Sunday in the Park With George Audience Guide, Baylor Theatre

BaylorTheatre presents

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE Music & Lyrics

by Stephen Sondheim Book by James Lapine

e d i u G e c n e i d u A

Director’s Notes Each semester, the Musical Theatre Workshop class puts on a CaBEARet performance to raise money for our Musical Theatre scholarship. Musical Theatre Workshop is a laboratory space for our performers in the Musical Theatre Concentration to get specific training in the synergy of Musical Theatre. Our class project this semester focused on musicality—learning to sing Stephen Sondheim could be a class on its own —and communicating through music. The main course objective: to develop collaborative skills to work and create a production as part of an ensemble.

More specifically, students have been asked to: ✍ Demonstrate application of subtext, interpretation, and physicality ✍ Explore motivation and objectives of the character(s) in song ✍ Develop character in song, including researching time and place as it relates to context in the show or in a created scenario ✍ Explore lyrics as a monologue or dialogue: evidence of character specificity, demonstrating understanding of given circumstances or self-references/my-story ✍ Demonstrate successful synthesis of vocal and acting technique in a concert musical for a public performance ✍ Demonstrate ability to sing in a musical theatre choral setting ✍ Demonstrate proper rehearsal etiquette, techniques, and habits ✍ Listen and apply feedback, give constructive feedback

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Director’s Notes Sunday in the Park with George is a fictitious portrayal of George Seurat’s creation of the masterpiece, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” Creators Sondheim and Lapine collaborated to craft the story of this French post-Impressionist painter, Georges Seurat. The first act follows Seurat as he observes and interacts with characters from the painting, most notably his muse and love, Dot. The second act follows Seurat’s greatgrandson George as he attempts to be an artist in a commercial world.

This class project was put together quite literally “bit by bit” over 6 weeks of classes and lessons. The class meets for 50 minutes two times a week, making this an ambitious project for such a condensed schedule. There is no budget and the world has been created through lots of support by our technical theatre colleagues.

I often think of performing in three parts, the way Wesley Balk teaches it: Vocal, Facial and Kinesthetic. In order to fully grasp the synergy of these three elements, one must first disentangle them. The project this semester is focused on the Vocal part of musical theatre (though the facial and kinesthetic can never be completely removed). The cast is wearing concert blacks with minimal props/costumes to emphasize the storytelling through music. Some costumes/props have been added to help you track with the characters, but the focus on harmonies, dynamics and vocal characterizations in the students’ training will allow for stronger integration when they tackle fully-realized productions.

As we will hear in act 2…

Art isn’t easy.

Every minor detail is a major decision, have to keep things in scale have to hold to your vision.

Thank you for joining us in our concert musical! As we attempt to keep things in scale and hold to our vision, we hope you enjoy this concert of Sunday In The Park With George.

Go. Be. Do. -Lauren Weber, director

The Creators Stephen Sondheim

Click each creator’s image to see their latest work!

Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist born and raised in NYC known for his contributions to musical theatre. He is revered for his brilliance in his contributions to theatre with works that weave complexity and more harrowing elements of the human experience with creative agility.

At a young age, he received encouragement from a neighbor, the great lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who became a surrogate father of sorts to the budding artist. He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition. After graduation he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt.

Notably, he wrote the music and lyrics for Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Follies, and Company, all of which he won the Tony Award for Best Score of a Musical for. Other popular works include Assassins, Merrily We Roll Along, and the lyrics for West Side Story. The 91-year-old never quits; he is currently developing a new musical with playwright David Ives called Square One.

James Lapine Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. With roots in film and visual arts, the Ohio native trained at CalArts as a photographer and graphic designer before moving on to teach design at the Yale School of Drama. He dipped his toe in the theatrical waters with an Off-Broadway production of Gertrude Stein’s Photograph before moving to become the leading playwright and director he is today.

Collaborating often with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn, Lapine’s work emphasizes thematic nuance. His work won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times: Into the Woods, Falsettos, & Passion, all projects done in collaboration with Sondheim. His next project will be the musical Flying Over Sunset with composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Michael Korie at the Lincoln Center Theater starting November 11.

Hello, George...

