Sunday at the Desk with Cake

Do you recognize that quotation? It's from one of my all-time favorite pieces of literature, Sunday in the Park with George. It's a Sondheim musical, and it details the process of Georges Seurat as he creates his masterpiece, "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (think I got that right.) In the second act, we see the struggles of an artist who may or may not be Seurat's descendent. As Joss Whedon famously said (so famously, Sondheim wanted to meet him after he said it), the first act is about the pain of being a genius, and the second act is about the pain of not being a genius. (Which pain would you rather have? Hard to know, but probably the first. Then again, if that was your pain, would you know it?)

A mentor recently cited the song "Finishing the Hat" as one of his favorites. That drew me back to my old cassette-tape soundtrack, with all its attendant musings on art, and then to my books about Sondheim, collected during high school. Something funny happened: while I had originally read those to delight in the gossip and insider information, now I read them and felt less alone in my artistic process.

In the past, when I'd read about authors and especially theatre-makers struggling to complete a show, I'd thought, "Oh, it just took them a while to find the right solution." Or, embarrassingly, "Wow, they didn't know what they wanted from the start? Why not?"

Reading it now, I realized that I'm not the only person ever to pack a story too full of themes and have to winnow away. Not the only one to think, "How to explain this character trait? Blame the mom. Ooh, this reader says the mom is a cipher. Must beef her up. Wait, that reader says the mom is superfluous to the story. Find a balance. Hope it meets with approval." Etc. Okay, maybe that particular iteration of the revision process is unique to me, but the point is, even Sondheim grasps around for the right solution. Even James Lapine goes in with one approach and comes out with another. Both struggle to balance work habits, incorporating outsiders' opinions, and more.

The title of the song I've quoted above is "Art isn't easy." This is true. It's a lot easier, though, when I remind myself that I'm not alone. As Sondheim says, in fact, "No one is alone." And "Connect, George. Connect."


The Art of Making Art