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Joseph Haj, Play Makers Repertory Company's producing artistic director,
discusses his role as director of "Amadeus” and previews the set March 26.
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‘Amadeus’ relies on power of music
PRC presents story of Mozarts feud
BY JOHN CHOQUETTE
STAFF WRITER
As the director of “Amadeus,' the
final show of Play Makers Repertory
Company’s 2007-08 season, Joseph
Haj is enthusiastic about his role in
the play’s production.
He’s animated, but he doesn’t
speak lightly.
“It’s huge,’ Haj said about the
size of the Amadeus cast.
But he said the number of per
formers doesn't bother him. Hasing
a large cast for the play was his
original intention.
“I wanted to do something that
could include our entire company,’
said Haj, also PlayMakers’ produc
ing artistic director. “We’re in the
rare position where we have our
own resident company.’
“Amadeus” 21-member cast will
perform the Tony Award-winning
play written by Peter Shaffer begin
ning today at 8 p.m. The show will
run until April 20.
“Amadeus,” the story of real-life
rival pianists Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart and Antonio Salieri,
opens with Salieri addressing the
audience.
Haj said the audience serves a
special role in the production as
the “ghosts of the future’ to whom
Salieri is telling his story.
Arts
Throughout the play, Salieri,
played by drama professor and
Play Makers actor Ray Dooley,
recounts how his conflict with
Mozart ultimately led to a dispute
with his god.
Haj noted how themes of jeal
ousy, obsession and humanity
bring up “big questions about our
universe and how God interacts
with us.’
“One of the great challenges of
making this play is getting God into
the room,’ he said. "It’s the sounds
and the lights and Mozart's music
that does this.’
Considering that the play is
about dueling musicians, Salieri
and Mozart, played by Vince
Nappo, don’t disappoint They will
act at a piano that was especially
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2008
ATTEND 'AMADEUS'
Time: Various times today-Apri! 20
Location: Paul Green Theatre
Info: www.ptaymakersrep.org
crafted for the production during
a large part of the show.
The thrust stage of the Paul
Green Theatre will host mirrored
columns that move to change the
size of the space from scene to
scene.
Haj said these changes repre
sent the past and present, as well
as the feeling of motion the play
brings.
“The play doesn’t want to wait,"
he said. “It wants to keep a huge
sense of forward momentum."
Haj emphasized the importance
of these scene changes, which are
not seen as clearly in the Academy
Award-winning movie from 1984
of the same name.
“The play so clearly exists in a
theater. The mistake would have
been trying to make the play into
a movie," Haj said.
And so audiences shouldn’t
expect the play to be exactly like the
movie, Haj said. The play inspired
the film, but Shaffer, who wrote the
screenplay as well, crafted the two
very differently.
And Dooley said he is convinced
that PlayMakers’ rendition of the
performance will reflect the quality
of the script.
“The play is one of the great
pieces of theater written in the last
50 years or so,” Dooley said.
“Anytime you have an oppor
tunity to work on a script this
wonderful or see it, it’s a cause for
rejoicing.’
Contact the Arts Editor
at artsdeskfa unc.edu.
5