photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The cast of "Brewed Ambition" runs through a musical number at a Lawrence Opera Theatre rehearsal on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Theatre Lawrence.

At Tuesday’s Lawrence Opera Theatre rehearsal, Colin Bradt belts it out like only a classically trained tenor can.

“Shoot for the moon, and we’ll go so far!”

The show, “Brewed Ambition,” is about a coffee shop busboy who aspires to be the cafe’s top dog, but the lyrics seem just as fitting for the local opera company itself, which is one of two contenders for a nationwide performing arts award.

Earlier this month, the nonprofit arts competition The American Prize announced Lawrence Opera Theatre as a finalist in its community opera category for a previous production of Rossini’s “La Cenerentola.” It’s competing with an opera company in Walnut, California, for the prize, and the winner will be announced sometime in the coming weeks.

“We’re really excited about that, and really proud of this little company here in Lawrence, Kansas,” said Joseph DeSota, one of the company’s directors, after Tuesday’s rehearsal.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Joseph DeSota, director of Lawrence Opera Theatre’s production of “Brewed Ambition,” instructs the cast during a rehearsal on Tuesday, July 28, 2026.

DeSota is currently directing “Brewed Ambition,” a new musical spin on “Macbeth” by Michael Turnblom and BK Wells that follows Bradt’s busboy character on his cutthroat quest to become the head barista. It’s not the type of show you might expect a nationally recognized opera company to do, but DeSota said more and more opera companies are experimenting with different types of performances.

“One of the things about opera today is that opera companies are branching out and doing more experimental works,” DeSota said. “And so you’ll see classic musical theater productions happening at opera companies, or even more experimental works, like this one that we’re doing:” a new musical that uses more operatic voices.

Lawrence Opera Theatre makes a point of doing shows that are accessible even to people who know little about opera, he said. And the show that earned The American Prize nod, “La Cenerentola,” was also an example of that – despite dating back to the 1810s.

“‘Cenerentola’ is a lot of fun because there’s a lot of comedic timing in it,” DeSota said. “And so it’s a really great show for people who have never seen an opera before, because it is more fun than they might expect, so it doesn’t have that stuffy operatic feel.”

“La Cenerentola,” a retelling of “Cinderella” composed by Rossini in the 1810s, was actually the first show that DeSota directed for Lawrence Opera Theatre. He chose to set his version in the 1980s, with aesthetics inspired by high school movies like “The Breakfast Club.” “So, when they rode to the ball, they were going to a prom, and all sorts of ’80s dresses and things like that,” he said.

He put a new spin on another classic show last season: Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi,” a dark comedy about a family’s attempt to rewrite a wealthy relative’s will.

“It’s a very timeless plot that people can really connect with, the sort of greed of the family that you see and trying to decide who’s going to get what in the will, and you see that all the time in real life,” DeSota said. It’s so timeless, in fact, that instead of 13th-century Florence, DeSota set it in modern-day New Jersey in a family with ties to the mafia. “And that worked perfectly,” he said.

“We like to choose either new ways to present an older work, or, like you’re seeing with ‘Brewed Ambition,’ new works that we present to people as well, to bring different people in to see opera that might not see it otherwise.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Lawrence Opera Theatre maestro Raffaele Cipriano conducts the cast of “The Crucible” on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Theatre Lawrence. Standing at left is artistic director Hugo Vera.

Representing different types of music is important, too, said Raffaele Cipriano, who was the maestro for the production of “La Cenerentola.”

“We always strive to give kind of a mix of musical styles,” he said. “… We are trying to give something interesting to all the possible palates that like opera and vocal music.”

After the “Brewed Ambition” rehearsal wraps up, Cipriano gets ready to rehearse a darker and more serious show, “The Crucible.” It’s an adaptation of the classic Arthur Miller play about the Salem witch trials, and its modern style appeals to him.

“It’s a fascinating opera, and it’s very challenging,” Cipriano said.

Before the singers start working on this difficult piece, Hugo Vera, who helped found Lawrence Opera Theatre more than 15 years ago, tells them: “This has been a work that I’ve been wanting to do for years.”

Vera himself is part of “The Crucible” cast, playing Judge Danforth, and he’s appeared in dozens of operatic roles in the U.S. and abroad, including at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. But Lawrence Opera Theatre’s singers also include music students from the University of Kansas and other universities, educators and other local classically trained performers.

“One of the things that I love about working with Lawrence Opera Theatre is that we have community members, we have young students, we have students that are within their graduate work … one of the folks who is starring in ‘The Crucible’ is a professor. And so we see a wide variety of types of singers in these productions, and everyone can come together to make this creative piece together,” said DeSota. “That’s one of the things I love about working with this company, is that you get to work with all these types of singers that are coming together to build this production.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Lawrence Opera Theatre maestro Raffaele Cipriano conducts the cast of “The Crucible” on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Theatre Lawrence.

Cipriano thinks the recent finalist nod just goes to show how well all of those talents can work together.

“It kind of speaks about how this group really collaborates to put together a great show, because an opera is many, many parts,” Cipriano said. “And to be selected as one of the finalists means that every single part was working well – the musical part, the orchestra, the singing, the staging, the costumes.”

It also comes together quickly. The new season’s shows are just beginning rehearsals now, but they’ll be ready to perform in a couple of weeks.

Lawrence Opera Theatre’s 2026 season kicks off on Aug. 1 with a free “Tunes and Brews” concert at 7 p.m. at 23rd Street Brewery, featuring classic showtunes and jazz standards. After that, a “micro operas” show will be held Aug. 7 at Maceli’s; “Brewed Ambition” will be having its staging premiere on Aug. 13 and 15 at Theatre Lawrence; and “The Crucible” will be performed Aug. 14 and 16, also at Theatre Lawrence. For showtimes and ticket information, visit lawrenceopera.org/tickets.

“Come to the shows, bring a friend, and you will have fun,” Cipriano said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Colin Bradt, front, rehearses a scene from “Brewed Ambition” at a Lawrence Opera Theatre rehearsal on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, at Theatre Lawrence.