photos: Nov 14, 2025
The Gloucester High Drama Club in Gloucester, MA got a treat on Friday when stage, film and TV star Lindsay Crouse visited The Sound of Music cast and crew for rehearsal.
She offered nuggets and pointers and encouraged the GHS Drama Club all the while advocating for the arts with a great passion.
She spoke about the power of set design and limited resources, how the crew makes the production world specific. She gave pointers about how to stand and deliver and challenged them to abandon saying, “like”.
She reminded actors about their impact with an audience. “Audiences won’t know the interior thoughts that motivate your delivery. But they’ll believe you when you use a particular action to respond. That’s especially helpful when it’s an imaginary circumstance,” she explained. “Be economical,” she counseled. “Use a particular action to get your point across, line by line. If you know exactly what you will do next, the precise manner in which you respond, line by line, you won’t be afraid and the audience will connect. Use your actions to lines as building blocks.”
It was apt and notable that she stressed equally the acting and the writing. Later, the mellifluous and modest actor- an Academy Award® nominee–shared stories and memories about her theater experience, life with her father– and mother, her father’s book for the Sound of Music , and her mother’s impetus for cajoling New York’s Mayor Lindsay and the first TKTS.
Theatrical dynasty
Sixty six years ago this week, The Sound of Music premiered on November 16th 1959 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
(Live, 1961. The Sound of Music. Broadway cast, Mary Martin. Do-Re-Mi recording w/audience and big horns)
The book for the musical was authored by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, legendary Broadway writing partners and Pulitzer Prize Winners (State of the Union, 1946). The Sound of Music won 5 Tony Awards including Best Musical, propelling the film adaptation that swept the Oscars in 1966 with both enchanting audiences ever after.
Other evergreen productions by Lindsay and Crouse are Life with Father (1955) and Anything Goes (1947). Lindsay was indeed named after Howard Lindsay.
In 1952, Gloucester High School was the main location for the fledgling annual “Cape Ann Festival of the Arts”, a sprawling celebration of Gloucester and Cape Ann talent for the community produced with the aim of inspiring youth. In that very first year, The Cape Ann Festival Drama was named in honor of Russel Crouse. He donated the Silver Cup trophy. By that time, the family lived in Annisquam when they weren’t in New York. Crouse told the students that their homes were decorated with former stage props. She reflected with fondness the “spike marks”–tack holes in the family rug, a legacy from the set of Life With Father. In the 4th or 5th year, the Cape Ann Festival of the Arts mounted Life with Father in place of a new play due to submission paucity or talent of submissions.
I don’t know how much Russel Crouse participated in local activities, but Lindsay Crouse does. She seriously loves Gloucester and greater Cape Ann and most of all shares an appreciation and joy for her profession. She encouraged all the students to keep going! Also inspiring the students, Cape Ann Symphony’s Wendy Betts, the musical director for this production. Wendy shared that her mother sang a role in The Sound of Music, too.
Read more about the GHS Drama Club 2025 production here
Great article: See today’s Gloucester Daily Times for photos and information about the cast and crew—and where I read about Director Heidi Dallin’s Sound of Music role when she attended GHS.
FLYER DESIGNED BY GHS SENIOR EMMA ALVES
TICKETS
Don’t miss out! Tickets are going fast! Production is the result of countless days and hours of diligent work on each one’s part, the cast and crew, staff and volunteers!
Gloucester High School Drama Club Presents the Timeless Classic
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Music and Lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II
Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse
on November 20, 21, 22
At Gloucester High School
The Gloucester High School Drama Club proudly presents one of the most famous musicals of all time: The Sound of Music Youth Edition on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00pm; Friday, November 21 at 7:00pm; and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm at Gloucester High School on 32 Leslie O’Johnson Rd. Purchase tickets at : https://gloucesterhighdrama.ludus.com/ Gloucester, MA.
Good Morning Gloucester 