Billie Wildrick & Dieter Bierbrauer to Lead THE SOUND OF MUSIC at Ordway

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts today announced casting for the roles of Maria, Captain von Trapp and the von Trapp children for its upcoming holiday production of The Sound of Music, running Dec. 10, 2015-Jan. 2, 2016. Tickets for the Ordway produced family classic start at $37 and can be purchased online at www.ordway.org, by phone at 651-224-4222 or in-person at the Ordway ticket office.

The cast for the Ordway's holiday show will feature Billie Wildrick as Maria, Dieter Bierbrauer as Captain von Trapp and eight local actors as the von Trapp children. The remaining cast will be announced in November.

Wildrick, a Seattle native, was most recently seen as Mother in the Ordway's 2014 production of A Christmas Story, the Musical. She also starred in the 2011 Ordway production of Guys and Dolls as Adelaide, and was part of the original Broadway cast of Scandalous.

Bierbrauer has become a regular on the Ordway stage, appearing in The Pirates of Penzance, Damn Yankees, multiple Broadway Songbook productions and as The Old Man in A Christmas Story, the Musical.

"The Sound of Music is one of the most loved musicals of all time, so it was important to us that we find the right actors to play such iconic roles. We couldn't be happier with the sensational cast we've put together for our holiday production," said James A. Rocco, Ordway's vice president of programming and producing artistic director. "Billie is charming and warm with just a hint of toughness-everything we were looking for in a Maria. And Dieter has a natural ability to take stern, strict characters and make the audience fall in love with them. These two had amazing chemistry as Ralphie's parents in A Christmas Story, the Musical, and I can't wait to see what they bring to the stage this year."

The seven von Trapp children will be played by local actors who have been seen on stage and screen all over the Twin Cities. The von Trapp family includes Caroline Innerbichler (The Pirates of Penzance, Broadway Songbook: The 70s Songbook) as Liesl, Quinn Morrissey as Friedrich, Bella Blackshaw as Louisa, Nate Turcotte as Kurt, Natalie Tran as Brigitta, Josephine Elizabeth Turk as Marta, and Chloe Lou Erickson and Mabel Tryphine Weismann as Gretl.

Inspired by the lives of the actual von Trapp family, Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music tells the uplifting story of Maria, a fun-loving governess who changes the lives of the widowed Captain von Trapp and his seven children by re-introducing them to music, culminating in the family's escape from the Nazis across the mountains from Austria. The unforgettable score includes some of the most famous songs ever performed on stage, including "My Favorite Things," "Edelweiss," "Do-Re-Mi" and the title song, "The Sound of Music."

The Sound of Music is sponsored by Bremer Bank. For tickets and more information, visit www.ordway.org.

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