Winner of eight Academy Awards and five Tony Awards, including Best Picture and Best Play, Peter Shaffer's Amadeus pieces together actual events surrounding Mozart's life and death to create a fictitious tale of murder and envy, underscored by the great composer's music. The play begins in the year 1823, thirty-two years after Mozart's early death. The lights come up on a man in his 70's, it is Antonio Salieri, a prominent composer of the Enlightenment, and Mozart's rival. Announcing that it is his last day on earth and that he has a confession to make, Salieri conjures the "Ghosts of the distant Future" to experience his final composition, entitled The Death of Mozart; or, Did I Do It?

Amadeus was rewritten extensively by Sir Peter Shaffer in 1999 for a revivial production and again in 2003 for the publication of the script, MMSC will perform the newest version of this exciting play.

To encourage audiences to better understand the process of Shaffer’s rewriting of his successsful script, MMSC will conduct pre-show discussions before each performance of Amadeus. Entitled Amadeus: Fact or Fiction, these discussions will be held from 7:00 to 7:30 each night. Key elements concerning this new version of the play as well as the music of Mozart and Salieri, and the historical context into which Shaffer placed his characters and plot will be discussed. A great opportunity to interact with both the director and cast members about MMSC’s production of Amadeus. The performance will begin at 8 PM each evening.

Peter Shaffer was born in Liverpool, England, in 1926, along with his twin brother, Anthony, who would also become a writer. He worked a number of odd jobs including coal miner before producing his first play in 1954. Following his success with Equus, Shaffer wrote Amadeus in 1979 that won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics Award for the London production. When the show moved to Broadway, it won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play and, like Equus, ran for over 1000 performances. In 1984 Milos Forman directed the movie version of Amadeus that won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture.

MMSC’s production of Amadeus is directed by Christine Crawfis and the strong cast is headed by Don Wildy as Salieri and Rick Meyer as Mozart. Supporting cast members include Elizabeth Barrows, RoseMarie Navarra, Kathleen Crampton, John Lefever, Douglas Koop, Douglas Woolley and Bruce Pileggi.

Cast of MMSC's Production of Amadeus Left to right: Elizabeth Barrows, Douglas Woolley, Don Wildy, RoseMarie Navarra, John LeFever and Kathleen Crampton. Not pictured: Rick Meyer, Douglas Koop and Bruce Pileggi Photo: Marlis Momber