About Vincent and Theo with Theo for two years in Paris and moved to

Arles in the south of France and eventually

took voluntary residency in the Assylum of St.
Vincent was born on March 30, 1853 in the
Remy. During 1890, the last year of his life,
Dutch province of North Brabant near the
Vincent moved to Auvers, just north of Paris.
Belgian border. His father, Theodorus, was a
Theo provided Vincent's living allowance for
pastor of a small Dutch Reformed church.
much of the last ten years of his life. Theo
struggled to sponsor Vincent as he also
At age twelve, Vincent was sent to a boarding
supported his wife and child, and Vincent's
school at Zevenbergen and at 16, he began
suicide may be seen as an attempt to no
working for Goupil and Company, art dealers in
longer be a burden on his brother and his
the Dutch city, The Hague.
family. Theo's guilt in that regard propels him
into the action of this play.
As a 19-year-old man, Vincent began a life-long
correspondence with Theo (pronounced "TAY-
oh" in French), his brother who was four years
younger. 661 of his letters to Theo have been The Daring Theatre Company
preserved, but only 36 of Theo's letters to presents
Vincent have survived.

The play skips over the next eight years,

during which Vincent worked as an art dealer
in London and then in Paris. He experienced
several unhappy love relationships before the
one depicted in the play. While in England,
Vincent by Leonard Nimoy
Vincent served as a schoolmaster and as a lay based on the play
preacher. After unsuccessful efforts to Van Gogh by Phillip Stephens
complete theology degrees in Amsterdam and and the letters of Vincent Van Gogh
Brussels, Vincent became an unpaid evangelist
in the Belgian province known as the Borinage. performed by Dr. John Newman
Theo's recounting of Vincent's life takes up the
story at that point.

The play recounts Vincent's time in The Hague, Preshow and Underscoring Music from Stan
during which he took in and tried to reform Funicelli's
Christine, a "woman of the streets." He lived "Distance and the Sea:
 Works for the Guitar"
© 1998, produced by Vine Street Studios
"Vincent" by Don McLean on "Legendary
Songs"
Collection © 2003, produced by Capitol
Records
These performances are made possible
by the Reba R. Robertson Award
of the Children's Theatre Foundation of
America
Notes from the Performer
What artist does not identify with Vincent Van
Gogh? Vincent has become the patron saint of
artists who are not fully appreciated in their
own time, and what artist ever feels that he is?
However, my own identification is with
Vincent's younger brother Theo. While only
one of Vincent's paintings sold during his
lifetime, Vincent is now hailed as one of the
greatest artists of the nineteenth century and
his works are the crown jewels of museums
around the world. Theo, on the other hand,
remains largely forgotten. He supported and
encouraged Vincent's artwork and it's fair to
say we would never have had the works of
Vincent Van Gogh without the support of Theo
Van Gogh. Theo passed away within six
months of his brother's death, following a
nervous breakdown. It was Theo's wife
Johanna who collected, preserved, and
popularized Vincent's artworks. We should
never underestimate the contribution of
supporters of the artists whose work we
esteem.
Theo recognized greatness and artistry in the
works of his brother as well as those of
Gaughin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, and
Degas… dismissed by many gallery owners of
their time as appalling "modern artists." Theo
collected their works and offered them
encouragement, but his tongue did not match
his eye, for as a gallery salesman, he failed to
convince buyers of the magnificence he saw in
the works of the artists he admired. I view the
play as the one moment in Theo's life when he
was able to communicate his passion for the
art and the brother he loved.
I do not pretend to be a competent actor or a
model for aspiring acting students. Yet perhaps
I can show them some daring by treading upon
the stage. Thank you for your patient
indulgence.
The Original Creation of the
Play
Vincent was adapted from the play Van Gogh
by Philip Stephens. In the late 1970's after
playing Spock for three years in the original
Star Trek television series, Leonard Nimoy
endeavored to create a one-man play from the
life and letters of Vincent Van Gogh. Nimoy
saw the performance of Phillip Stephens, then
a university student playwright, who had
experimented with the concept of playing Theo
and presenting Vincent only through Theo's
impersonations of him. Nimoy bought the
concept from Stephens and went on to create
his own play based on the same source
material of Vincent's 661 surviving letters to
his younger brother Theo. Leonard Nimoy
performed the play for hundreds of
performances across the country in scores of
American cities, including several runs at the
Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.
In addition to his television acting, Leonard
Nimoy has distinguished himself in film acting,
film directing, writing, and photography. Many
of the slides that are presented in the screen
are from Nimoy's own photographs of the
actual paintings that often offer more accurate
coloring than seen in some textbooks.

This play is presented through

arrangement with the Dramatic
Publishing Company of Chicago.
www . dramaticpublishing . com