One thing that sets apart musicals from plays is the music, and the Sound of Music has a lot of it. North Thespians performed the Sound of Music, senior Francesca Bates taking the lead role in the play as her final play at Columbus North.

Bates auditioned and got the part she wanted.

“I played Maria Rainer, or by the end Maria von Trapp in the musical,” Bates said. “She is the main character of the musical.

The Sound of Music takes place in Austria during the late 1930s, following the life of Maria.

“The basic plot is that Maria is in training to become a nun but she is very happy and wants to do the best things possible for people,” Bates said. “She just has this joy and whimsy, so it’s difficult for her to be a chill nun. Mother Abbess, the main nun, tells her that she’s going to go be a governess, or a teacher nanny, to a family with 7 children.”

After the drama of the musical, it ends with a bittersweet ending.

“Maria and the Captain [then] fall in love and get married,” Bates said. “At this point they are one big happy family and singing group, but the Captain is being asked to join the navy for the Nazis, so they escape to Switzerland.”

The difference between the fall play and the spring musical is that for the musical, the actors have to both act and sing. This adds one extra level of stress combining memorization of music and acting.

“Memorizing music isn’t too difficult for me,” Bates said. “Memorizing lines definitely takes a lot of work because it has less of an intrinsic melody because it’s flat words. [Singing and Acting] are different enough [for me] that they don’t conflict with each other.”

Along with memorizing lines, people can get stressed when on stage. Bates, however, does not.

“On stage I am completely fine,” Bates said. “What stressed me out is when we had quick costume changes that didn’t pan out well. I actually didn’t successfully complete my costume changes until opening night. It really stressed me out the entire time. But the actual singing, acting, and interacting is very natural and feels very good.”

Bates enjoyed their experience in the show.

“[The musical] was the best show ever,” Bates said. “Best show I’ve ever been a part of; better than anything I could have imagined.”

Bates thanks her peers who also worked on the musical.

“It had a good cast, good crew, and a fantastic director,” Bates said. “Everything was phenomenal.”

Despite not being her typical musical, she has loved the Sound of Music for a long time.

“I do enjoy shows with big ensemble dance numbers, and I know the Sound of Music doesn’t have that and it’s a lot more simple, but it’s been one of my favorite shows because I watched it a lot growing up.”

Everyone has their favorite part of a play. For Bates, it was the ending with the entire family coming together.

“My favorite part was definitely the end of the play, which is cliche,” Bates said. “It was rewarding and bittersweet, going through this whole show and playing out this entire story and now I’m with my new found family; both in the context of the play and also as an actor since we’ve spent so much time together.”

The experience was emotional for Bates, meaning more than just an ending to a musical.

“We walk off the stage into the isles, to Switzerland, leaving behind everyone else,” Bates said. “The nuns are singing this heavenly chorus and I’m holding Nora’s hand. It gets me every time.”