Claybourne Elder & Brynn O'Malley to Lead Signature Theatre's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE; Full Cast Announced

Signature Theatre is proud to announce the cast of Sunday in the Park with George, the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning musical, directed by Signature Associate Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner (Signature's Dreamgirls, The Threepenny Opera). Running in the MAX Theatre August 15 - September 21, the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine classic is the first production of Signature Theatre's 25th Anniversary.

"Sunday in the Park with George is the perfect start to our 25th anniversary season," said Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer. "In a season that will celebrate the many great artists we have collaborated with over the years, Stephen Sondheim tops the list, with Signature having done 23 productions of his work. It will be wonderful to bring "La Grande Jatte" into the intimate 276 seat MAX Theatre. It's the first of many special events to celebrate our 25 years of groundbreaking work and unique connection with Stephen Sondheim."

The production will star Claybourne Elder (Broadway's Bonnie and Clyde, The Public Theater's Road Show, and CW Network's The Carrie Diaries) as Georges Seurat/George and Brynn O'Malley (Broadway's upcoming Honeymoon in Vegas, Annie, Wicked) as Dot/Marie.

"Sunday in the Park with George is about the need in all our lives for connection. To connect to one's surrounding, to the people, and to art," says director Matthew Gardiner. "Through the lens of George Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, the musical explores the disorder of life and the mediums we use in an attempt to understand it all. It's about the search for balance and harmony. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's masterpiece left a significant mark on my life as an artist from a very young age, and I feel extremely lucky to give life to their words and music with an incredible group of actors and designers in this new production at Signature Theatre."

Elder and O'Malley are joined in the cast by Evan Casey (Franz/Lee; Signature's Company), Susan Derry (Celeste #1/Photographer; Signature's Sunset Boulevard), Erin Driscoll (Celeste #2/Elaine; Signature's The Threepenny Opera), Maria Egler (Nurse/Harriet/Mrs; Signature and Ford's Hello Dolly!), Mitchell Hébert (Jules/Bob; Signature's Gypsy), Valerie Leonard (Yvonne/Naomi; Broadway's An Ideal Husband, Signature's Fox on the Fairway), Joseph Mace (Louis/Billy; Summer Lyric Theatre's LES MISERABLES), Gregory Maheu(Soldier/Alex; Signature's Sweeney Todd), Dan Manning (Mr/Charles; Signature's Beaches), Donna Migliaccio (Old Lady/Blair; Broadway'sRagtime, Signature's Beaches), Angela Miller (Frieda/Betty; Olney's How to Succeed...), Paul Scanlan (Boatman/Dennis; Signature's The Threepenny Opera), and introducing 11-year-old Sadie Rose Herman (Louise) and 9-year-old Lucy Alexa Herman (Bather/Ensemble).

The creative team includes Musical Direction by Jon Kalbfleisch; Scenic Design by Dan Conway; Costume Design by Frank Labovitz; Lighting Design by Jen Schriever; Sound Design by Lane Elms; Video Design by Robbie Hayes; Wig Design by Samantha Birchett-Hunter; and Production Stage Manager Kerry Epstein.

Written by the team behind Into the Woods and Passion, the show is inspired by the famous 1884 pointillist painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat. Sunday in the Park with George brings art to vibrant life in Sondheim's stunning masterpiece, which features the songs "Finishing the Hat," "Move On," "Children and Art" and "Putting it Together."

The musical opened on Broadway in 1984, where it received two Tony Awards® for Best Scenic Design and Best Lighting Design. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama followed in 1985, making Sunday in the Park with George one of only eight musicals to ever win the prize. The show has also received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Musical, numerous Drama Desk Awards, and the 1991 Olivier Award for Best Musical.

Signature's production kicks off the theatre's 25th anniversary season, which will feature numerous special events throughout the year in addition to seven fully produced shows, all in celebration of the artists and collaborators that have called Signature home over the course of 25 years.

Signature's production of Sunday in the Park with George also marks the 30th anniversary of the show itself.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE

Book by James Lapine

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by Matthew Gardiner

Seven weeks only!

Performances run August 5, 2014 through September 21, 2014

Sponsored by the HRH Foundation. Additional support provided by Jeffrey Thurston and Charlie Berardesco.

