Audiences will feel as if they've been transported to the Austrian alps when the curtain opens on Ballarat Lyric Theatre's production of The Sound of Music on Friday night.
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Cast and crew have spent the past week in Civic Hall fine tuning their performances and technical aspects of the show before the first audience members take their seats.
It's the culmination of months of learning lines, songs and positions for the cast, and for the crew overcoming some challenging technical issues putting on a musical theatre production on a stage not designed for that purpose.
On Thursday night the cast completed their final full-dress rehearsal to ensure the show is set.
With two separate casts of children, who perform alternate shows, there's been twice as much fine tuning of the family-favourite show.
"I've been blessed with a phenomenal cast. We've got a lot of newbies, the nuns are sounding heavenly with their vocals, and our kids have got a range of experience - for some it's their first foray in to theatre, others have done it before but this scale is next level," said director Stephen Armati.
And supporting them is a back-stage crew including mums who have also had to sharpen their skills in costume changes.
"We've got more people backstage than on the stage between the crew and our team of helpers ... our Formula 1 pit stop crew for costume changes," Mr Armati said.
"The (children) run off and turn around back on stage in 30 or 40 seconds in a new outfit."
With Her Majesty's Theatre closed for renovations, performing in Civic Hall has posed some challenges for staging the production, but it has also allowed for some special extras to provide the audience a more "immersive" experience.
Mr Armati praised the crew and the technical crew from Civic Hall who have worked together to "push Civic Hall to its limits".
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"There are things we are used to in the theatre that are not there, but the set team has designed a beautiful set and the people in there have worked to really utilise the space. We've got a lot of special stuff going on ... so people feel part of it and it's added an extra dimension to the whole show."
Ticket sales have been strong, with around 4000 already sold across the 11 show season, which runs from June 30 to July 9.
Tickets are available from hermaj.com.
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