Front Porch Theatricals presents ‘Sunday in the Park with George’

The show, Zionts said, is about “making art.”

Spend a few minutes with Nancy Zionts discussing art and theater and she’ll make it known there’s talent here in her backyard.

“Pittsburgh has all the talents its needs,” she said. “You don’t need to go anywhere for anything. It’s all here.”

Zionts knows of what she speaks. In 2011 she joined Front Porch Theatricals, founded two years earlier by her husband, the late Leon Zionts and friend Bruce Smith. Since its creation, the theater company has produced more than 20 shows, and every actor and director has had a Pittsburgh connection.

“It’s very important for us,” Zionts said.

Another thing that’s important for the company, she said, is art for art’s sake.

Both of those principles are on clear display with Front Porch’s newest production, “Sunday in the Park with George,” being staged August 15-24 at the New Hazlett Theater.

The show, Zionts said, is about “making art.”

“It really is about the difficulties and challenges of putting all the pieces together to make art and the importance of art as a legacy,” she said.

Written in 1984, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, “Sunday in the Park with George” was inspired by French pointillist George Seurat’s painting of the same name.

The musical’s two acts are divided by 100 years — the first act takes place in 1884, the second act in 1984 — and involves the same family. The main character in the first act is the great-grandfather of the main character in the second act.
The work, Zionts said, examines the idea of how to maintain the legacy of someone who died young — Seurat was only 31 when he died of an infection.

The show’s legacy has an emotional tie to Zionts and her late husband, the spiritual guiding force of Front Porch Theatricals: It debuted the same year they were married.

The legacy of Front Porch can also be felt in the show’s production. More than 250 people auditioned for 27 acting roles this season, nearly a 10 to 1 ratio. In the end, 24 actors were cast in the season’s two shows, “Baby” and “Sunday in the Park with George.” Three actors were cast in both musicals.

The casting process is a tribute to her late husband, Zionts said, noting that Front Porch never precasts any role.

“It’s whoever walks through the door,” she said. “We’re often like, ‘I hope so-and-so shows up,’ and they show up and audition and they may not get it. Someone else might come in and blow our socks off. That’s how Leon got ‘Fiddler’ at Stage 62. They never met him. He showed up — they thought they had someone in mind who would be Tevye and Leon walked in, sang, and the rest of them threw their scripts down. Sometimes someone walks in and knocks your socks off.”

The roles in “Sunday in the Park with George,” Zionts said, are on the bucket list of many actors, so much so that for some cast members, the musical is a family affair.

“We have a number of families in the show,” Zionts said. “In addition to having the daughter of the director of our last production, “Baby,” in the show, we also have a husband and wife, and we have a girl whose mom is our costumer.”

The production is directed by Rob James. The cast includes Aaron Gilligan Stierle, Becki Toth, Saige Smith, Marnie Quick, Shawn Doremus, David Ieong, Daphne Alderson, Christy Rodibaugh, Adelyn Anderson, Brian Ferris, Ivy Ferris, Robert Frankenberry, Eleni Josephs, Ben Nadler, Brad Smoak, Matty Thornton and Carolne Travers. The musical director is Camille Rolla.

Zionts and fellow producer Smith often call those who work with them their “Front Porch Family,” she said, “but this year it actually is a Front Porch family.”

That family approach goes far beyond who is related to whom in the cast. For Zionts and Front Porch Theatricals, a sense of connection and relationship can be felt in every aspect of the production — even providing food to the cast and crew during rehearsals and shows.

“People are coming from work or they’re coming home to kids, or whatever,” she said. “There’s always food available. People are going back and forth from one place to another. They appreciate it.”

Sharing a meal together, she said, is simply another opportunity for the cast, crew and producers to enjoy one another.
“It’s delightful beyond belief,” Zionts said.

As Front Porch is settling into production for “Sunday in the Park with George,” Zionts is already thinking about what comes next — its annual benefit cabaret performance, this year returning to the Greer Cabaret Theater on Dec. 1.

And, she said, “We’re thinking about next season and what that will be.” PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.