Cornwell is doing the, she's the music director. And she pulled it apart for us and gave us all our parts. And we all just kind of went okay, okay. And when it finally came together, all of us, including Jen, were like oh my.

Paul Szmal: What's really. It was, it was pretty remarkable.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Yeah and and it's a step-by-step process. I can remember from from doing high school productions where you have a read-through. Right. And and then and musicals it's a different story than than doing just like a straight drama or a comedy piece. Because you've got to do the musical rehearsals before you get to the onstage choreography parts. And then and the blocking.

Paul Szmal: Yeah. I mean I think what people don't understand, maybe realize, is that you don't go into a show, if you got the part, it doesn't mean you know where you're supposed to stand or where you're supposed to. It's, there's, I mean every movement is, you're learning.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: Yeah. Every movement. And there's a point and a purpose to everything.

Paul Szmal: Exactly. Exactly. And one of the purposes might be because there's a set moving behind you if you're not in the right place.

We were just talking about this. You've had several meetings about the set design etc. The moving of the set and keeping the show moving. This particular show is very. Demanding? I don't want to say complicated. It's. There are a lot of sets. There are a lot of moving pieces. And the show was written at a time when people expected to go to the theater and spend three, three and a half hours. Well people don't do that today. So we're thinking, okay how do you keep this moving? How can we have a really good smooth show and keep the runtime down on it? And so last night was our third set meeting where we, every time we go into these things we keep changing it a little bit because we're finding that as we get into rehearsal some of the stuff that I thought was going to work isn't going to work. Or some of the things they thought they could build the way they were going to build them. They think maybe it's there's a better way. So we keep changing you know.

Paul Szmal: Well we've got about a minute left so I want to make sure people know how to get tickets to this show.

Keith Chowld, Mary Cook: You can right now, well right now there's there's no way but there will be soon. Right. There's an online, we have an online if you go through our Facebook page or Instagram Phelps Clifton Springs Community Theater, there's an online portal. And then we will have local local businesses that will be our ticket outlets in just a few weeks. And I know you wanted to do a shout out about sponsorship as well. I mean as as indicated you know we've got 22 nuns alone with all their costumes etc. The sponsorships are important in paying for the sets, the costumes, the rights to it. Which are very expensive for the show. It's very expensive and that and that's why businesses might find that people approaching them and asking them to help support the show. So we really appreciate what our local businesses do for us.

Paul Szmal: Absolutely. All right well listen I appreciate you both being here and we look forward to the show. The dates again are July 24th, 25th, 26th at 730 and the 27th at 2 o'clock. And that's at Phelps Clifton Springs Community Theater.