September 2009

Dear Subscriber:

WELCOME TO THE 43rd season of thrilling excitement, potent drama and pure escape at The Rep! Last season we were honored to receive 33 Kevin Kline Award nominations, and we were proud to receive 10 Kline Awards for our work. We’d like to extend a special welcome to the new members of our subscription family. This season has brought a large increase in new subscribers which is very exciting, and we are pleased to have you join our loyal subscriber base. We can’t wait to share the vibrancy of the new season with you. Everyone here is committed to making sure your theatre-going experience is as remarkable as possible.

OUR OPENING PRODUCTION on the Mainstage is the theatrical and fascinating Amadeus, Peter Shaffer’s Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning portrayal of the intriguing life of one of history’s greatest composers. The public’s fascination with this musical genius has never faltered since he was discovered as a child prodigy. Just last month, the mystery and mania that surround Mozart were again renewed as two new music pieces were uncovered in Austria. The International Mozarteum Foundation unveiled the recently discovered concerto movement and prelude after determining that Mozart likely composed them when he was just five years old. Found in a well-known manuscript titled “Nannerl’s Music Book,” the pieces were likely transcribed by Mozart’s father as the child played. Hearing his son conceive of such beauty at such a young age, it is no wonder that Leopold Mozart put his own career aside to fast-track his son’s rise to stardom, and with a personal life as full as his music, it is no wonder that writers and researchers have continued to be drawn to Mozart hundreds of years later. 

PETER SHAFFER BEGAN his own Mozart project in 1979. Forever fine-tuning his script before arriving at this incarnation after 20 years of revision, Shaffer’s final version was greeted with a standing ovation every night of its nine-month run at London’s Old Vic. Director of both the original production and the 1998 revival, Sir Peter Hall compares Shaffer to “a sculptor, chipping away at the block of marble, working carefully to release the figure that is concealed within its depths.” Dozens of stage revisions all received adjustments—sometimes minor lines were changed, sometimes whole scenes were added or cut, but according to Hall, each got “nearer and nearer to the heart.”

AT THE HEART OF THIS rich play is one man’s struggle to accept an overwhelming genius whose talent threatens not only his livelihood, but his understanding of art, purpose and even God. Comfortably seated as Court Composer and rising in the ranks with each note he plays, Antonio Salieri is talented, he is revered—but he is no Mozart. Though he has studied his entire life, pledged his allegiance to God and lived his life according to this promise, Salieri remains desperately ordinary when compared to the divinity in his rival’s creations. Seemingly effortlessly, Mozart delivers the kind of art that few can even fully comprehend while Salieri begins to envision his own dreams slipping away. In his mind there is only one solution—he must destroy this threat, and nothing, not even God, will stop him. From their first meeting, Salieri engages Mozart in a battle of sobriety versus passion, mediocrity versus genius, and only one can survive.

AROUSING CONTROVERSY from its first production in 1979, Shaffer’s portrait of tortured genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was met with enthusiastic reception. The 1984 Academy Award-winning film version delivered Shaffer’s portrayal to a mass audience and prompted a kind of Mozart fanaticism while reviving a historically stormy debate over both the genius’ personality and the events that led to his death. Certainly, as any artist, Shaffer created the world of his play with some poetic license; however, historical documents show that his Mozart may be closer to the truth than many are willing to admit. Biographer Alfred Einstein tells us that some of Mozart’s own writings “reveal Mozart so completely in all his warm childlike, childish human personality, that at least in Germany no one has ever dared to publish them without omissions.” Indeed, much of Mozart’s private personality can be seen in his own words, found in letters to his family and friends. In a 1778 letter to his mother, Mozart writes a poem describing his trip to Kirchheimbolanden:

Our trip is bright and sunny,
Though we haven’t any money;
We enjoy the company we keep,
We are not sick, we do not weep. 
Of course the people I see
Have much in their bellies, just like me,
But they will let it out with a whine,
Either before or after they dine.
There’s a lot of farting during the night,
And the farts resound with thunderous might.