The Painter, Georges Seurat

Georges Seurat (1859-1891) was a painter whose journey

with color began in his middle-class home in Paris. After Impressionism began to make a mark, Seurat developed a new mode of painting called pointillism based on scientific findings on color. He found if he painted tiny dots, one color at a time, then the eye at a distance would fuse them together optically, making their colors more vibrant than the old method of mixing paint pigments.

Just as our composer Stephen Sondheim made innovations in his artistic field, Seurat defied norms and methodologies in the name of creativity.

Seurat he did not receive the acclaim while alive like Sondheim did; our Frenchman never sold a painting in his lifetime.

One such subversion of expectation and tradition was Seurat’s decision to paint peasants and the working class as opposed to the traditional royal and upper class subjects of visual art. His first major painting, “Bathers at Asnières” (1883), used such subjects going about their everyday life by the Seine.

His most renowned work today is his painting “On A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” created over the period 1884 to 1886 from over 200 sketches and oil studies. It was shown at the eighth and last Impressionist Exhibition, leading to the withdrawal of submissions from Monet, Renoir, and Sisley. The mural-sized piece can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago today and lives on eternally in the musical before you, Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George.

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To see Seurat’s work Today!

Overview More than a hundred years ago, artist Georges Seurat challenged his audience to experience the art of painting from a new perspective. When the musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine opened in 1984, it too presented a challenging concept for theatre audiences.

Sunday in the Park with George is a musical, entirely fictitious, using Seurat’s life as its inspiration.

The show examines the creation of a single painting:

“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”

The first act begins with a blank canvas, in an island park on the Seine in George—Sunday in 1884. We follow the troubled relationship between George and his mistress Dot, watching it unravel as George explores a new art form, pointillism. The crowd of bourgeois 19th century Parisians in the park become the subjects for Seurat’s painting. By the end of the act, we see the finished painting.

Act II is an exploration of how Seurat’s painting has impacted future generations and how art, like love, can reverberate through time. Set in 1984 New York, Seurat’s greatgrandson is a modern-day conceptual artist, facing creative bankruptcy. Although he is a consummate salesman of his own work, the process of making art has lost its meaning for him.

Seurat’s great-grandson, George, is attempting to finance his art while losing himself as an artist. His faltering artistic vision and confidence are restored after a visit to La Grande Jatte where the impressionistic setting that inspired his great-grandfather’s work has been replaced by cubist architecture. George, the contemporary artist, is encouraged by the spirit of his greatgrandmother Dot to stop worrying about what others think and “just keep moving on.” By connecting with his past, he is able to find a direction for his future.

Throughout Sunday in the Park with George, the characters struggle with the nature of the creative process, the limitations placed on interpersonal relationships by artistic commitments, and the danger of artists responding to a fad rather than respecting their own impulses.

—The MTI Study Guide for Sunday in the Park with George.

Who’s Who? “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”

by Georges Seurat 15 9

12 13

1 2

3 5

16

11

4

10 6

7

1

2

8 14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Character Key:

Celeste #1 Celeste #2 Nurse Old Lady Franz Frieda Boatman Spot

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Soldier + Companion

Louise Yvonne Mrs. Mr. Fifi Jules Dot

Bit by Bit We are presenting a concert version of a show about a visual artist created by theatre artists. Though design elements are pared down in this presentation style, this concert version offers a unique experience to reflect upon the score from a new perspective. Every bit of this story is told in the music; listen for it!

Perspective...

“BEAUTY IS WHAT THE EYE ARRANGES.”

Throughout this show, we see things through George’s perspective. He chooses to paint Dot, boys by the Seine, and other ordinary people across a park, for he sees beauty in them. As the show progresses and he paints the painting, he is actively creating it, editing it, changing it. We see everyone onstage through George’s eyes: an artist’s eyes, the eyes of someone who struggles to lift his head from his work, the eyes of someone who fails to connect or make eye contact but most often sees beauty in what the eye arranges.

I challenge you, our lovely audience, to look at this production with the mind of an artist: imagine when things are only suggestive and not full or when there is less to see the beauty in what we arrange for you tonight.

Putting It Together: Things You Need to Know ✍ This is a concept musical.

Definition: a work of musical theatre whose book and score are structured around conveying theme or message rather than emphasizing a narrative plot.

