The Majestic Theater is well on its way to fulfilling a vision to bring outstanding international artists to Gettysburg while experimenting with important content that highlights the creative potential of its newly renovated flex cinema.
As the first in a series of live shows about women musicians scheduled to appear there over the next few months, acclaimed theatre artist Sylvia Milo’s The Other Mozart, directed by Isaac Byrne, runs through Feb. 15. It is a lovely work of art based on the story of child prodigy and virtuoso Maria Anna Mozart (also known as Nannerl).
Earlier this week, a documentary film entitled Mozart’s Sister screened in the 136-seat performance space — an apt and complementary prelude to The Other Mozart that opened two days later.
Directed by Austrian filmmaker Madeleine Hetherton-Miau and narrated by British conductor Alma Deutscher, the film features appearances by Milo along with music scholars, researchers and conductors, as well as lovely performances of some of Mozart’s music.
In 20th-century Europe, young female musicians were permitted to tour only until they reached a marriageable age. Records indicate that the Mozart children composed music at play and performed with their father on tour for several years. But when Nannerl reached her late teens, it became as scandalous as prostitution for the young woman to perform in public. So, she was left at home with her mother where she continued to practice and composed her own music.
Unfortunately, none of Nannerl’s compositions nor the letters that she wrote to her brother and father survived, but she kept a diary and saved many letters from her father and brother, as well as some of Wolfgang’s compositions.
Milo attended the Majestic’s final showing of the documentary film Tuesday night and sat for a question-and-answer session after. One of the topics she discussed was that an article she wrote for The Guardian in 2016 about the lost genius of Nannerl inspired Hetherton-Miau to reach out to her.
In the film, and in the after-discussion, Polish-born Milo said that her inspiration to create The Other Mozart sparked in 2006 when she saw a small photo of Austrian painter Della Croce’s Portrait of the Mozart Family in Vienna. Both Nannerl’s and Wolfgang’s hands rested on the harpsicord keyboard, and Milo felt moved to find out everything she could about Mozart’s sister.
After years of on-again, off-again research, it took the theater artist two years to write the monodrama — presented through the gaze of a woman — that is now in its 10th year.
“I wish I would have known about her when I was a little girl … how I wish great women from the past were known,” Milo said. “I knew she had a right to exist in such a big way.”
Today The Other Mozart has been performed over 300 times across the globe in London, Munich, Hong Kong, Vienna, Salzburg, and Shanghai and across the U.S., winning two New York Innovative Theatre awards including Outstanding Solo Performance by Milo.
Majestic Theater Executive Director Brett W. Messenger said he curated the play to be performed in the retrofitted flex cinema, instead of in the main auditorium, to facilitate bringing more important works to Gettysburg.
“We are doing lots of experimentation at The Majestic this winter and spring to see where we can build our capacity for serving our community, and where we can grow artistically,” Messenger said. “Our team has worked tirelessly to expand the stage, install new lights, and prepare our flex theater to welcome world-class live performances in a way it never has before!”
In another first, patrons had the opportunity to prepurchase a nice dinner served before the show in the patrons’ lounge on Opening Night of The Other Mozart with food provided by the Gettysburg College Dining Services. (Charles was the executive chef, and Vanessa, Gene and Luke provided excellent service.)
To enter the flex theater, patrons pass through the Majestic Theater Art Gallery, where the current exhibit fittingly displays eclectic artworks by 16 women inspired by other female artists such as tattoo artist Maud Wagner, modernist painter Georgia O’Keefe and American singer/songwriter Chappell Roan.
Several rows of movie-theater style seats were removed during the recent renovation to expand the flex theater stage to accommodate Milo’s costume — a stunning 18-foot mesh dress adorned with scores of letters and hidden props that serve as an ingenious, transformable setting.
Milo’s hair, designed by Courtney Bednarowski, mimics Nannerl’s towering hairstyle depicted in Della Croce’s painting. Her dress was conceived by Anna Sroka.
Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen composed the original music that created dramatic crescendos, with additional music by Marianna Martines and Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart.
The crew consisted of Nathan Davis (sound design), Janice Orlandi (period style movement direction), Magdalena Dabrowska and Miodrag Guberinic (costumes), Joshua Rose (lighting design) and Kodi Milburn (stage manager, hair and makeup).
On opening night, Milo became Nannerl reacting to her life as Mozart’s overlooked sister with poetic movement accompanied by perfectly attuned music, lighting and sound effects. In a complex and beautiful monologue, she touched on the events of Nannerl’s entire life with humor, joy, grief, and often frustration at the role she was forced to accept as a woman whose genius was denied.
One particularly heart-wrenching moment occurred when Nannerl as a 13-year-old reacted joyfully to her father writing in a letter that she was one of the most skillful pianists in Europe. Society may have prevented Nannerl from pursuing her talent into adulthood, but she never lost her joy in music.
Milo’s breathtaking play brings Nannerl’s existence to light in a very big and beautiful way; it should inspire not only emerging female musicians and artists, but women and their daughters everywhere.
Currently, she is working on Magdalene: I am the utterance of my name with percussionist Nathan Davis. Milo portrays Mary as an apostle, prostitute and goddess in a new work of transformative music theater that also challenges flawed history.
The Other Mozart continues on Friday, Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at www.gettysburgmajestic.org.
Next up in the Majestic’s series of live shows about women musicians in March, Tymisha Harris will perform the musical, Josephine: A Burlesque Cabaret Dream Play. In April, Julliard-trained violist Isabel Hagen will host two evenings of music and unique stand-up comedy.
For the latest Majestic Theater news and to sign up for email updates on performances and films, visit www.gettysburgmajestic.org. 2024-2025 Celebrity Season tickets can be purchased at the website, at 25 Carlisle St. during box office hours, or by calling (717) 337-8200.
This was an incredibly beautiful show. I’m still thinking about it this morning. Thanks to the Majestic Staff for bringing it here.
It was lovely to meet Patti at the pre-theater dinner at the Majestic, and to see this wonderful writeup of the play. The newly renovated flex theater was the perfect intimate venue for this powerful one-woman play, and this review captures the magic!
Thank you so much, Pamela! It was lovely to meet you, too!