Sarajane Roarty starred in ‘The Sound of Music’ as the main character Maria. Sarajane is also a freshman and is just beginning her theatre career as a Patriot. Although she is only in her first year, this is certainly not her first John Carroll performance.
“I was an elf in Elf: The Musical in eighth grade with the John Carroll School Theatre, and I was Sally Jackson in The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical and Seussical as Mayzie LaBird with The John Carroll Theatre Academy,” explained Sarajane.
Her background in theatre started when she was very young. “I’ve been doing theatre pretty much my whole life. I started out performing at John Carroll Academy shows, and I have also been a dancer a lot of my life, so I have always been performing.”
The Sound of Music is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, who takes a job as a governess to a large family while she decides whether she should become a nun. The original Broadway production opened in 1959 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, out of nine nominations.
Sarajane would describe Maria as “a youthful, yet mature, strong and passionate woman. She is firm in what she believes in, but she is the sweetest person you’ll ever meet.”
Sarajane already knew she wanted to be in the musical from the start, and she felt as though Maria would be an amazing role to play, so she auditioned for it.
The preparation process looked like lots of studying and rehearsing for the show. “I also needed to fully bond with the children, and I loved every minute of it,” said Sarajane.
Sarajane’s favorite memory from preparing for the musical was “learning choreography for ‘Do Re Mi.’ It is my all-time favorite number in the show, and it really helped me to bond with the children.”
What keeps Sarajane performing and what she loves most is being able to share the arts with people.
She said, “I loved being able to get to know the theatre department and children because they were so much fun to get to know and, of course, getting to know more freshmen and upperclassmen.”
Not only is Sarajane planning to continue her theatre career throughout high school, but she also hopes to continue to perform in college and possibly as a future career, too.