As a kid in Brandon, singer Amanda Stott was a fan of movie musicals, but her all-time fave was The Sound of Music.

No casual viewer, Stott says she'd dress up in costumes and sing along with the film, pretending she was a cast member.

Well, now the 19-year-old singer is one step closer to fulfilling that fantasy, landing a lead role in Manitoba playwright Olaf Pyttlik's rock-musical The Wave, which opens MTC's 2001-02 season this October.

"I've loved musicals my whole life and kind of in the back of my mind dreamed about it, but you never really think it'll happen. It's kind of a neat new avenue to go down," Stott said yesterday.

Juno-nominated as Best New Solo Artist for her self-titled debut album, Stott says her manager Gilles Paquin saw The Wave at the Fringe last summer. He told director Steven Schipper she would be a natural in the play.

Pyttlik based the play on a true story about a teacher who devised an experiment to show how people could be induced to blindly follow a monster like Adolf Hitler. Ottawa singer Tyley Ross (The Who's Tommy), plays the teacher, who exerts tyrannical influence over the students.

Stott's character stands apart from the crowd, eventually helping her classmates see parallels between their behaviour and that of citizens in Nazi Germany.

"I think it's a great play. I think a lot of people can learn from it," Stott says. "So I'm really excited about the role and being the one who doesn't go along with the rest of the group."

The Wave could be just a first step in a new career.

"It'll be a lot of work but it'll be fun. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from it," Stott says. "You never really know. If I really enjoy it, you may see me in another one."