Sunday in the Park with George

NO Sources allowed besides the 3 plays in the link, NO CITATION NEEDED.

IN ESSAY FORM, ANSWER TWO OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS – ONE FROM GROUP A & ONE FROM GROUP B. (YOU MAY NOT ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS FROM THE SAME GROUP!)

EACHOF YOUR TWO ESSAYS SHOULD BE AT LEAST TWO PAGES IN LENGTH.

GROUP A

1. In Sunday in the Park with George, George sings to his mother, “You watch while I revise the world.” In what ways is Sunday in the Park with George a show about revising the world/revising one’s life? Be sure to use specific examples from songs to help illustrate your arguments.

2. At the beginning of Sunday in the Park with George, Dot is modeling for George. Tired, hot, bored and feeling a bit ignored, she protests, “George, there is someone in this dress!” The original script for Sunday in the Park with George included a scene in which Dot posed nude for George. In that version, the two Celestes begged George to let them pose for him, and he finally agreed, but only if they posed nude (for a different painting than the one in the show). They were offended and left. Dot, having overheard the conversation, reluctantly offered herself as a nude subject. The resulting painting became the one that Dot came and asked for, later in Act I, before she left for America. The writers felt strongly that the scene was an important one for the show, but it ended up being cut because Bernadette Peters (the actress playing Dot) was uncomfortable performing it. So – using that information as a jumping-off point…in what ways can Sunday in the Park with George be seen as an examination of objectification, and of the capacity for art – intentionally and/or unintentionally – to become an objectifying act?

GROUP B

1. Discuss the depiction of ambivalence in the work of Stephen Sondheim. Use specific examples from at least three songs. Make sure that you make reference to at least two of the four Sondheim shows we have studied in class. (That simply means that you can’t get all of your examples from the same show!) If you earlier submitted an Into the Woods paper about ambivalence, you may not use the same song you discussed in that paper as one of your examples for this response.

2. InPassion, Stephen Sondheim sets up expectations for the audience and then defies those expectations when things don’t happen in the way we think they will (or the way we think they should). Using at least two examples from the show, discuss how Sondheim sets up situations in which we are sure we know what will happen, or at least what should happen – and how he then mocks those expectations by sending the show in a different direction. Finally, discuss why you think he chooses to do this.

1-https://youtu.be/fUdfHcfjsPM

2-https://youtu.be/kqCsQCsinK4

3-https://youtu.be/6M8pxgF2NbU

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