More Than Music

"It all starts with the ACO, really," muses Betsy Crouch Jilka.

When she was just 2 or 3 years old, Betsy came to the Springdale theater with her mother, Cathy Crouch, who was playing in the pit orchestra for "Annie."

"I remember crying because I wanted to be on stage so badly," she says.

And she was, all through her childhood, including -- at the age of 14 -- playing Liesl in the Arts Center of the Ozarks' "The Sound of Music."

Two decades later, Jilka, who holds a master of fine arts in acting and is a veteran of the New York City stage, is back at ACO, again in "The Sound of Music," this time as Maria.

"I don't think I ever thought I would be able to play Maria, but I always wanted to," she says. "I thought that part was too far away for me."

Harry Blundell, ACO director of theater, would have disagreed, even then.

"She has always been very focused on the job at hand, even way back when she was in 'The Music Man' with me in 1987," he remembers. "Even at that point, she was so caught up with the idea of performing, her discipline was already in place. She's always had the same drive, the same focus -- and a lovely voice."

Jilka says between then and now, "I literally have been Maria." While acting in New York, she worked as a nanny for two prominent families, and music was one of the ways she connected with the children. "They called me their Mary Poppins," she says.

"Then I started getting jobs as a teaching artist, and now I teach drama to kindergarten through 12th grade in Denton, Texas. I had to go through all of that to understand the part of Maria a little better -- and to have more depth, which I hope I do.

"But at the same time," she adds with a laugh, "I'm still Liesl in my head. I don't feel like I've aged."

John Jefferson, portraying Capt. Von Trapp, says he's reminded of his age when he remembers watching "The Sound of Music" as a child. "But this is the first time it's worked out for me to consider being part of it.

"It's one of those classics I've always wanted to do just because it's a classic," says Jefferson, who was new to the ACO stage in "Blithe Spirit." "But that's always a twin-edged sword. You're going to be compared to Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews because that's the version everybody knows."

The secret to creating your own character is "to make it more than a bunch of people doing karaoke," explains Jefferson, who was educated as an actor before becoming a Ph.D. in physical therapy. He is now the chairman of the UAMS Northwest department of physical therapy in Fayetteville.

"This is one of those plays that moves along very quickly," he says. "You don't have much time to set up the relationship with the children -- or to fall in love with Maria. You have to add all those nuances within a fast-moving script."

It's a fast-moving rehearsal schedule, too, Blundell adds.

"After having done this so long, the logistics aren't even top of my mind as an issue," he says. The cast of 50 started rehearsing around June 1, about the same time the actors would have for a drama or comedy.

"It's just like building the pyramids," Blundell says. "Once the stones start rolling, don't stop them. You gain some intensity that way."

Jilka says that intensity is there for her whether it's community theater or the bright lights of Broadway she once sought.

"You can find happiness as long as you're doing what you love. I used to think it was only the big time that mattered. Now I feel accomplished because I'm a mom, a teacher and I am still an actress and singer."