FAC performs musical masterpiece about Seurat

Wednesday, 02 January 2008 20:18

COLORADO SPRINGS – In the past 50 years, there have only been three musicals to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: A Chorus Line, Rent  and Sunday in the Park with George. The Fine Arts Center Theatre Company will present Sunday in the Park with George , Jan. 25-Feb. 17, in the SaG?Ji Theatre.

Written and scored by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, Sunday in the Park  is a moving study of the enigmatic painter Georges Seurat that won a Pulitzer Prize for its insightful and personal examination of life through art and the artist.  Act one follows Seurat as he fights a losing battle to maintain a relationship with his mistress, Dot, as he creates his painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, amid the scorn of the artistic community. The second act takes place 100 years later, introducing us to his American descendant, also an artist, burned out and uncertain of the path he must take.

The show was specifically chosen to correspond with the FAC’s special exhibition, Impressionist and Modern Masters, on exhibit through March 9. Much of the second act is set at an art exhibition opening in a museum.

"What better piece to do at an arts center that recently completed a $30 million renovation and who is currently exhibiting one of the country finest exhibitions of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art ?" asks Alan Osburn, Producing Artistic Director of the FAC Theatre Company. Osburn, who directed last season’s Into the Woods – another Sondheim/Lapine collaboration – is directing Sunday in the Park.

On Dec. 30, the FAC Theatre Company’s Musical Director Roberta Jacyshyn earned a 2007 Denver Post  Ovation Award for "Best Orchestra" for Into the Woods; the production garnered nine nominations, including "Best Musical," "Best Ensemble," and "Best Director." In 2006, the Company earned the Ovation Award for "Best Musical" with Pirates of Penzance.

Christopher L. Sheley is the scenic designer. He won the 2006 Denver Post Ovation Award for ‘Best Set Design’ for the FAC Theatre Company’s production of Pirates of Penzance and was nominated in the same category in 2007 for Into the Woods.

The scenic designer will feature the artistry of Brian Jude Beacom, who will recreate Seurat’s paintings: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Bathing at Asnieres, along with painting over a dozen life-size, two-dimensional cut outs of various people and animals found in the La Grande Jatte  painting. Seurat painted La Grande Jatte in two years; Beacom will have four weeks.

"This is a huge undertaking," said Osburn. "We wouldn’t be doing this show if we didn’t have Brian. He’s one of the finest scenic artists in the region."

The show stars Brian R. Hutchinson as George. Hutchinson was last seen playing Chaplain White in the Arvada Center’s production of Defiance. He earned the 2006 Denver Henry Award from the Denver Theatre Guild for "Best Actor in a Musical" for his work in Assassins (yet another Sondheim-penned work) as John Wilkes Booth at the Aurora Fox Theatre. Hutchinson was a finalist for the 2006 Denver Post Ovation Award for "Best Year by an Actor," highlighted by his role in Cabaret.

The role of Dot is being played by Carmen Mock, the scene-stealing Little Red Riding Hood from Into the Woods and Mrs. Fezziwig from A Christmas Carol. Mock is a 2005 graduate of New York’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She starred as Young Tammy in the first national tour of Stand by Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story.

Sondheim was honored last September as the recipient of the Donald Sewell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre  by the Colorado Festival of World Theatre. He has written the music and/or lyrics for not only Into the Woods and Sunday in the Park, but also West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Gypsy, Company, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

More information concerning tickets sales for individuals or groups, and the Curtain Call Society can be found at csfineartscenter.org or by calling the FAC Box Office at 719.634.5583.