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.

Le but de ce travail est d'étudier l'art d'interpréter de plusieurs générations de pianistes dont la formation remonte au XIXe siècle, mais dont l'activité s'est étendue jusqu'à la 1re moitié du XXe siècle. L'essor de l'interprétation qui marqua cette époque a prodigué des artistes qui - à la suite de leurs grands maîtres (Chopin, Liszt, A. Rubinstein) - ont déjà laissé un nombre considérable d'enregistrements permettant de saisir à travers leur jeu une image authentique de l’œuvre romantique. En nous référant à l'idée que l'essor du pianisme à la charnière des XIXe - XXe siècles provient de l'expansion remarquable de l'art d'interpréter au XIXe siècle, nous avançons l'hypothèse selon laquelle c'est précisément dans les positions esthétiques et dans la vision du monde propre à cette époque qu'il faut chercher les sources d'un tel essor. Parmi les caractéristiques importantes de la manière d'interpréter des pianistes de la 2e moitié du XIXe siècle, entrent d'abord en jeu la faculté de penser imagée, la liberté et une manière d'improviser en modifiant les textes des œuvres exécutées. Ces données se combinent d'ailleurs avec d'autres, comme l'intellectualisme. Les analyses de certaines particularités de style, des manières de jouer, typiques du XIXe siècle (comme le rubato, le « pointillisme etc.), nous révèlent ainsi ce que fut la réelle pensée polyphonique du Romantisme. Il ne s'agit pas de la seule écriture polyphonique, mais d'un principe polyphonique au sens plus large, s'exprimant à travers le style d'interpréter qui, à son tour, définit la perception spatio-temporelle spécifique de ces quelques décennies. / The aim of this work is to study the performing art of several generations of pianists who were trained in the 19th Century but who extended their artistic activity throught the 1st half of the 20th Century. The rise of the art of interpretation which marked this period gave the artistes who - following their great masters - have left a considerable number of records where their plaiyng conjures up an image of the romantic composition that may be more authentic, though it is quite different from that of today.Based on the idea that the rise of the pianism at the turn of the 20th Century comes largely from the remarkable expansion of the 19th Century performing arts, we hypothesize that it is precisely in the aesthetic positions and the vision of the world inherent in the Romantic era that we should look for the sources of such a rise. Chief among the important features of the style of interpretation of the pianists of the 2nd half of the 19th Century, was their creative thinking, but also the surprising freedom they enjoyed to improvise and modify compositions. Other features include the intellectualism of their approach to the performed composition. Analyses of certain peculiarities of style, of the ways of playing typical of the 19th Century (such as rubato, the « pointillism » etc.) reveal the real polyphonic thougth of the Romantic era. This is not only the polyphonic writing itself, but a polyphonic principle in a broader sense, manifesting itself through the style of interpretation which, in turn, defines the specific spatio-temporal perception of these several decades.