The von Trapp children

I have to start off with a disclaimer - I love Broadway plays, musicals, etc., and I love a good movie!  But for those of us as a viewing audience, the story needs to have appeal!  With that said, Hollywood "trumps" up a story so that we, the audience, will believe in it.  And for the most part the basic story is there.  But sometimes the names are changed "to protect the innocent."

Such is the case with The Sound of Music."  The story is somewhat different from the real life story of Maria and Georg - there would be no possible way you could fit their lives in a 2-hour production!  They were amazing people!

As I have been reading the book "Maria" by Maria von Trapp, I have had to change gears when reading the children's names. My first experience with The Sound of Music was the movie, so I have the children's names as Friderich, Liesl, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta, and Gretl - as do most of us.

Those were stage names - "to protect the innocent."  When the play was written, Maria didn't wish for the children's real names in the transcript, so the above names became part of the story. She had wished for a bit of privacy for her children.

I have done a bit of searching and found the real names of the children - Rupert (Friedrich), Agatha (Liesl), Maria (Louisa), Werner (Kurt), Hedwig (Brigitta), Johanna (Marta), and Martina (Gretl).  Those were the children of Goerg and his wife, Agatha. 

After their marriage, Maria and Georg added three more children to the family: Rosemarie, Eleonore and Johannes.  Maria was pregnant with another child, at the time of Georg's death, and miscarried.

As I continue to read about Maria through her story, I will bring tidbits of information to this site.  I know that when NLOC brings The Sound of Music to our audience we will do our best to capture the spirit and fortitude of the von Trapp famliy!