Three community theaters and one area university are opening shows for the fall season.

Civic Theatre of Allentown produces the beloved musical “The Sound of Music.”

DeSales University’ Act 1 stages the classic farce “The Servant of Two Masters.”

Pennsylvania Playhouse will premiere the Broadway play “Stick Fly.”

Crowded Kitchen Players debuts an original play “Death by Lullaby.”

Civic Theatre of Allentown presents Rodgers & Hammerstein’s five-time Tony Award-winning, “The Sound of Music,” Oct. 11 - 27, on Civic’s historic 19th Street Theatre Main Stage.

Based on the 1949 memoir, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” by Maria von Trapp, “The Sound of Music” is set in Salzburg, Austria, in 1938.

The musical tells the story of the experiences of Maria (Gianna Neal) as governess to seven children, her eventual marriage with their father Captain Georg von Trapp (Tim Brown) and their escape as the forces of Nazism gain power in Austria.

Songs include “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do Re Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and “The Sound of Music.” A movie version starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer has become a perennial favorite.

“’The Sound of Music” was the final collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and includes some of the most cherished songs in all of the American musical theater,” says director Nick Conti.

“Civic’s production will pay homage to the stage and film version that came before it, but will also expand on the themes of humanity, love and personal struggle expressed by its characters,” Conti says.

“‘The Sound of Music’ is a musical that both reminds us of the past but also lives vibrantly in the present and draws on themes that can both bring us together and drive us apart,” says Conti.

The cast includes Shaun Hayes (Max), Bethany Wentling (Elsa), Kate Varley (Mother Abbess), Moriah Faith (Sister Berthe), Grace Oddo (Sister Margaretta), Grace Adele Hochella (Sister Sophia), Maricel Wheatley (Liesl), Zeke Adams (Friedrich), Lila Furst (Louisa), Connor Simmons (Kurt), Maggie Kieres (Brigitta), Eleanor Swartz (Marta), Kinsley Andronis (Gretl) and Todd Croslis (Rolf).

Also: John Bracali, Cindy Ernst, Mason McGowan, Conor O’Leary, Emma Milander, Paul Reed, Luci Loftus, Deven Windisch, Charlie Strzelecki, Ivanna Diaz, Wendy Borst, Anthony Sanchez, Olivia Emens, Sarai Misic, Rose Fortkamp, Jada Fontanez and Victoria Spruiell.

Musical direction is by Adam Conti. Choreography is by William Sanders, Civic Theatre of Allentown Managing Artistic Director.

Civic Theatre offers a “Pay What You Can” performance Oct. 24.

“The Sound of Music,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, 12, 16, 18, 24. 25; 2 p.m. Oct. 13, 20, 27; 2, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19, 26, Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown. 610.433.8903, https://civictheatre.com/

Act 1 DeSales University Theatre will stage Carlo Goldoni’s “The Servant of Two Masters,” Oct. 10 - 20 in the Schubert Theatre of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts.

Truffaldino (India Profitt), a servant obsessed with personal hunger and well-being, seizes an opportunity to possibly earn an extra dinner by becoming servant to a second master in this 1789 Italian comedy.

Attempting to keep each master ignorant to the plan, Truffaldino tends to them both, including serving them at a banquet, all the while trying to have a meal.

Filled with mistaken identities, lost loves, a sword fight and the inevitable letter and payment mix-ups, the play is a farce inspired by the Italian commedia dell’arte.

“This play is a gift to actors and audiences alike,” says Jason King Jones, director and adaptor of the play.

“The actors love imbuing these characters and scenes with creativity and heart, and the audience will delight in the story and the characters they encounter,” says Jones, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director. He has directed more than 75 productions and established in-school and summer educational programs.

Sandra Lopez is scenic designer. Rebecca Callan is costume designer. DeSales theater major Anja Thomas is lighting designer. Jonathan Cannon is sound designer. Eli Lynn is fight director.

A “Commedia dell’Partay” will follow the Oct. 19 performance.

To improve accessibility, the Oct. 12 performance has audio descriptions for patrons who are blind or visually-impaired. Tickets are half-price for patrons using these services. Call box office manager Eric Pierson at 610-282-1100, ext. 1820, for information.

“The Servant of Two Masters,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19; 2 p.m. Oct. 12, 13, 20, Act 1 DeSales, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-3192, https://www.desales.edu

Pennsylvania Playhouse opens it fall season with the Lehigh Valley premiere of “Stick Fly,” Oct. 11 - 27 in Bethlehem.

“Stick Fly,” written in 2006 by Lydia Diamond, follows the LeVays, an affluent African-American family who spend a weekend at their stately Martha’s Vineyard mansion. The family was the first black family on the island. The show deals with race, class and gender politics.

The adult sons, aspiring novelist Kent (Marquett Ferrell) and plastic surgeon Flip (Justin Ferguson), have each brought their respective girlfriends to meet their parents.

Kent’s fiancée Taylor (Azelia Dos Santos), an academic whose absent father was a prominent author, struggles to fit into the LeVay’s upper-crust lifestyle.

Kimber (Misha Holt, Tamara Decker), on the other hand, a self-described WASP who works with inner-city school children, fits in more easily with the family.

Joining these two couples are the demanding LeVay patriarch Joe (Keith Miller, Omar Smith) and Cheryl (Ayomide Ogunleye, Rageema Davis), daughter of the family’s longtime housekeeper. As the two newcomers butt heads over issues of race and privilege, longstanding family tensions bubble under the surface and reach a boiling point when secrets are revealed.

The play opened on Broadway in 2011.

Torez Mosley directs the Playhouse production. Briana Green is costume designer. Brett Oliveira is set and lighting designer.

“Stick Fly,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26; 3 p.m. Oct. 13, 20, 27, Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Road, Bethlehem. 610-865-6665, http://www.paplayhouse.org/

Crowded Kitchen Players will premiere “Death by Lullaby,” Oct. 11 - 26, at the Charles A. Brown Ice House.

The play, written and directed by Ara Barlieb, co-founder of Crowded Kitchen Players, is the troupe’s 104th production since 2000.

When the newly-arrived Mrs. Tigert (Trish Cipoletti) awakens in the middle of the night, screaming, “I don’t know where I am or how I got here,” fellow residents and the staff of Wheatland Retirement Community descend upon her room, offering sympathy as well as indignation.

In the ensuing hours and days, as Tigert gradually begins to adjust to her unfamiliar surroundings and the people who roam its halls, she soon becomes aware that Wheatland’s brochure masks a darker and more restrictive environment behind its reputation for loving care and respite.

When her new friends begin dying off in quick succession from “natural causes,” she begins to suspect their deaths may not be as natural as she is being told.

The cast includes David Oswald, Pamela Wallace, Sharon Ferry, Bruce Brown, Dawn Daignault, Phuong Tran, Dan Ross, Aidan King and Robert Torres.

“Death by Lullaby,” 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26; 2 p.m. Oct. 13, 20, Crowded Kitchen Players, Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem. 610-704-6974, https://www.ckplayers.com

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com