In Honor of SUNDAY IN THE PARK; Free Saturday Seminar at Peninsula Players Aug 3 with Artist Craig Blietz

Peninsula Players Theatre's popular series of free public seminars continues August 3, at 2:30 p.m. with a conversation with Door County Artist Craig Blietz on the influence of 19th century artist Georges Seurat. Free seminars, providing an inside look at topics related to the plays of the 2013 season, are held at the theater select Saturdays throughout the season.

Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's award-winning musical "Sunday in the Park with George" is at Peninsula Players through August 11. Sondheim and Lapine used the creation ofSeurat's large-scale work "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" for inspiration.

Seurat's 10-foot by 7-foot painting depicts people of various social classes relaxing in a park on an island of the Seine River, La Grande Jatte. Seurat embraced the subject matter of modern life preferred by artists such as Monet and Renoir.

Seruat once told Gustave Kahn, a French poet, "I want to make modern people in their essential traits move about as they do on those friezes and place them on canvases organized by harmonies of color."

Blietz works extensively in Northeast Wisconsin, his work is a reflection of his rural environment and the many things within it that intrigue him. Blietz has exhibited his work in numerous museum exhibitions including the Miller Art Museum, which holds a painting by Blietz in its Permanent Collection, Wright Museum, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, The Fairfield Center for Contemporary Art and numerous others.

His painting "Pastoral Dreaming" was awarded the "Director's Choice Award" at the biennial exhibition "Forward: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now 2010" and "Incline" was displayed at the 2012 biennial exhibition at the Charles Allis Art Museum.

Blietz's paintings 'Clarity' and 'Pastoral Dreaming' were juried into the "2010 Contemporary Realism Biennial" with an exhibition held at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Blietz's One-Person Exhibition titled "Yard: The Art of Craig Blietz" is on the road in 2013 to four venues in Wisconsin.

Blietz holds a BS degree from The University of Denver, studied arts and design at The Harrington College of Design and spent four years of academic training at The School of Representational Art. Blietz studied privately with Fred Berger, a master draftsman and recognized figurative artist; Richard Halstead, a portrait artist; and John Rush, a painter, printmaker, and illustrator.

Seurat was a man of his time, where science was a major influence. He explored the science of color and is considered the father of Pointillism, a painting technique that utilizes dabs, or dots of color, rather than brush strokes on the canvas.

Peninsula Players Theatre is committed to providing educational programming for the community. The Players has a long history of educational initiatives including an intern program that dates back to the founding days of The Players in the 1930s. The theater continues to offer theater tours and post-show discussions as listed in the program and website. Reservations for free seminars and tours and tickets to "Once a Ponzi Time" may be made by contacting the box office at 920-868-3287.

Forthcoming topics will be announced for August 24, and fall Saturday's are yet to be scheduled. Visit The Players new website www.peninsulaplayers.com to watch for topic announcements.