For one thing, Dooley at 55 has a lot more acting chops than he did in the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's 1985 production. And he can draw on two decades more life experience in portraying Salieri's awed resentment of the younger composer's prodigious talent.

"Good acting is always to some degree a confessing of something about yourself in public," Dooley says. "And there's just more to confess."

Shaffer's perspective on Salieri has changed, too, Dooley notes. The 1985 production used Shaffer's second version of the script. PlayMakers is using the sixth, which has a notable twist. Instead of disguising himself as a ghost when he visits Mozart for the last time, Salieri asks his rival for forgiveness.

"The play ends the same way," Dooley says. "It just takes this very intriguing detour from what was at one point a fairly straight line. ... It goes off into a much more personal and vulnerable place"

"Amadeus" opens for previews Wednesday and runs through April 20. Tickets are $10 to $40. Details: 962-7529, www.playmakersrep.org.

Back to Mamet

Dooley is not the only one revisiting an old role. Ghost & Spice Productions will offer a double déjà vu when David Ring and Jordan Smith perform David Mamet's "The Duck Variations." The duo portrayed Mamet's elderly, philosophizing duck watchers for Raleigh Ensemble Players in 1996. Ring also played the same role in REP's 1983 production.

The one-act is part of a Mamet double bill with "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," running April 4-19 at Durham's Common Ground Theatre. Tickets are $12 to $14; half-price on Thursdays. Details: (888) 239-9253, www.cgtheatre.com.

Of stage and screen

If PlayMakers' 2006 production of "God's Man in Texas" made you a David Rambo convert, you can check out the playwright's latest script -- and the writer himself -- at a series of coming events.

PlayMakers has teamed with Deep Dish Theater and the Johnston/Carolina Scholars for a staged reading of "The Ice-Breaker" at Deep Dish in Chapel Hill's University Mall. This love story with a scientific twist stars Helen Hagan and Tom Marriott in shows at 7:30 p.m. today, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $7. Details: 968-1515, www.deepdishtheater.org.

Rambo will attend a sold-out reception at 6 p.m. Sunday at Il Palio at Chapel Hill's Siena Hotel.

Rambo, who writes for "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," will join UNC instructors Joan Darling ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Stephen Neigher ("Barney Miller"), Bill Svanoe ("The Six Million Dollar Man") and David Sontag ("The Paper Chase") for a screenwriting forum at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Center for Dramatic Art. It's free; call 962-7529 for reservations.

'Justice' continued

Also at UNC, the yearlong "Criminal/Justice: The Death Penalty Examined" project continues tonight through Saturday and April 5-6 with Justice Theater Project's "Still ... Life, An Exploration of a Killing State, North Carolina" at Swain Hall. Shows are at 8 p.m.; 2 p.m. April 6. Tickets are $12-$15; pay what you can tonight. Details: 215-0889, www.carolinacreativecampus.org.

The stage adaptation of the film "Dead Man Walking" (April 11-15) and Apex actor Mike Wiley's "Witness to an Execution" (April 23-27) are also part of the project.

Student choreographer

Leesville Middle School student Megan Andrews' "Bach for Six" has been chosen for the emerging choreographers' program at the Southeastern Regional Ballet Association annual festival in High Point April 30-May 4. Raleigh Dance Theatre will perform the 14-year-old's creation at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday at Fletcher Opera Theater, Progress Energy Center, Raleigh. The show will also include Act II of "Swan Lake" and other works. Tickets are $10 to $12. Details: 834-1058, www.raleighdance.org.

A funny showdown

Eight class clowns from Duke University take on a team from UNC-CH in the second round of RooftopComedy's National College Comedy Competition at 9 p.m. April 3 at DSI Comedy Theater in Carrboro. Tickets are $10. Four finalists from the original field of 32 teams will compete in a live webcast from Aspen May 30-31 at www.rooftopcomedy.com. Online voters will pick the winner.