The Sound of Music’s walls came alive with mock stained-glass windows in St Neots

Arguably the world’s favourite musical, The Sound of Music is synonymous with songs from high on top of the Alps, mischievous children in matching sailor blouses and shirts and lots of singing nuns.

But a Spring 2024 production of  the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic, staged by VAMPS of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, presented audiences with a beautiful new dimension that they will likely remember for a long time. Through the clever artistry and handiwork of deputy stage manager and set designer Natt Różańska, the large, but plain, performance hall at St Neots’ Priory Centre, a former Benedictine monastery, recaptured vestiges of a place of worship: Różańska crafted six mock ‘stained glass’ windows to hang high on the hall’s side walls. Each colourfully depicted a different scene from the show, such as the novice Maria’s joyous day in the hills, Captain von Trapp’s military-style review of his children, nuns deep in prayer by candlelight and Maria entertaining the young von Trapps with her guitar, to name a few.

Mock stained-glass windows emerged as a set design idea while Różańska collaborated with Director Emma Driscoll, on fully engaging the audience with the show.

As the designer explains, “We like to not just have the [show] design stop at the proscenium arch. We want to break into the auditorium, and into the foyer if we can so the whole thing is more of an immersive experience. As soon as you enter the building, you’re ‘there’; you know!

It came out so organically, really, an idea for the old abbey feel in the auditorium,” Różańska continues. When Director Driscoll agreed that she would like custom stained-glass windows for the show, Różańska recalls, “I was sweating. Then I slowly figured out, ok, custom windows, I have to design them.”

She designed the windows with a view as to how they would look on the hall’s walls, with the lighting team involved in early discussions so that Różańska’s creations “could be designed in mind to light them on the wall”, she says. To make the windows, Różańska used frame arches, on which she stretched clear PVC “like you would with a canvas”, she explains. She then projected images of the designs she had created onto the frames and drew on the images. Coloured cellophane gels stood in for stained glass. Completing each window took between six and eight hours, which she did much of on her kitchen floor.

While she clearly has skill and talent in the visual arts, Różańska enjoys putting her variety of capabilities and interests to work in theatre and keeps her options open for future theatrical paths. “I’m always picking up different crafts and never really stick to or focus on one thing,” she acknowledges. “I like making things, creating stuff across all mediums. It’s such a passion.”

DeeDee Doke - NODA East