A Musical Love Story, SUNDAY IN THE PARK in Winston-Salem

What better for the month of love than a musical love story? 

Sunday in the Park with George opens Friday, Feb. 20, at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) and runs for two weekends at the Thrust Theatre in Performance Place on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem. Performances will be at 8 p.m. Feb. 20-21 and Feb. 26-28 and at 2 p.m. on Feb. 22. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students, and can be purchased either by calling the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 or online at www.uncsa.edu/performances. 

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, Sunday in the Park with George is a complex work that revolves around 19th century French painter George Seurat, who founded the neo-Impressionist art of Pointillism, as he is immersed in painting his masterpiece (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte), and Seurat’s model and lover, Dot. 

The first act of the musical is set during a series of Sundays, from 1884-1886, in a park on an island in the Seine River, just outside of Paris and Seurat’s studio. The second act is set at an American art museum and on the island in 1984. Thematically, the story captures the passion artists must have and the sacrifices they must make, as Seurat and his great-grandson struggle with their challenges. 

“This is one of the most challenging productions I have ever worked on,” said Gerald Freedman, dean of the UNCSA School of Drama and director of the show, which will feature members of Studio IV, the college senior class. “The art of making art, is putting it together.” In order to present the Seurat painting “which is so critical to the story” the production will utilize projection technology in a way the school has never done before. This new technology has required all participants in the project to take new and creative approaches to their roles.

Ryan Wineinger, scenic designer for the production and college senior in the UNCSA School of Design and Production, said, “As the entire artistic team is aware, the challenge has been to create a show experience that is both true to Seurat’s vision and true to OUR vision.”

Originally directed on Broadway by James Lapine, Sunday in the Park with George was originally produced on Broadway by The Shubert Organization and Emanuel Azenberg. The production was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and despite winning only two design Tonys, the production will forever be remembered for its performances by Mandy Patinkin as Seurat and Bernadette Peters as Dot. Sunday in the Park with George went on to win the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and several Drama Desk Awards.

Patinkin will be a featured guest at UNCSA on Wednesday, Feb. 25, when UNCSA will celebrate Gerald Freedman’s nearly 20 years as dean of the School of Drama with a gala event that will raise funds for the newly established Gerald Freedman Endowed Professorship in Drama.

Gerald Freedman, dean of the School of Drama since 1991, is an Obie Award-winner and the first American director invited to direct at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, England. Regarded nationally for his productions of classic drama, musicals, operas, new plays and television, Freedman served as leading director of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival from 1960-71 - the last four years as artistic director. Additionally he was co-artistic director of John Houseman’s The Acting Company from 1974-77 and artistic director of the American Shakespeare Theatre during 1978-79, as well as artistic director of Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1985-1997. He has staged 26 of Shakespeare’s plays, along with dozens of other world classics. Before coming to UNCSA, Freedman taught at Yale and The Juilliard School.

The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. UNCSA is located at 1533 S. Main St., Winston-Salem. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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