He continues in this theme for more than 30 lines before closing his letter:

Yours with deep respect and allegiance,
And full of scabs and obedience,
Trazom

THESE ARE CERTAINLY not the words that most people would attribute to a genius. However, rising to fame in Europe when he was but five years old, Mozart was reared in isolation with his parents and sister as his only companions, so it no wonder that the prodigy carried his childish tastes and tendencies into adulthood. Later, as he was lauded and lionized throughout the years, Mozart’s less than ideal personality traits often were swept under the rug. Hall remembers his own experience with this problematic portrayal:

Margaret Thatcher was not known for her enthusiasm for the arts. She visited the National Theatre only once during my 15 years as its director. Unfortunately, it was to see Amadeus. She was not pleased. In her best headmistress style, she gave me a severe wigging for putting on a play that depicted Mozart as a scatological imp with a love of four-letter words. It was inconceivable, she said, that a man who wrote such exquisite and elegant music could be so foulmouthed.

It may be inconceivable, but it is not untrue.

TODAY, IT IS DIFFICULT for fans and scholars alike to reconcile the deep chasm that exists between Mozart’s exalted music and his childish, often vulgar character. It is this extreme clash of ideals that Shaffer’s Salieri must confront. Seeing Mozart’s divine creative beauty housed in the form of an uncouth infant becomes not only an annoyance, but a life-changing horror which Salieri must either surrender to or destroy.

PAUL MASON BARNES RETURNS to direct this rich production after helming last season’s fantastic Saint Joan. Bill Clarke joins us to create the world of 18th century Vienna, and Dorothy Marshall Englis dresses the cast in stunning period apparel. Peter E. Sargent’s lighting design and Rusty Wandall’s sound complete the portrait. Returning to The Rep is Andrew Long as Salieri (Heisenberg in Copenhagen and the mad baron in Pirandello’s Henry IV), and he is countered by Jim Poulos as Mozart. They are joined by a large cast of both familiar and new faces who bring this story to life in a brilliant way.

FINALLY, WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE an absence in our Rep family this season. Associate Artistic Director Susan Gregg passed away in July, and for the first time in over 20 years, we open a season without her. Susan joined The Rep staff in 1988 after directing two productions for us as a freelance director. Particularly gifted at developing new works, Susan acted as the theatre’s dramaturg, developed the WiseWrite program, directed more than 30 productions and taught a class in plays about medical issues for Washington University School of Medicine, and those are only a few of her many contributions. By all of us at The Rep, as well as the entire St. Louis theatre community, she will be greatly missed.

WE WILL REMEMBER Susan at a public memorial event on Monday, September 14 at 4 p.m. at the Loretto-Hilton Center, and we invite you to join us. For more information or to sign a virtual “remembrance book” that we will share with Susan’s family, please visit www.repstl.org/susan.

WHEN I TELL PEOPLE we are opening our season with Amadeus, their eyes grow wide with excitement. This is a play that encompasses large themes on personal levels and uses the special properties of the theatre to bring this compelling story to thrilling life. It’s a great way to open the season. I’m sure you’ll want to tell your friends to come to see this show at The Rep. We’re so pleased that you have chosen to be part of The Rep family. Welcome!

See you at the theatre,

Steven Woolf
Artistic Director

NEW YORK REPORT: Next to Normal is a powerful musical with a driving score. Alice Ripley won a Tony for her performance as a troubled housewife. It is unique for a musical; more dramatic than comic. Not quite everyone’s cup of tea. I liked it a lot, but it is a special kind of show. God of Carnage is about to re-open on Broadway and is a wildly funny, aggressive comedy with a brilliant cast. The Off-Broadway production of Our Town is very interesting and surprising. The hot drama of the fall season will be A Steady Rain starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. It’s a play about two Chicago cops and I think the script is excellent. And if you haven’t seen Billy Elliot: The Musical, it is well worth the experience.

DID YOU KNOW The Rep has a young friends group called The Rep Set? Perhaps you know someone who would enjoy going to the theatre with this dynamic group of young professionals. If so, please point them to www.repstl.org/repset or have them call the Box Office. Special Rep Set ticket packages are now available for Saturday 9:00 p.m. Mainstage performances.

WE HAVE A NEW service available in the lobby this season—Café at The Rep. In addition to the full bar service, we will now have a selection of gourmet salads, sandwiches and freshly-baked items available both before each performance and during intermission. We’ve included a coupon for 25% off a salad or sandwich for you to give the Café a try. We are thrilled with this delicious new offering to enhance your theatre-going experience. Enjoy!