Life after The Sound of Music for Chichester's Maya

Maya, who attends the March School in Chichester, was playing Marta, one of Captain Von Trapp’s seven children – and she loved absolutely every moment. And then came the sadness as the show reached the end of its run.

“When I finished I cried so much. I just really hope that I will get the chance to do something like that again. It was just the most amazing experience, the most amazing buzz. And everyone was so kind to us – not just the chaperones but wigs and make-up. It was just an incredible experience. I just wish it could have lasted forever.”

And the lovely thing is it feels that she gained so much in confidence during the run: “At first we were all a little bit nervous but when we got to the middle of the run, we were just fine and by the end it was just like routine. We really felt like we knew our characters by the end and that was great.”

But it was funny how audiences differed. Sometimes everyone would be on their feet at the end; other times just a few: “But I think it did tend to be an older audience for us anyway, but the whole experience was so much better than I thought it could be.”

Already at the start of the run, Maya was thinking about how she was going to feel when the show finished in September. And she was wrong: “I didn’t just cry all day. I cried all week!”

But she retains particularly fond memories of that last night: “I think we were all crying by the time we got to the bows. It just felt so weird that we wouldn't be doing this again, that it wouldn’t all be happening again. I really loved Do-Re-Mi but I also loved Lonely Goatherd because there was so much happening and because we also had a bed on the stage.”

Maya’s favourite nights were the last night, the press night and also in the middle of the run: “And then after that last performance I had school the next day. I woke up feeling not great and just thought how do I get through the day and I definitely cried. It was just that funny feeling of thinking will I ever see these people again, that I won't probably ever be on the same stage with exactly all these people again.”

But the great thing is that Maya comes out of it all with her ambitions encouraged. One day she would like to play Christine Daaé in The Phantom of The Opera, though she admits she is going to have to be an awful lot older to get to do that: “But it's like an opera and I really love singing and she is such a big singing role to play. Christine is a young woman and at the beginning of the show no one knows that she's a really good singer, But they realise that she is really amazing.” As for what happens next right now Maya admits she doesn't know: “I just hope that there are lots more things to come. I definitely want to do lots more singing roles.”