Basic Facts

Big Love by Charles Mee

Basics

full-length play in English without act or scene divisions

5-6 M (with extras), 4-5 F (with extras)

inspired by Aeschylus' ancient Greek tragedy The Suppliant Women
http://www.panix.com/userdirs/meejr/html/big_love.html

setting: a midsummer evening, the present (2000)
location: exterior of Piero's house on the Italian coast (Sciacca, Sicily)

running time appr. 1 hour and 40 minutes
http://www.curtainup.com/biglove.html
1 hour and 30 minutes
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A594640

Genre (need at least 2 different labels)

vaudevillian tragicomedy -Dave Lohrey
http://www.curtainup.com/biglove.html

a comedy about rape
http://www.trft.org/TRFTPix/BigLoveStudyGuide.pdf

lyrical fantasy
http://www.amazon.com/Humana-Festival-2000-Complete-Plays/dp/1575252260

fiercely extravagant adaptation -Liam Otten
http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/1787.html

Playwright's BIO

Charles L. Mee is an American playwright and author. He was born in Barrington, Illinois in 1938. He was stricken with polio in 1953, which he details in his 1999 memoir A Nearly Normal Life. His plays include: The Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, Full Circle, The Trojan Women: A Love Story, Snow in June, Hotel Cassiopeia, True Love, bobrauschenbergamerica, A Perfect Wedding, Big Love, Viena Lusthaus, Orestes 2.0, The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador, Fetes de la Nuit, Summertime, Wintertime, Agamemnon 2.0, Iphigenia 2.0, Paradise Park, Queens Boulevard, Chiang Kai Shek and First Love. As of February, 2007, all of his plays are available on his website …. Mee is also an accomplished historian, having written about the Potsdam Conference and World War II. He currently teaches playwrighting at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_L._Mee

Publication

originally commissioned by the Actors' Theatre of Louisville 2000 Humana Festival

available for purchase at amazon.com in Humana Festival 2000: The Complete Plays

also available online (free and without copyright restrictions) at playwright's website:
http://www.panix.com/~meejr/html/big_love.html

Rights

professional: contact Thomas Pearson of International Creative Management at tpearson@icmtalent.com

amateur: contact Libby Edwards at charlesmeeplays@yahoo.com