Further 2014/2015 season funding supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Sign up now for priority ticket offers at www.signature-theatre.org

CAST BIOS

Claybourne Elder (Georges Seurat/George) BROADWAY/NEW YORK: Bonnie and Clyde (Buck, also cast recording), Stephen Sondheim's Road Show (Hollis, premier cast, also recording), Tennessee Williams's One Arm (Ollie, Drama Desk nomination Outstanding Actor in a Play, directed by Moisés Kaufman), Venice (Michael-Victor, also recording), Two by Two (Japheph, with Jason Alexander); Sondheim 80th Birthday Celebration (City Center), A Chorus Line in Concert (Don, Delacorte). REGIONAL: McCarter Theater: Take Flight (Lindbergh); Kansas City Rep: Pippin (Pippin), Into the Woods (Wolf/Cinderella's Prince). DEVELOPMENTAL WORKSHOPS: Vineyard Theatre: Pterodactyls (Tommy); Center Theatre Group: Post Office; The Public Theatre: Giant; Yale Repertory Theatre: Mortality Play; Lincoln Center: Sounds Like Love. TV/Film: The Carrie Diaries (Pete O'Malley). UPCOMING: Allegro (Joseph, John Doyle revival).

Brynn O'Malley (Dot/Marie) BROADWAY: ANNIE (revival), Wicked, Sunday In The Park With George (revival), Hairspray, Beauty And The Beast. DC AREA: Arena Stage: She Loves Me (Helen Hayes nomination). REGIONAL: Las Vegas: Avenue Q; Paper Mill Playhouse:Honeymoon In Vegas, Boeing-Boeing, Oklahoma!, Meet Me In St. Louis, Baby; Baltimore Center Stage: Arsenic And Old Lace; Kansas City Rep: Into The Woods. TV: Smash, A Gifted Man, Royal Pains, The Big C. EDUCATION: University of Michigan, BFA Musical Theatre. UPCOMING: Broadway: Honeymoon In Vegas.

Evan Casey (Franz/Lee) SIGNATURE: Company, Really Really, The Hollow, The Boy Detective Fails, Urinetown, Ten Unknowns, Allegro. NEW YORK: NYMF: River's End, York Theatre: NEO 8 Concert. DC AREA: Kennedy Center: Orphie and the Book of Heroes, Elephant and Piggie, Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred); Ford's Theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, Meet John Doe, Shenandoah; Olney Theatre: Avenue Q, 39 Steps, Camelot, Fiddler on the Roof, Lend Me a Tenor; Studio Theatre 2ndstage: TempOdyssey, Dog Sees God; Shakespeare Theatre, Round House Theatre, Rep Stage, Theater of the First Amendment, among others. REGIONAL: North Carolina Theatre, Everyman Theatre, New London Barn Playhouse. FILM: Of Dice and Men, Treasure Hunt, Flanking The Sentinel. TV/WEB: Missing Person's Unit, Stage Fright, Thurston. OTHER: Capitol Steps. EDUCATION: Catholic University, London Dramatic Academy. TEACHING: Signature Theatre, National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, Adventure Theatre-MTC.

Susan Derry (Celeste #1/Photographer) SIGNATURE: Sunday in the Park (Celeste), Sunset Boulevard (Betty Schaeffer), Saturday Night(Helen), Sondheim Award Gala, I Capture the Castle (21/24 workshop), Show Boat. BROADWAY: Wonderful Town (Eileen, Ensemble); City Center Encores!: 11 appearances, 2 cast albums. INTERNATIONAL: Phantom of the Opera (Christine) in Hamburg, Germany. KENNEDY CENTER: Ragtime (Kathleen), Bernstein's Mass (Street Chorus Soloist), Mame, Camelot, My Fair Lady. REGIONAL: Othello (Desdemona),My Fair Lady (Eliza), Crimes of the Heart (Meg), The Importance of Being Earnest (Gwendolen), I Do! I Do! (Agnes), Brigadoon (Fiona),West Side Story (Maria), Company (Susan), Regina (Alexandra), The Merchant of Venice (Jessica). CONCERT: New York Pops at Carnegie Hall; Avery Fisher Hall; Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Kennedy Center; Carnegie Hall Community Sing. EDUCATION: Northwestern University, Manhattan School of Music.

Erin Driscoll (Celeste #2/Elaine) SIGNATURE: The Threepenny Opera, Miss Saigon, Spin, Company, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Brother Russia, Hairspray (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Ensemble), [title of show], Sweeney Todd, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Witches of Eastwick, Into the Woods, Assassins (Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Resident Musical), Urinetown (2006 Helen Hayes Award, Outstanding Actress). DC AREA: Arena Stage: My Fair Lady; Ford's Theatre: Violet, Our Town, Parade, A Christmas Carol; Olney Theatre: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cinderella, Anything Goes; Round House Theatre: A Year with Frog and Toad; Kennedy Center: Regina (w/ Patti LuPone, Alexandra Cover). REGIONAL: Arden Theatre: A Year with Frog and Toad, Candide; John W. Engeman Theatre, Long Island: Jekyll and Hyde. EDUCATION: James Madison University, BM. AWARDS: 2006 Roger Sturtevant Award.

Maria Egler (Nurse/Harriet/Mrs) SIGNATURE: Good Times: TV Theme Songs, Lost Songs of the 80's, 2013 Holiday Follies; Signature's Funny Ladies cabarets; Hello, Dolly! (Ford's Theatre co-production); Dirty Blonde; Giant; Crossing and Crossing in concert. NATIONAL TOURS: Gypsy. DC AREA: Olney Theatre Center: Camelot, The Sound of Music, Cinderella; Studio Theatre: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; Washington Savoyards: The Music Man, It's A Grand Night for Singing; DMLRR: The Oresteia, The Saints, Finn McCool. EDUCATION: BM, The Catholic University of America.

Mitchell Hébert (Jules/Bob) SIGNATURE: Gypsy, Art. DC AREA (ACTING): Ford's Theatre: The Laramie Project; Woolly Mammoth Theatre: The Gigli Concert, Kvetch, The Clean House, Clybourne Park (Helen Hayes nomination); Theatre J: After the Fall (Helen Hayes Award); Shakespeare Theatre: Don Carlos; Round House Theatre: 'New Book for the Bible (Helen Hayes nomination), Around the World in 80 Days, Crime & Punishment, The Drawer Boy (Helen Hayes nomination); Everyman Theatre: Uncle Vanya (Greater Baltimore Theatre Award/Outstanding Actor). DC AREA (DIRECTING): Round House Theatre: Glengarry Glen Ross (Helen Hayes Award, directing); Forum Theatre: The Illusion; Olney Theatre Center: Rabbit Hole. FILM: Killing Kennedy, The Hunley, Playing Through. TV: Homicide, NBC; Nathan the Wise, PBS. TEACHING: Head of Performance, of University of Maryland's School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies.

Valerie Leonard (Yvonne/Naomi) SIGNATURE: A Fox On The Fairway. BROADWAY: An Ideal Husband (Lady Basildon). NATIONAL TOUR: Lend Me A Tenor (Maggie); The Odd Couple (Gwendolyn Pigeon, with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman). OFF-BROADWAY: Signature Theatre Company; Mirror Repertory; Director's Company. DC AREA: Shakespeare Theatre: Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors; Arena Stage: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, A Man's A Man, Theophilus North; Catalyst Theater:Metamorphis, The Elephant Man (Helen Hayes nomination); Studio Theatre: The Life of Galileo; Theater J: The Bad Friend; Olney Theatre Center: Therese Raquin (Helen Hayes nomination), Copenhagen, Oh Coward!, Anna Karenina, Private Lives, Candida, Shadowlands; Potomac Theatre Project: The American Dream. REGIONAL: McCarter Theatre; American Conservatory Theatre; The Pearl Theatre; Two River Theatre Company; Pioneer Theatre. TV: The Wire, Law and Order. EDUCATION: Rutgers University: MFA.

Joseph Mace (Louis/Billy) REGIONAL: Summer Lyric, New Orleans: LES MISERABLES, Annie Get Your Gun, Phantom, Victor/Victoria, Side by Side by Sondheim, As the World Goes 'Round. NEW YORK AREA: Below the Surface Cabaret, Songs of Love and Loss, ...And Waken Green. CLASSICAL: Metropolitan Opera: Die Miestersinger; San Francisco Opera: Forza del Destino, Fideleo; New Orleans Opera: Faust; Indianapolis Symphony: Messiah; San Jose Symphonic Chorale: Gospel Mass; Philharmonia Baroque: Messiah, Beethoven Symphony #9. JAZZ: San Francisco Jazz Festival/Yoshi's Jazz Club: Bound for the Promised Land. EDUCATION: Indiana University, DM, Voice; San Francisco Conservatory, MM, Voice; Tulane University, BFA Music (Musical Theatre focus), BA French.

Greg Maheu (Soldier/Alex) SIGNATURE: Hello, Dolly! (Ford's Theatre co-production), Chess, Sweeney Todd. NEW YORK: Momentum Rep.: Assassins; NYMF: Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; The Toymaker. DC AREA: Ford's Theatre: Violet, 1776, A Christmas Carol, Liberty Smith. Kennedy Center: Ragtime. Adventure Theater: Big. REGIONAL: Studio Tenn: Les Miserables. Hangar Theatre: Hair. EDUCATION: BFA, Elon University

Dan Manning (Mr/Charles) SIGNATURE: Beaches, Gypsy, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 110 in the Shade, Allegro. BROADWAY:Ragtime. OFF-BROADWAY: Lamb's Theatre: Smoke on the Mountain; St. Peters Citicorp: The Majestic Kid. DC AREA: Kennedy Center:Ragtime; The Golden Age; Ford's Theatre: Big River, 1776; Studio Theatre: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Round House Theatre:Camille, Murder, Mystery, and a Marriage; Maryland Stage: A Midsummer Night's Dream; Rep Stage: Lie of the Mind, A Shayna Maidel. REGIONAL: CENTERSTAGE : The Murder of Isaac; Court Theatre (Los Angeles): Ray-Bud (Dramalogue award), Dearly Departed; National Symphony Orchestra: Narrator, Le Histoire du Soldat. FILM: Gods and Generals, State of Play, Renaissance Man, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Marie. TV: Veep, House of Cards, The Wire, West Wing, X-Files.

Donna Migliaccio (Old Lady/Blair) SIGNATURE: The Threepenny Opera (Mrs. Peachum), Beaches (Leona Bloom), Gypsy (Mazeppa), Assassins (Sara Jane Moore), Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett), Pacific Overtures (the Reciter), Urinetown (Pennywise), A Little Night Music(Charlotte). BROADWAY: Ragtime (Emma Goldman, 2009 revival). NATIONAL TOUR: Guys & Dolls (General Cartwright, 50thAnniversary production). DC AREA: Kennedy Center: Sunday in the Park with George (Nurse/Mrs); Ford's Theatre: Liberty Smith (Betsy Ross); Arena Stage: The Music Man (Mrs. Paroo); Olney Theatre Center: Cinderella (Stepmother); MetroStage: The Musical of Musicals(Abby). REGIONAL: Totem Pole Playhouse: Ruthless! (Sylvia St. Croix); Arden Theatre: The Dinosaur Musical (Mrs. Gapp/Mama Lucredzia); Theatre on the Square: Dirty Blonde (Jo/Mae West). AWARDS: two Helen Hayes Awards; an additional ten nominations; 2005 Barrymore Award nomination. www.donnamigliaccio.com.

Angela Miller (Frieda/Betty) SIGNATURE: The Last 5 Years, Revenge of the Understudies. DC AREA: Olney Theatre Center: How To Succeed... (Rosemary Pilkington); Adventure Theatre: Big Nate (Gina), Big, The Musical; Imagination Stage: Peter Pan and Wendy (Mrs. Darling/Tiger Lily). REGIONAL: The Wick Theatre: The Sound of Music. TV: Burn Notice. UNIVERSITY: Nine (Luisa), Company (Marta),The Wild Party (Queenie). EDUCATION: American University, BA Musical Theatre.

Sadie Rose Herman (Louise) DC AREA: Olney Theater Center: Annie (Helen Hayes nomination); Toby's Dinner Theater: Annie, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Miracle on 34th Street; Mid-Maryland Performing Arts Center: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. FILM:Captain America: The Winter Soldier. TV: Nickelodeon: Fansgiving. NATIONAL DANCE COMPETITIONS: StarQuest, Revolution Dance, StarPower, Headliners, Elite Feet Touring Company. Member: Broadway Artists' Alliance. VOCAL TRAINING: Catherine Porter-Borden.EDUCATION: New Market Blue Ribbon Elementary School (2014 Honors Graduate)

Lucy Alexa Herman (Bather/Ensemble/US Louise) DC AREA: Toby's Dinner Theater: The Sound of Music, Miracle on 34th Street;Maryland Ensemble Theater: Through the Looking Glass; Mid-Maryland Performing Arts Center: You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown; The Banner Players Company: Cars; Other Voices Theater Company: The Little Mermaid. NATIONAL DANCE COMPETITIONS: StarQuest, Revolution Dance, StarPower, Headliners, Elite Feet Touring Company. COMPETITION GYMNASTICS: Flips Multi Apparatus Gymnastics Team. VOCAL TRAINING: Catherine Porter-Borden. EDUCATION: Oakdale Elementary School.

ABOUT SIGNATURE

Recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, Signature Theatre is a non-profit professional theater company in Arlington, Virginia dedicated to producing contemporary musicals and plays, reinventing classic musicals, and developing new work. Under the leadership of co-founder and Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer and Managing Director Maggie Boland, Signature has presented 38 world premiere productions and is renowned for combining Broadway-quality productions with intimate playing spaces.

In addition to hosting the finest talent from the DC metropolitan area and New York, Signature has been home to such theatre luminaries as Chita Rivera, George Hearn, Hunter Foster, Emily Skinner, Ann Reinking, Marc Kudisch, Judy Kuhn, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Cameron Mackintosh, Terrence McNally, and the company's signature composer, Stephen Sondheim. Since its founding in 1989, Signature has won 90 Helen Hayes Awards for excellence in the Washington, DC region's professional theater and has been honored with 340 nominations.

DIRECTIONS

Signature Theatre is located at 4200 Campbell Avenue (22206) off I-395 at the Shirlington exit (#6). After the exit, blue Signature signs mark the way to the theatre. Free parking is available in two adjacent public garages. For directions visit http://signature-theatre.org/map.htm.

Photo by Christopher Mueller