- By Kitchen Theatre
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The Mozart Mystery tells the story of three American girls - Anna (Erin Rieger), Susanna (Erin Hilgartner) and Bettina (Sophie Potter) - on a trip to Salzburg, Austria with their Mozart-obsessed Uncle Wolfie (Rik Daniels). What better year to visit than on the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s birth! Uncle Wolfie’s tour of Salzberg includes everything Mozart, and he knows his way around. But when they end up in a place even he has never been, he remembers a strange tale their great-grandmother told him many years before.
As a little girl, their great-grandmother and her uncle Mortimer discovered a mysterious opera house located on “a street that wasn’t on the map”. Bettina is fascinated. Anna is skeptical. Susanna is ready to for anything. Somehow the girls become separated from their uncle and stumble upon this story-book opera house. Inside is a company of opera singers and an old mystery. The exciting adventure that follows is accompanied by favorite selections from Mozart operas replete with new lyrics and unanticipated settings.
“A great way to introduce new audiences to opera, celebrate Mozart and kick-off our 2006-07 Family Fare season. Hearing this music in the intimate Kitchen Theatre Company space is very exciting,” says Artistic Director and playwright Rachel Lampert.
Playwright/lyricist/director Rachel Lampert, who also serves as KTC’s Artistic Director, has authored many original FAMILY FARE productions (I Have a Song to Sing, O!, Winter Tales, The Odyssey Part I, Science Fair, A December Suite, The Sisters Fitzenstarts Fall Recital, The Emmett & Hambone Stories and Fools! Schmools!) and adaptations (A Christmas Carol, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado).
Jesse Bush co-directs with Lampert and also serves as the Kitchen Theatre Company’s Assistant Artistic Director. His recent directing credits at the KTC include The Drawer Boy and Two Rooms. He is well known to KTC audiences as an actor originating roles in The Angle of the Sun and Tony & the Soprano as well as playing Jim in The Glass Menagerie.
Richard Montgomery (I Have a Song to Sing,O!, Precious Nonsense, Master Class, Tony & the Soprano, The Angle of the Sun) serves as music director and accompanies the performances at the piano.
The lighting design for the production is by Melissa Thompson and the costume design is by Hannah Kochman. Set coordinator for the production is Paul Heckathorn.
The Mozart Mystery features Rik Daniels, Alan Clugston, Jessica Flood (Get Off, Tony and the Soprano, Precious Nonsense), Mark Lawrence, Ithaca College students Peter Gray (Get Off) and Diana Yourke making her KTC debut. Ithaca High School Students Katie Lane (I Have A Song to Sing O!) and Jodi Zhao also making her KTC debut. Playing the children are Boynton Middle School students Sophie Potter and Erin Rieger and Cayuga Heights Elementary seven-year old Erin Hilgartner, the youngest actor to ever appear in a Family Fare production, in her Kitchen Theatre debut.
Kitchen Theatre Company’s FAMILY FARE season includes The Mozart Mystery presented September/October 2006, and two sequels to productions of last season: Rebecca Returns, the continuation of last year’s Winter Tales, to be presented in December 2006, and in February/March 2007 The Odyssey, Part II. FAMILY FARE is sponsored by Viva Taqueria Tompkins Trust Company, Vector Magnetics, Wegmans and The Cat’s Pajamas.
Performance Dates:
September 23, 2006, Saturday at 1:00 pm
September 23, 2006, Saturday at 3:00 pm
September 24, 2006, Sunday at 1:00 pm (PRESS OPENING)
September 30, 2006, Saturday at 1:00 pm
September 30, 2006, Saturday at 3:00 pm
October 1, 2006, Sunday at 1:00 pm
October 7, 2006, Saturday at 1:00 pm
October 7, 2006, Saturday at 3:00 pm
October 8, 2006, Sunday at 1:00 pm
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