{"id":909,"date":"2019-12-15T11:02:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-15T16:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/?p=909"},"modified":"2019-12-15T11:02:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T16:02:32","slug":"thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

A young woman named Ellie Blight was writing a paper on \u201cSunday in the Park\u201d and asked me some questions:<\/p>\n

So \u2014 I participated in a reading of just the first act a year at least before the Broadway production. It wasn\u2019t completely finished and was only the first act, and I read several parts. Not all the music\/songs were written. Then there was a production off-Broadway at Playwright\u2019s Horizons, which I think I auditioned for \u2014 can\u2019t remember. I didn\u2019t get the part. That show was only the first act. Then time passed, Steve and James worked and wrote and they begin rehearsal for the Broadway production, with a longer rehearsal period than usual so they could continue to work on the script and music. I think I again auditioned but was not cast, and wasn\u2019t available because I was doing another show that didn\u2019t close until the Sunday in the Park rehearsals had been going on for two weeks. Then I got a call at the end of one week, asking me to come in and audition. It was sort of All About Eve \u2014 hush-hush. I was sent the scene and the song to learn, and had the weekend to work on it. On a Monday (I think) I went in to audition while the cast was on lunch break. There were two or three of us auditioning to replace Charlotte Moore, who was rehearsing the part but having trouble with the singing (as I understand it. She is a friend of mine) so I went in and did the scene and sang the song. Came home. My agent called and said I got the part and to start rehearsal the next day at 10. The cast was very welcoming, and surprised when I sang out the first time thru. They had all been singing quietly to mark the part<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

that Charlotte was having trouble with. So I knew about the piece from very early on, in development stages. I was acquainted with it before there was a whole, full script. And even in previews, things were changing, being written, added, etc. It was never frozen until a week before the show opened on Broadway. By that time it had melded the disparate pieces and become what it was. It did not come full-blown like Athena from Zeus\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

As I explain above, there was no vision of the whole at the beginning. It was created in fits and starts. There was no second act on the horizon when the first act was produced off-Broadway. Probably James and Steve had talked about it, but there was no flesh on it. In rehearsal, the second act was underdeveloped and needed some of the songs that came in over the next several weeks and during previews. But the old\/modern separation made sense and was fun to work on, and continued to develop doing rehearsals and previews.<\/p>\n

The first act Yvonne was snooty, and sad because she felt unloved. Sort of basic. And was over the top and hilarious in the song No Life. Comedic. Seemed standard to me. And in the second act I based Naomi on a current woman in the art field \u2014 I didn\u2019t know her, just OF her, and made her sort of loud, and gave her a New York accent. The roles themselves did not have a connection. They were just two different people in two different eras. The connection was the overall conceit of ART.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Actors approach roles with more indescribable intuition than punters think. I can\u2019t tell you how I \u201capproached\u201d the roles. They just \u201cwere.\u201d Artistry cannot be broken down in<\/p>\n

an intellectual way, in my opinion. It either feels right or it doesn\u2019t and there\u2019s no \u201cexplaining\u201d why. But I had always immersed myself in history and paintings and theatre and music and that stuff stacks up inside you to become part of your imagination and inspiration without you specifically calling on it. It just appears.<\/p>\n

The second act of the show was received in different ways by theatergoers, but most really responded to the summation that brought the two acts together. It\u2019s really a metaphysical statement – so many possibilities. Before the second act was completely done, we were performing it in previews. There were still two major songs to be fitted in. I had friends who came during that time who were rude about the second act (not friends for long after that\u2014 you don\u2019t do that to people who are striving). It probably did feel somewhat unsatisfactory as an experience without \u201cChildren and Art\u201d, which came in a week before we opened (and previews had been going on for a couple of weeks). And I think it was also Finishing the Hat which was added during previews. So some people saw a show without either of those songs. I\u2019m sure that colored their response. But after they were added and the show settled it was heralded as a breakthrough in musical theatre.<\/p>\n

We worked on a raked stage, which was really hard on me. I had to wear sort of buskins \u2014 the soles were at least<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

four inches thick \u2014 to make me taller so that I better matched the proportions of the central lady in the painting. I was so much younger than I am now and don\u2019t know how I did it \u2014 young people can do anything with their bodies.<\/p>\n

