Picture a painting so intricate, so rich with human life, that based on a single still image, you are able to construct an entire story. Well, that’s exactly what American composer Stephen Sondheim saw in the French painting “A Sunday On La Grande Jatte” by impressionist painter Georges Seurat. The character of George is based on Seurat, with the first act of the musical detailing his process in completing the painting while juggling personal relationships and responsibilities.
The painting showcases a lush green park with individuals dressed in 19th century clothing gazing out at the water, playing with dogs and children running through a summer scene.
Stephen Sondheim’s two-time Tony Award-winning musical “Sunday in the Park With George” will be gracing the Idaho Shakespeare Festival stage from July 11 to August 2.
The show is filled with intricate details, including over 10,000 lyrics to memorize in total, but actors Jillian Kates (Dot, George’s mistress/Marie, George’s grandmother) and Alex Syiek (George) are no strangers to performing alongside each other.
Across nearly eighteen seasons, Kates and Syiek have acted together in various plays, such as “The Music Man”, “Murder on the Orient Express” and “The Great Comet of 1812”.
While Syiek and Kates might have a performing past filled with respect and camaraderie, their characters in “Sunday in the Park with George”, George and Dot, have a much more complicated relationship.
“They are definitely twin flames. They come to each other and it’s this hot, sparky, passionate romance,” Kates said. “She gets what he does [art] and loves what he does and how good he is at doing it. There’s definitely a ‘talent crush’ aspect.”
However, Kates continued, Dot is passionate and ambitious with her own set of needs, which George neglects time and again to focus on his art.
“This [relationship] very much reminds me of relationships I’ve had with other Scorpios,” Syiek joked of George’s relationship with Dot. “This first act is accelerated, you see so much life in the course of an hour and twenty minutes that it’s really important that Jill and I came in with this long-standing friendship and relationship. Off the bat, physically, the audience can sense that we are familiar with each other.”
Due to George and Dot’s intricate relationship, with duets encompassing everything from love and admiration to frustration and loss, Syiek and Kates’ past experience working together allows this depth to shine through.
With a grand total of eighteen songs, Syiek highlighted “Putting it Together”, a song that depicts the fast-paced and often chaotic nature of creating art, as one of the most challenging numbers.
Syiek described the song as a “mile a minute, word-bending song”, with Kates interjecting “I do not envy you”.
Syiek explained how staging the show has helped him in the memorization process.
“To pair movement with it and intention, involving other people, that always locks things in,” he said.
Aside from the challenge of memorizing a surplus of lyrics, some roles in the play, such as Kates, are double-cast. Kates shared that she’s never played a character as old as Marie, 98. While it may be difficult to see the similarities between a passionate young woman like Dot, and the 98-year-old woman we meet in Act 2, Kates sees a connection between them.
Marie is meant to be a callback of sorts to Dot, as her grandson George, who is the descendant of the George we meet in Act 1, seeks artistic inspiration from her.
“They’re both very spunky. Even Marie, she’s got a zest written into the way she speaks. I see a lot of that in Dot,” she said.
A key theme throughout “Sunday in the Park with George” is the artist struggle. Sondheim prompts the viewer to ask themself: How much will you sacrifice for your art? When does creating art shift from a passion to being all-consuming?
The song, “Finishing The Hat” hits home for Syiek as a performing artist, constantly striving to find a work-life balance.
“And when the woman that you wanted goes /You can say to yourself, ‘Well, I give what I give’ / But the woman who won’t wait for you knows / That, however you live / There’s a part of you always standing by.”
“When I get lost in creating something, composing something, writing something, and then I take a moment and step back and I realize, oh, hours have passed,” Syiek said of his real-world experience balancing his relationship with art. “My wife is sitting on the couch and I’m like ‘Okay, focus, pay attention, go back in.’”
Syiek described the rehearsal process as both wonderful and taxing, noting that it pulls so much from personal life experience. When they are in the throes of the rehearsal process, both Syiek and Kates shared it is often difficult to set aside time for other aspects of life.
As far as hard-hitting moments go for Kates, “We Do Not Belong Together”, a song sung by George and Dot, takes the cake. The duet showcases the peak of Dot’s frustration with George as she realizes she will always be a second priority to his passion.
“You will not accept who I am / I am what I do / Which you knew / Which you always knew / Which I thought you were a part of!”
“‘We Do Not Belong Together’ is hitting all kinds of chords in here,” Kates said, gesturing to her heart. “It’s therapy coming out — I don’t even know what relationships I’m grieving.”
With so many emotions circulating in this musical, it felt only fitting to ask the age-old question: What’s your sign?
Or, better yet, what would your characters’ sign be?
“Dot is a true Leo sun. She’s just got that lion in her,” Kates said. For Syiek, George is a Scorpio through and through.
You don’t have to wait for the stars to align to see this award-winning musical. Come experience Kates and Syiek in Sondeheim’s sparkling musical, “Sunday in the Park with George”, July 11 through August 2 at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival.
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So beautifully written! Great insights!