✍ Thus, themes are more important than plot.

The music in Act One sounds like tiny dots that comprise the piece bit by bit... like auditory pointillism

✍ The setting jumps from 1884 Paris in Act One to 1984 New York in Act Two. ✍ Actors in Act 1 take on different roles in Act 2, and the music has a similar auditory pattern with slight adjustments, highlighting musically variations on a theme. ✍ The original production incorporated lots of doubling from Act One to Two. On Saturday, Dot/George are doubled with Marie/George, but on Sunday’s performance, George is a different actor in Act 1/Act 2 in order to fulfill the pedagogical needs of our students.

THEMES

Think about these as the show unfolds to your eyes, but mostly your ears.

Harmony Repetition Balance Perspective Change Dissonance Connection

Donate!

The proceeds from tonight fund our

Leta Horan & Jerry MacLauchlin Endowed Scholarship for Musical Theatre.

Throughout Sunday in the Park with George, we see the Georges grapple with the art of making art. Does one sacrifice life and connection for the sake of making a piece a masterpiece? Does one sacrifice creativity for the sake of getting paid?

Tonight, we at Baylor Theatre have contributed painstakingly bit-by-bit, piece-by-piece energy in an effort to communicate both beauty and complexity of art and thought to you tonight. But as for George,

art isn’t easy

.

Your kindness can pave the way for the Seurats, Sondheims, Lapines, and Bernadette Peters of the next generation.

For More Information: TO DONATE: TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE LETA HORAN & JERRY MACLAUCHLIN ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP

Click Here Click Here

Further Resources CLICK ANY SEURAT PAINTING TO ACCESS THE RESOURCE!

Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park With George by James Lapine Watch the Original Production!

Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Music by Mark Eden Horowitz What’s Playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre? Click to find out!

Baylor’s Musical Theatre Concentration

Production Team

CLASS INSTRUCTORS Guilherme Almeida (Music Director), Melissa Johnson (Vocal Coach), & Lauren M Weber (Director) PIANO Maggie Stith, Guilherme Almeida PERCUSSION Kobi Chiou LIGHTING DESIGN Hannah Early DRAMATURGY Ally Varitek PROJECTIONS Eduardo Velez SOUND BOARD OPERATOR Sophia Lang LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR David Allsup

Cast

SATURDAY, OCT. 2 GEORGE- Jarrod Wells DOT- Mackenzie Nelson SUNDAY, OCT. 3 GEORGE ACT 1- Sam Acey GEORGE ACT 2- Jarrod Wells DOT- Kaitlyn Bailey

Act One:

NURSE Catherine Richard OLD WOMAN Kalyssa Smith

Special Thanks:

Ryan Joyner, JoJo Percy, Josh Wilson, Jordan Rousseau, Amanda Lassetter, Adam Redmer, Erin Torkelson, Bailey Cole, DeAnna Toten Beard, Breshena Crosby, TK Stevens, Mackenzie Nelson and Jared Guidry

Act Two:

BLAIR DANIELS Macy Johnson GREENBERG Maddie Cendrick REDMOND Tess Wilson NAOMI Catherine Richard WAITRESS Ali Brady ELAINE Ally Varitek

JULES Jaydon Nget

HARRIET Sara Beth Dowell

YVONNE Lauryn Bedford

BILLY David Aubin

CELESTE #1 Ally Varitek CELESTE #2 Ali Brady BOATMAN Connor Truitt LOUIS Calder Meis LOUISE Emily Arden Seggerman SPOT Tess Wilson FIFI Megan Turpin

FRIEDA Sara Beth Dowell FRANZ Andy Kanz

BETTY Emily Arden Seggerman DENNIS Connor Truitt LEE RANDOLPH Lauryn Bedford ALEX Jaydon Nget

CHORUS Hannah Charles,

Sanders Markham, Jared Guidry, Andy Kanz, Megan Turpin, Kalyssa Smith, Calder Meis

MR. Jared Guidry MRS. Maddie Cendrick SOLDIER David Aubin CHORUS Hannah Charles, Macy Johnson, Sanders Markham

k te ri a V y ll :A y B d te ra u C k. ore of my wor Click to see m