Keywords

Musical Theatre, Sondheim, Lapine, Sunday in the Park with George, Actor's Process, Pointillism, Music Theory, Color Theory

Abstract

Upon receiving a role, an actor must research the major themes, concepts, and relationships associated with the play, its collaborators, and the character they are to portray. Only by layering this combination of research and analysis to the rehearsal process and performances in a detailed format can an actor cohesively transform the learned knowledge from the performer's training and research to a finished product on stage. Many forms of art are created using a similar process. This thesis will explore the similarities between the Post-Impressionist technique of pointillism and the actor's process in developing a role. Upon observing the basic process of each technique, one can conclude that the method of consistently adding many specific elements eventually creates a finished product whether it is in the form of a painting on a canvas or a performance on a stage. By paralleling these two artistic techniques, a new contribution to musical theatre is made by presenting a fresh outlook for performers in their approach to creating roles. Research on pointillism and George Seurat's painting technique when interwoven with Stephen Sondheim's techniques in music theory (specifically the examples derived from the score of Sunday in the Park with George), and compared to my technique and process as the actor playing the role of Dot in the University of Central Florida Conservatory Theatre's 2006 Spring production of Sunday in the Park with George, demonstrates how the theories of pointillism and the actor's process are clearly comparable and arguably inseparable.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2006

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Tollefson, Kristina

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

Theatre

Degree Program

Theatre

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0001380

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0001380

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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