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28 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday October 22, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com Artscene Oakville Beaver · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2008 By Stephanie Taylor SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Sign up now for guitar, bass, drums, and piano OAKVILLE'S MUSIC STORE Local teen takes on The Sound of Music Toronto is alive with the sound of music this fall, as the famous show of the same name has finally opened at the Princess of Wales Theatre, with local resident Spencer Walker in one of the lead roles as Friedrich von Trapp. Walker, who is only 14 years old, debuted in his first lead role on the big stage 18 months ago when he played the character of Dill in the play To Kill a Mockingbird at the Stratford Festival. This is Walker's first time performing at the Princess of Wales Theatre, where he will be sharing the role with Simeon Vivian. The musical, which will run eight times a week, has all child actors double cast to abide by child labour laws. This allows children to still attend school and enjoy their free time, while working on stage on the side. This means Walker will play the part four times a week, on a rotating schedule. It took a lot of hard work for Walker to get to this point. The audition process was drawn out, starting in March. Walker wasn't notified that he had gotten the part until July. "It was a very long audition process and we were told thousands of kids applied," explained mom Heidi Walker. The auditions had three components, including singing, dancing and acting. Walker was given four callbacks before finding out whether or not he had been chosen. Rehearsals were initially held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sometimes from 2 to 6 p.m. Later, the times switched from 1 until 9 p.m., although rehearsals would sometimes go to 11 p.m. He was rehearsing six day a week before the show opened Oct. 15. "He has missed a lot school," Heidi explained. "He's only been to school for four full days. He's been there a morning here, an afternoon there. But the school, because they are an arts school, has been very accommodating and encouraging. He is going to have a lot of catching up to do once it (the show) opens." The most difficult aspect of Walker's latest role has been singing. "I'm not really a singer, I'm more of an actor," he said. "The singing has been fun, but it's been challenging." Walker spends a lot of time before rehearsals going over the songs, but has more confidence in his knowledge of the musical now. Although he has watched the film version of The Sound of Music, he said he didn't study Friedrich von Trapp from the movie because he wanted to come up with his own ways to make him unique. "I like to make my own characters," he said. Walker said the best part of playing Friedrich is the fact that he has a troublemaking streak in the beginning of the play that he finds fun to act out. In the play, which takes place over a couple of years, Friedrich grows and changes over time. Walker finds it challenging to relay to the audience how much Friedrich has grown. SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER SOUND OF MUSIC: Oakville teen Spencer Walker has landed a dream role as Friedrich von Trapp in the Toronto production of The Sound of Music. See Walker page 29 Arts groups asked Torti goes on dancing another day in contest to give Beaver more notice As our community continues to grow and more suggestions for arts stories are being submitted to The Oakville Beaver, we are asking for groups and individuals to provide at least one to two weeks' notice for a request for arts coverage. Whether it is a photo shoot or story request, we please ask that you send it well in advance so we can try to provide coverage. As well, The Oakville Beaver would greatly appreciate if requests included some standard information. We ask that you supply the following information: date, time, location including street address, contact person, contact phone number and a few sentences outlining what the event is about and what type of coverage is being requested. The Oakville Beaver and its staff thanks you in advance for this courtesy. It was a close call last week for Oakville's Caroline Torti, who is competing on the reality TV dance show So You Think Can Dance Canada. Caroline, 23, along with partner Jesse Catibog, a Toronto dance instructor, were in the bottom three couples after last Wednesday's performance. After performing one more time on Thursday, the couple was told they would go on to dance another day. Romina D'Ugo and Dario Milard were the second couple of the finals to be sent home. So You Think You Can Dance is a hit show in the United States that first aired Caroline Torti in 2005. This is the first time it has come to Canada. Dancers are competing for a $100,000 top prize. Each week, the Canadian public votes for their favourite contestants. The Top 20 are whittled down, one couple per week, to 10 through voting numbers and judges' decisions. Once the top 10 remain, the winner is determined by viewers' votes alone. So You Think You Can Dance airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CTV. The live results show runs Thursday at 7:30 p.m. For information about the show, go online to www.ctv.ca/mini/dance2008 /index.html. -Tina Depko CARPET · CERAMIC · HARDWOOD · LAMINATE · VINYL · AREA RUGS · CUSTOM WINDOW FASHIONS QEW 3rd Line 4th Line FREE SHOP AT HOME AVAILABLE Oct 17th-31st Speers Rd. OAKVILLE 1027 Speers Road, Oakville 905-901-2036 Designer and host of "Home to Stay" on HGTV.