Twenty-One Years Later, Music Guild Veteran Back as Lead in “Sound of Music”
As she was in a stacked musical feast last summer at Quad City Music Guild, Sarah Lounsberry of Rock Island takes on an iconic role, surrounded by another dazzling constellation of other stars in a new production of “The Sound of Music.”
Opening Nov. 14 at the Prospect Park Theater, 1584 34th Avenue, Moline, the Music Guild veteran is in her 36th show there (including cast and crew) as Maria, the part immortalized on screen 60 years ago by Julie Andrews. The role originated with Mary Martin in 1959, in the beloved musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
“I’ve always loved the music; I love the story,” Lounsberry (featured in the summer 2024 Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music”) said recently. “It has so much to offer. It’s such a love story on so many fronts – obviously, the romantic love between Maria and the Captain; love of your country. And the most important for me, coming from this new perspective of playing Maria, is the love between Maria and the children, because that is the foundation of everything.
“If you don’t have that buy-in with the children right off the bat, then the rest of the story doesn’t work,” said the real-life mother of a 10-year-old boy and six-year-old daughter. “I adore these kids.”
Jake Walker and his sister Sarah Lounsberry in 2016’s Music Guild production of “Into the Woods,” as Rapunzel’s Prince and Cinderella.
The last collaboration by the immortal R & H pair, “The Sound of Music” features a trove of cherished songs, including “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and the title number. The heartwarming show won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars.
The inspirational story, based on the memoir of Maria Augusta Trapp, follows an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. But as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria, Maria and the entire von Trapp family must make a moral, life-altering decision.
Music Guild director Dave Blakey had 68 kids audition for seven parts, and one (Kurt) is played by Sarah Lounsberry’s real-life 10-year-old son, Jack (in his Music Guild debut). Blakey said she had no part in him getting cast.
They both said he’s doing a great job in the show, and all the kids are enthusiastic and dedicated.
“He did his first show ever last year at the Center for Living Arts – he did ‘Frozen Jr.,’” Lounsberry said of Jack. “This is so different from that experience for him. I know he’s had a lot of fun.”
Nathan Bates is Captain von Trapp and Sarah Lounsberry is Maria in the classic musical “The Sound of Music” at Moline’s QC Music Guild.
“The kids have bonded very well together, thankfully,” Blakey said. “They all get along.”
“The Sound of Music” had a total of 139 people try out for the show, and the 525-seat theater is already sold out for both Sunday performances.
“I’ve been working at the box office for years, and we were getting orders in July,” even before auditions, which were late August, Blakey said. “There’s something about this show, it’s very well-loved obviously.”
“And it’s something all generations can enjoy,” Lounsberry said.
The ages of the children characters are about 6 to 16, and Liesl (the oldest) is played by 20-year-old Marissa Pederson, a St. Ambrose University student.
Lounsberry made her Guild debut in the last “Sound of Music” at Prospect Park, in 2004, at age 17, in the nuns’ ensemble. Then Jenny Winn played Maria, and Winn is now in the nuns’ ensemble, with Erin Platt as Mother Abbess, Chris Castle as Sister Berthe and Tamara Baugh as Sister Margaretta.
Jordan Dodd is Rolf and Marissa Pederson is Liesl in the Music Guild production of “Sound of Music,” opening Friday, Nov. 14 at Prospect Park, Moline.
“That’s kind of a sweet moment when I come into Mother Abbess’ office for the first time, Jenny is the one who walks me in,” Lounsberry said.
She went to Rock Island High School and got into musicals then, when she got the lead (as Babe) in “The Pajama Game,” the same year she did “Sound of Music.”
Lounsberry’s mom did plays, and her uncle directed musicals. And her older brother (Jake Walker) got involved in local theater, and Sarah followed in his footsteps.
They did their first show together at Guild – 2016’s “Into the Woods,” when she was Cinderella and he was Rapunzel’s Prince. “That was our favorite growing up, so it was really special to do that together,” Lounsberry said.
Other favorites she’s done include “Little Women,” “Peter Pan, “Wizard of Oz” (from 2006, when she was Dorothy) and “Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
Kirsten Myers is Max, Nate Bates is Captain von Trapp and Jen Sondgeroth is Elsa in “The Sound of Music.”
“Every experience out here has been overwhelmingly positive,” Lounsberry said.
“I was blessed with a wonderful group of choices, let’s put it that way,” Blakey said of the new cast. “They’ve made it easy for me.”
“Sound of Music” is the fourth show he’s directed, following “Sister Act” (2019), “Disaster” (2022), and “Wizard of Oz” (2023), after having music directed many shows.
“You get to a certain point as a director, where there’s nothing more for you to do, whereas music director, you’re busy until the last performance,” Blakey said of conducting the pit. “I kind of like sitting back and watching things. I like to watch the audience reactions…You definitely have to be organized.”
