Featured News | February 13, 2014
The Tony award-winning play “Amadeus” by Peter Shaffer comes to the McMurry Mainstage beginning with a Wednesday night performance, as part of the 29th Annual Casper College Humanities Festival, on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
Directed by Douglas Garland and starring William Conte as Antonio Salieri and Cyle Hart as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Amadeus” looks at “the fatal rivalry between the young, genius composer Mozart and the established court composer Salieri,” said Garland, Casper College theatre instructor.
“How far is too far in pursuit of recognition? Would even murder be too extreme?” asked Garland. “This is exactly the position Salieri has put himself in in Shaffer’s marvelous retelling of the story of the competition between Salieri and the young, genius composer, Mozart.” Featuring lavish costumes, Mozart’s music, and the sumptuous court of 1789’s Vienna as the backdrop, “Amadeus” is a “tale of envy, murder, and genius unrecognized,” Garland said.
The cast of 18 “has been a wonderful cast and they followed my lead as I asked them to change the way they walk, talk, stand, and think about the theatre to draw the audience into our story world,” Garland said. Conte, instructor of theatre history and literature at Casper College, recently directed the 2013 holiday productions of “The Long Christmas Dinner” and “The Second Shepherd’s’ Play. Hart, a sophomore musical theatre student from Thermopolis, Wyo., performed the role of Roderick Bayard II in “The Long Christmas Dinner.”
Theatregoers will also be treated to performances by members of the Casper College Opera Workshop in the Krampert Theatre lobby. Under the direction of Kristen Lenth, Casper College music instructor, the goal of the group “is to share the fun and joy of opera with people of all ages and backgrounds,” she said.
“Amadeus” will run February 26 through 28, March 1, and March 5 through 8 each night at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 9 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students ages 5 to 18. Tickets can be purchased at the Krampert Theatre Complex box office between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, by phone at 307-268-2500, one hour before each performance, for that performance only, or online at caspercollege.edu/theatre.