Past and present Killeen ISD students and fine arts staff compose much of the cast and crew of a local summer production of an American musical theater classic.
The Central Texas Theatre at the Vive Les Arts Society in Killeen is staging a nine-show run of The Sound of Music opening Friday with a 7:30 p.m. curtain time, followed by a 7:30 p.m. showing Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinee repeated for three weekends.
Details of times and ticketing and a full listing of cast and crew are available on the theater website, www.vlakilleen.org
Photos from a dress rehearsal are available at www.killeenisd.org/photos
Killeen’s community theater is a longtime partner with KISD fine arts. The Central Texas Theater produces three children’s shows a year during the school year that students can experience free of charge. About 1,600 students get to see each show.
“I’m constantly amazed at the talent in this town,” said Director Jami Salter, a former theater teacher at Palo Alto and Shoemaker and Killeen high schools before taking on the reigns of CTT. “We are a community theater in the most traditional sense of the word,” noting the range of residents from Lampasas to Austin and Waco who participate in auditions.
“My mother loved musicals and this is the first musical we ever watched together,” said Salter of The Sound of Music. “Back in the day when movies came on once a year, every year we watched it. It’s a special musical to me.”
“It is 100 hundred percent a show anyone can come to,” she said, noting it is targeted to families.
The stage show debuted in 1959, telling the enchanting World War II-era story of the strict widower Captain von Trapp struggling to raise his seven children in rural Austria at the beginning of the Fuhrer’s rise to power.
The Sound of Music is among the top three American favorites, buoyed further by the 1965 Academy Award winning movie starring Julie Andrews that further cemented songs like “Climb Every Mountain” and “Do-Re-Mi” into the minds of American audiences.
Armie Melton, one of three Class of 2026 Chaparral High School graduates in the cast, was 7 years old when she first acted on the CTT stage in Shrek, leading to an award-winning four years in Bobcat Drama and a college scholarship to continue studying theater.
It’s only in recent years, she said, that she actually watched the movie from start to finish. “My mom wouldn’t let me watch the end when I was little,” she said, recalling her theater beginnings.
Melton and classmates Hadassah Moon and Zachary Repine, along with Chaparral Class of 2025 graduate Gionni Calzado are part of the ensemble cast.
For Melton, Moon and Repine, the experience is a sort of encore before going on to college. All three are scholarship recipients pursuing fine arts degrees.
“This gave me the theater bug,” said Moon, who first acted at the community theater at age 11. “This is where it all started. It’s nice we can be here and be together. It’s been fun to do this one together.”
All three are highly experienced and decorated performers in high school theater and choir and they expressed their appreciation of the value of local theater.
“What’s different here is we have such a large cast,” said Melton. “From the oldest to the youngest is such a range,” noting adults getting off work to get to rehearsal alongside children just getting started in performance.
“VLA makes a point of making this available to anyone,” said Moon. “If you want to do it, they will find a spot for you.”
For Eric Bourg, associate choir director at Chaparral High School, playing the part of Max Detweiler is a rare chance to sing and act and to do it alongside his own students.
“It is so much fun. It’s a great time. All the little kids, the bigger kids and the adults making music and having fun on stage,” said Bourg.
“This is really special. This is a rare opportunity to perform with my students. This is my first time to be on stage with the students I’ve taught. Seeing them put what we teach them into action is a proud moment.”
He was also excited to play the role of Max, the morally flexible government arts official who provides comic relief in the serious story while trying to convince the captain to let his children perform in public.
Other KISD connections include Michelle Clark, Shoemaker theater director serving as stage manager, Career Center teacher Ben Griffin playing the role of Franz the butler and longtime Patterson science teacher Joe Schlaudraff as the villainous Herr Zeller.