Sonoma County actor Jim Jarrett's one-man show paints picture of Vincent van Gogh

?Vincent,? Sonoma County actor Jim Jarrett?s traveling one-man stage show about painter Vincent van Gogh, is both a live performance and an art exhibit.

?The play takes place after Vincent?s death in Paris in late July 1890. I walk onstage as his brother Theo, and the audience members are the people that he invited ? friends, family and even enemies ? to come to do justice to his brother?s reputation,? Jarrett explained.

?Via rear-screen projection, during the course of the evening, you see his work, from the very first sketch Vincent ever did to his final painting, and practically everything in between, so it?s quite a portrait of who Vincent was.?

London audiences saw the show earlier this year, and Jarrett?s hometown neighbors will get their chance next weekend at Santa Rosa?s 6th Street Playhouse.

Written and performed in the 1970s by Leonard Nimoy, ?Star Trek?s? Mr. Spock, ?Vincent? is based on Vincent?s letters to his younger brother, Theo. During the show, Jarrett plays both brothers.

?Vincent started painting at 27 and killed himself at 37, and during that 10-year period he would send off a letter to Theo almost every evening, chronicling his struggles,? Jarrett said.

Tne actor bought exclusive rights to ?Vincent? in 1994, and began touring internationally with the show in 1996. At last year?s Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, he was chosen as a best solo performer finalist.

Jarrett volunteered to bring his show to Santa Rosa as a benefit for the Playhouse education programs and productions.

?It?ll be fun to come home,? he said.

When Jarrett was growing up in Santa Rosa, he didn?t show much interest in theater.

?I went to Cardinal Newman High School, and I had never acted in a thing in my life,? Jarrett recalled. ?I was a typical jock.?

After his graduation from Newman in 1976, Jarrett felt the pull of the spotlight, and by 1987, he was in New York studying with one of theater?s most famous teachers, Sandy Meisner.

Jarrett studied, and eventually taught, with Meisner for the next four years, following him to Los Angeles for the latter half of that period.

Having written his own solo play about Meisner, and a book about the master?s methods, Jarrett now teaches acting at his own school in San Francisco, dividing his time between homes in Sonoma and Sun Valley, Idaho, when he?s not touring with ?Vincent.?

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com.