“You’re not going to see the Julie Andrews version of this,” he said.
In this version (unlike the classic 1965 movie), Elsa and Max (Jen Sondgeroth and Kirsten Myers) have two songs; Mother Abbess sings “My Favorite Things” near the beginning with Maria, and “The Lonely Goatherd” is what Maria sings to the children when they’re afraid of a thunderstorm (and not “Favorite Things” as in the film).
“I thought, how could I make this mine?” Blakey said of this production. “There are things here they don’t have in the movie, and one involves the wedding. That’s all I’ll say.”
Sarah Lounsberry plays Maria with the von Trapp children in Music Guild’s new production of “The Sound of Music,” running Nov. 14-23, 2025.
“For me, that’s been the biggest challenge. ‘The Sound of Music’ is far and away my favorite movie,” Lounsberry said. “I have seen it countless times, since I was so small.”
In auditions, Blakey saw 20 women who wanted to play Maria.
“I’ve known Sarah for a long time,” he said. “When she sang, it was like all five of us at the table were like, ‘There’s Maria.’ Were there other possibilities? Of course.”
“It was not an easy decision,” Blakey said. Lounsberry said she wasn’t sure she’d audition for the part, even though it’s been a top bucket-list role.
“I truly went back and forth and (her husband) Adam was like, ‘You should just go for it’,” she recalled. “And then I did and thankfully, it worked out. Especially, this show is such a puzzle, with the children needing to look a certain way.”
Lounsberry actually sang “Lonely Goatherd” for auditions, mainly because it’s showy (including yodeling), and it’s playful and fun. She was the only one who sang that for auditions.
Blakey said she has great chemistry with the seven kids. “They’re lovely together; I miss them when I’m not around them,” Lounsberry said. “The kids are just terrific.”
“When she comes in for rehearsal, two or three of them will immediately hug her,” Blakey said, noting the kids are very busy in the show, actually in 13 of the scenes.
“I’ve known her and seen her with her kids, so I knew there wasn’t going to be any problem there,” he added.
“After teaching for 30-some years, I know how to work with kids,” said Blakey, who taught music at Wilson Middle School in Moline, a job now occupied by Guild veteran Hillary Erb.
The “Sound of Music” crew includes Mark Swessinger as music director; Kevin Pieper is set designer, and Sue Woodard is costume designer.
Guild veteran Nathan Bates is Captain Von Trapp. Lounsberry said when she thinks of Julie Andrews in the part, she consciously makes herself make a different acting choice, to embody the role as her own.
“It’s extremely difficult,” she said. “How am I going to say it, so I truly believe it and it lands in a similar fashion? That’s a challenge for sure.”
Erin Platt is Mother Abbess and Sarah Lounsberry is Maria in the new production of “The Sound of Music.”
Compared to 2004, this “Sound of Music” is much different for Lounsberry, who has been married to Guild veteran Adam Lounsberry since 2010.
“It was just a completely different perspective, of being 17 and taking it all in, not having at that point a critical eye of how things are looking and how things are working,” she said of her first one. “I was there to have a good time, and sing and have fun, and I’m still having a good time singing and having fun. Just a little busier this time.”
She and Adam haven’t done many shows together since they’ve had kids. Adam is itching to audition with Jack, Sarah said. The last one the couple was in together was “Les Miserables” (when she was pregnant with Jack) in 2014, when Sarah was Eponine and Adam was in the ensemble.
Lounsberry did her first show this summer at Black Box Theatre, “Ordinary Days,” her first show last year at Circa ’21, “The Bikinis,” as well as Opera Quad Cities, and she’s been a regular member of Nova Singers for 13 years, including the current 40th anniversary season.
Marissa Pederson, left, Eli Schroeder, Selah Filzen Etzel, Jack Lounsberry, Mariana Karfis, Gracie Cross, Edith Young and Nathan Bates, in “The Sound of Music.”
“Any opportunity you have to build your musicianship overlaps into other avenues,” Lounsberry said. “I’m happy to have those opportunities and sometimes you have to pick and choose, because schedules don’t allow you to do everything.”
She had a great experience with the Shelley Cooper-directed “Ordinary Days,” just a cast of four, completely sung through. “Very difficult music, if you were comparing it, like Jason Rovbert Brown-style accompaniment,” Lounsberry said. “It was a really cool story. I rolled right from that one into, I think auditions for this were a week after we closed ‘Ordinary Days’.”
Guild’s “The Sound of Music” will be performed Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14-15, at 7:30 p.m., plus Nov. 21 and 22, and the Sunday performances (Nov. 16 and 23) at 2 p.m. are sold out.
Tickets are $20 for adults, and $15 for kids 12 and under, available at the box office at 309-762-6610 or by visiting qcmusicguild.com.
Jen Sondgeroth and Kirsten Myers in Music Guild’s “The Sound of Music,” running Nov. 14-23, 2025.
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