Assassins look to accomplish American Dream in musical

To be remembered is to live forever, and in the musical “Assassins,” several notorious figures are working toward that exact goal.

USD’s theater will be performing “Assassins” April 14 through 17 and 20 through 24 on the Wayne S. Knutson main stage.

“Assassins focuses on a number of would-be and successful presidential assassins in American history, beginning with John Wilkes Booth,” said director Raimondo Genna. “Each of the assassins, in their own way, is trying to achieve what they believe to be their American dream, and they feel that they will achieve their dream by killing their respective president.”

Achieving this idea of the American dream is how they want to be remembered, he added.

The characters of the musical include notorious assassins as well as some more interpretive characters, junior theater major and assistant director Leah Geis said.

“The theme is about a group of people looking for the American dream,” Geis said. “Yes, they happen to be assassins, but it’s more important to me that they’re human. We have all of these assassins, which are the historical guide in the story line, but then we have the ensemble, the proprietor, and the balladeer, they’re like walking metaphors.”

Geis said the list of assassins includes John Wilkes Booth, Leon Czolsosz, Giuseppe Zangara, Samuel Byck, John Hinckley, Lynette “squeaky” Fromme and more.

“I play The Balladeer,” senior theater major Kristian Asfeldt said. “He is a sort of narrator character who exists outside of the historical story line. I’m a representation of the American dream, and I’m constantly encouraging others in the show to continue to pursue it.”

Geis said many actors have double meanings.

“Kit is a brighter America, the dream,” Geis said. “The proprietor is more of the seedy underbelly or like the truth of what America is really like. The ensemble is kind of an extension of the balladeer, they’re like popular public of America, and they blindly follow this American dream.”

Asfeldt said there are more lead characters in this musical than there are people in the ensemble.

“This cast is pretty average sized for a musical,” he said. “We have an ensemble of six, but about 12 leads.”

Genna said that rehearsals for “Assassins” started in February, but a lot of work was put into the musical before then.

“I actually have been working on this production for almost a year,” Geis said. “I started the analysis last semester and was supposed to continue working on it over the summer, but I was also involved in a different show last summer. It was difficult trying to figure out how in my head in two shows at once, because as an artist you put yourself in a world with one show, so it’s really hard to multitask in two worlds at once.”

Another assassin in the show hasn’t been disclosed, as a part of a twist ending, Geis added.

“Whenever I think about this show, I feel it is very good to see a show like this because it’s so conflicting and controversial but so important,” Geis said.