Your calling it a theme of redemption surprises me. I wouldn\u2019t call it that. It is very much an artist\u2019s statement, and by extension a metaphor for every spirit, every person \u2014 so many possibilities. I could be wrong, but to me it is truly a paean to Art, in all its forms and in all the ways it can shape a person and a society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young woman named Ellie Blight was writing a paper on \u201cSunday in the Park\u201d and asked me some questions: So \u2014 I participated in a reading of just the first act a year at least before the Broadway production. It wasn\u2019t completely finished and was only the first act, and I read several parts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlight"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1576425755:155"],"_edit_last":["155"],"_wpac_members_redirect_to":[""],"_wpac_show_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_show_excerpt_in_search":["0"],"_wpac_nonmembers_redirect_to":[""],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"]},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A young woman named Ellie Blight was writing a paper on \u201cSunday in the Park\u201d and asked me some questions: So \u2014 I participated in a reading of just the first act a year at least before the Broadway production. It wasn\u2019t completely finished and was only the first act, and I read several parts. […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dana Ivey\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"DANA IVEY\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hekasia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"DANA IVEY\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"DANA IVEY\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447\"},\"headline\":\"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":994,\"articleSection\":[\"Highlight\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/\",\"name\":\"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dana Ivey\",\"description\":\"A Performing Arts Legacy Project site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447\",\"name\":\"DANA IVEY\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"DANA IVEY\"},\"description\":\"Dana\u2019s most recent appearance in New York was as Lady Candour in The School for Scandal by the Red Bull Theatre. Broadway: Importance of Being Earnest, Sex and Longing, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Indiscretions, Present Laughter, Sunday in the park With George, Waiting in the Wings, Marriage of Figaro, Pack of Lies, Major Barbara, Joe Egg, Heartbreak House, The Rivals, and Henry IV. She has been nominated for a Tony five times and has won three Obies and a DramaDesk Award. Off-Broadway work includes Hamlet, Driving Miss Daisy,The Savannah Disputation,The Uneasy Chair, Kindertransport, Quartermaine\u2019s Terms, Wenceslas Square, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Mrs. Warren\u2019s Profession. Regional: A Little Night Music, The Glass Menagerie, Under Milkwood, In the Summerhouse. The Miracle Worker. TV: A Child Lost Forever, A Lesson Before Dying, Mohammed Ali\u2019s Greatest Fight, Easy Street, Madame Secretary. Some Film: The Help, Addams Family, Sleepless in Seattle, Two Weeks Notice Ghost Town, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Miss Ivey was a classical music DJ for three years in Atlanta, GA. In 2008, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and received an honorary doctorate from Rollins College.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/DanaIvey.com\",\"hekasia\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/hekasia\",\"Dana Ivey\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/performingartslegacy.org\\\/iveydana\\\/author\\\/iveydana\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey","og_description":"A young woman named Ellie Blight was writing a paper on \u201cSunday in the Park\u201d and asked me some questions: So \u2014 I participated in a reading of just the first act a year at least before the Broadway production. It wasn\u2019t completely finished and was only the first act, and I read several parts. […]","og_url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/","og_site_name":"Dana Ivey","article_published_time":"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00","author":"DANA IVEY","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@hekasia","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"DANA IVEY","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/"},"author":{"name":"DANA IVEY","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/#\/schema\/person\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447"},"headline":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park","datePublished":"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/"},"wordCount":994,"articleSection":["Highlight"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/","url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/","name":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park - Dana Ivey","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-12-15T16:02:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/#\/schema\/person\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/thoughts-on-sunday-in-the-park\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Thoughts on Sunday in the Park"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/","name":"Dana Ivey","description":"A Performing Arts Legacy Project site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/#\/schema\/person\/4d17fcc68b6c9284b3ff54b8f5085447","name":"DANA IVEY","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/38034696962f7f5ed22087e8bc6f938297027c92e15bb89c27b6ff3358f19cfa?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"DANA IVEY"},"description":"Dana\u2019s most recent appearance in New York was as Lady Candour in The School for Scandal by the Red Bull Theatre. Broadway: Importance of Being Earnest, Sex and Longing, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Indiscretions, Present Laughter, Sunday in the park With George, Waiting in the Wings, Marriage of Figaro, Pack of Lies, Major Barbara, Joe Egg, Heartbreak House, The Rivals, and Henry IV. She has been nominated for a Tony five times and has won three Obies and a DramaDesk Award. Off-Broadway work includes Hamlet, Driving Miss Daisy,The Savannah Disputation,The Uneasy Chair, Kindertransport, Quartermaine\u2019s Terms, Wenceslas Square, Beggars in the House of Plenty, Mrs. Warren\u2019s Profession. Regional: A Little Night Music, The Glass Menagerie, Under Milkwood, In the Summerhouse. The Miracle Worker. TV: A Child Lost Forever, A Lesson Before Dying, Mohammed Ali\u2019s Greatest Fight, Easy Street, Madame Secretary. Some Film: The Help, Addams Family, Sleepless in Seattle, Two Weeks Notice Ghost Town, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Miss Ivey was a classical music DJ for three years in Atlanta, GA. In 2008, she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame, and received an honorary doctorate from Rollins College.","sameAs":["https:\/\/DanaIvey.com","hekasia","https:\/\/x.com\/hekasia","Dana Ivey"],"url":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/author\/iveydana\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performingartslegacy.org\/iveydana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}