Despite hectic work schedules and lengthy commutes to rehearsals, Aaron Yáñez and Richard Lim are in their creative element playing dual roles as Captain Georg von Trapp in La Sierra University’s production of “The Sound of Music.”
Yáñez, a 29-year-old Loma Linda resident who works the night shift as a registered nurse at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital and Lim, a 35-year-old dentist with a busy practice in Yucaipa, make the 60-to-70-mile round trip two days a week for a total of about seven hours of rehearsal at the university in western Riverside. Individual practice takes up even more hours.
The duo will put their efforts and talents on display for audiences later this month and the beginning of March in the role of the Captain for double-cast performances of “The Sound of Music.” Shows will be held in Hole Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, Feb. 29 and March 7 at 7 p.m., and on Sunday, March 1 and March 8 at 3 p.m.
Lim will turn 36 on Feb. 24 just before the La Sierra production run begins. Both actors have been involved for years in various types of musical and stage performances -- Yáñez as a baritone in past musical theater productions at Life House Theater in Redlands and Lim as a versatile tenor and bass vocalist currently in performance groups in the Inland Empire and Los Angeles. Both performed back in 2014 in a La Sierra University production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
For Yáñez, musical performance is “my creative, my side passion,” he said. The La Sierra production represents an avocational growth opportunity. “It’s my first major lead role so it challenges me to study the character,” he said. He’s also gaining insights into the heart and mind of a character much older than his own age and with major life experiences under his belt including marriage and children. “There are so many boxes to open about [the captain].”
Lim, a graduate of Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif., attended high school in Indiana where he was involved in many musical theater productions. “I find the Captain very stuck in his ways,” a man who suppresses feelings of missing his wife and who avoids involvement in music, all to appear strong, Lim said of the character he is portraying. “Eventually he softens up” and is truer to his nature.
Lim sees parallels to his own life. “In the professional world you want to stay on top of things, to be strict, if you will,” he said. But balance is possible. “I thoroughly enjoy music. It’s a passion of mine, kind of like the Captain.”
The beloved musical by the famed duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II was first staged in 1959. In 1965 it launched as a feature film directed by Robert Wise and starring Julie Andrews as Maria, a nun-turned-governess for a widowed Austrian naval captain, played by Christopher Plummer, and his seven children. The movie received five Oscars and many other awards. Directed by Raejin Lee, La Sierra’s director of vocal studies, the leading roles in La Sierra’s “Sound of Music” stage production, including those of the seven children, are double-cast to better accommodate the multiple performance dates.
Lee chooses either an opera or a musical for each year’s fully-staged production through the music department. She chose “The Sound of Music” for this year’s centerpiece as it is one of the most well-known and loved classics that can be enjoyed by all ages, she said. And, “personally, it’s my most favorite musical,” said Lee, adding that the show carries an educational component by teaching the notes of the western scale and relaying the powerful impact of music on people’s lives.
Admission for “The Sound of Music” is general $15, seniors aged 55 and older $10, students and children $5 (college students with ID). Tickets and information are available at https://music-events.lasierra.edu/the-sound-of-music/, music@lasierra.edu, and 951-785-2036. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside.