Stephen Sondheim Featured in San Francisco Chronicle

Nine time Tony Award winner Stephen Sondheim will hold an onstage discussion about his life and works at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts on Saturday, October 24th. Sondheim will sit down with host Peter Stein as part of the Copperfield's Books Renowned Speakers Series.

Stein spoke to San Francisco Chronicle about the upcoming discussion; "The prospect is daunting," Stein said in an e-mail, "only if you feel that you have to squeeze every question you and your audience want to pose into a short period of time, or if you dwell on the fact that you're talking to a giant of the theater."

To read the entire article, including comment from Sondheim himself, click here.

In one of only a few invitations accepted this year, Stephen Sondheim shares a most personal and engaging view of his work. As one of the most important artist in the American musical theater over the past half-century, Sondheim has collaborated on more than a dozen landmark shows, written countless standard songs, and been the single most influential force in bringing the Broadway musical into the modern age.

During this rare unscripted conversation, you'll learn about Sondheim's career and, in a very personal series of reflections, his own creative process on works ranging from Gypsy and West Side Story to Company, Follies, and Sweeney Todd.

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Bounce (2003), Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into the Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971, revised in London, 1987), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965), and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983), and Putting It Together (1992) are anthologies of this work as a composer and lyricist.

For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981) and songs for Dick Tracy (1990), for which he won an Academy Award. He also wrote songs for the television production "Evening Primrose" (1966), co-authored the film The Last of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away With Murder (1996), and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961), and Twigs (1971).

He won Tony Awards for Best Score for a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, and Company. All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday in the Park with George , the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985).

Mr. Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, after which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. He is on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, the national association of playwrights, composers, and lyricists, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981, and in 1983 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1990 he was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University and in 1993 was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

Tickets for the event are priced $49 to $69 and are available online. The discussion will take place Saturday, October 24th at 8pm at the Ruth Finley Person Theater in Santa Rosa.

Now in its 28th year, the non-profit Wells Fargo Center for the Arts is the North Bay's premier Arts Center presenting world-class performances, nationally recognized education programs, contemporary sculpture, and many popular community events. Together with its resident companies, the Center is ranked among California's top performing arts presenters hosting performances in music, theater, dance, comedy, and spoken word; and serving more than 30,000 children and adults annually through its education programs. Located in the heart of the beautiful Sonoma Wine Country, the Arts Center is owned and operated by the Luther Burbank Memorial Foundation, and relies on the generosity of members, donors, and sponsors to achieve its mission-to enrich, educate, and entertain the North Bay community.

For more information, visit the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts' website at wellsfargocenterarts.org.