Friday, July 31, 2009

Statement: Producing the Play

Textual Problems
Big Love operates much like a musical comedy in that it interweaves spoken scenes, song and musical interludes, and choreographed movements. How to make these three different formats work equally well poses the first main challenge in that it greatly affects casting of the roles of the brides, grooms, and Giuliano. A corresponding challenge is whether the director should tackle all three areas or enlist the aid of a musical director and choreographer. Age appropriateness particularly affects the casting of Bella as does Mee’s suggestion for double casting Bella/Eleanor and Piero/Leo. The dialogue clearly indicates that there are an additional 47 brides and 47 grooms to be married; how many are actually included depends on each production’s resources, particularly given that each bridal couple appears in formal wear (and for only this one scene at the end of the play). Performance space poses numerous challenges in that actors must be able to tumble and roll on the floor as well as get it wet (from the bathtub) and sticky nasty (with Bella’s splattered tomatoes early in the play and with all the fake blood and pulverized cake during the wedding massacre). Mee's stage directions indicate that Lydia gets naked and takes a bath (in the filled tub onstage) and that the three first grooms arrive overhead via helicopter accompanied by tremendous wind.

Contextual Problems
As a Raven Rep slot in the Showcase Theatre, our production will face limited financial and spatial resources. If we have three additional couples (instead of 47), then we end up with 12 people in formal wear getting married along with 3-5 guests—15-18 total actors in the Showcase who must also be able to “dance” the wedding massacre. The small acting space also makes the “sticky nasty” scenes difficult for staging and cleanup, and the closeness of the audience could turn the whole performance into something resembling a Gallagher show (the audience has to sit under plastic to avoid the splattered watermelons!). Regarding the number of “triple threats” required by the casting, we will be competing for talent with only one musical (not two as during the fall semester) and one less student-directed slot. Given the physical hazards of the tumbling sequences and the wedding massacre, I think funds should be requested for a workshop with a fight director.

Other Productions' Solutions
Most of the productions employed fight directors and/or choreographers to help with the acrobatic and often dangerous staging. At the University of Washington, the school's rappelling team was brought in to train the grooms how to land on stage. UT Austin went the opposite direction and allowed its bridal couples (all MFA actors) to improvise their fight choreography. Berkeley Rep covered its thrust stage with pink wrestling mats to help soften the actors' fall, while Columbia University seemed to exacerbate the situation by turning the stage floor into a huge sandbox. Some productions (namely the original and subsequent versions directed by Les Waters) employed Mee's double casting for Bella/Eleanor and Piero/Leo, although most others split the roles. The University of Washington had the largest supplemental cast with 7 additional brides and as many additional grooms, while Dallas Theatre Center reduced each by one. Production photos clearly indicate non-traditional casting when regarding race and ethnicity, particularly for the brides and grooms, but no apparent employment of disabled actors in this inescapably physical play.

The Critics Respond
The central issue noted by most of the critics stemmed from the relationship between the text (which is itself an assemblage of pre-existing texts just adapted by Mee) and the staging (both that suggested by Mee's stage directions as well as individual production choices). The issue is, basically, how much is too much? The original director (Les Waters) was both praised and damned for his over-the-top staging when it finally reached (in its fourth incarnation) the Big Apple. Similarly, how big characters might be played concerned some reviewers, who felt that, no matter how outrageous the characters might act, they still must preserve their core humanity. Other reviewers negatively noted the incongruous halting of the action posed by the inclusion of the many, often lengthy, pop culture moments, particularly the two songs; still others welcomed the theatricality as a way of offsetting the long-winded and didactic monologues. Few questioned or discounted the playfulness and sheer fun of the live experience.

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Berkeley Rep 2001

Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Berkeley, California
April-June 2001

Director: Les Waters
Scenery: Annie Smart
Costumes: James Schuette
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Sound: Matthew Mezick

Three breathless brides rush onto a stage which is carpeted with pink wrestling mats (for good reason, as we shall see), wearing white gowns and backpacks and one of them immediately jumps out of her clothes and into a bath. [...] Before the nuptials are concluded we get a food fight, an orgy and bloody murder.
Suzanne Weiss, Culture Vulture
http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater/BigLove.htm

The happily-ever-after ending threatens to define the bigness of the play’s title as universality. Fortunately, Waters’s absurd curtain call upsets the security of that resolution. The cast, mostly brides and grooms still splattered with blood and wedding cake, take their bows while lip-synching and dancing to Prince’s “Kiss.”
Catherine Scott Burriss, Theatre Journal
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theatre_journal/v054/54.1burriss.pdf
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Woolly Mammoth 2002

at The Kennedy Center
Washington, DC
June 2002

Director: Howard Shalwitz
Set Design: James Krozner
Costume Design: Elena Zlotescu

The naked Lydia is greeted by Giuliano, a masked Dionysian transdresser in Barbie-style stiletto heels who pipes an obbligato gay man's version of love throughout the play. After Lydia dries off and puts on her slip, her sisters Thyona and Olympia struggle onstage dragging their hope chest.

James Krozner's set -- part padded cell, part "The Bold Look of Kohler" -- is a particularly whimsical wonder that provides the perfect playground for Howard Shalwitz's intensely physical direction of a top-notch cast, bedecked in wildly eclectic, fantastical costumes by Elena Zlotescu.
Jonathan Padget, Metro Weekly
http://www.metroweekly.com/arts_entertainment/stage.php?ak=15
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Gate Theatre (London) 2006

Gate Theatre
London, England
September 2006

Director: Melissa Kievman
Design: Hannah Clark
Sound: Neil Alexander
Lighting: David Howe
Choreography: Ann Yee

Melissa Kievman’s colourful, joyous production sports a pink set by Hannah Clark which evokes la dolce vita, the modern Italy of Mee’s text. Her energetic cast swing from lip-synching to pratfalls and from angry declamation to sentimental longing, with little more than the bat of a well-kohled eyelash.
Aleks Sierz, The Stage

So why do I hesitate to recommend this play wholeheartedly? In part because [...] it treats no aspect of its politics - sexual or otherwise - with any seriousness.
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
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University of Washington 2009

University of Washington School of Drama
Seattle, Washington
February 2009

Director: Desdemona Chiang
Scenic Design: Deanna Zibello
Costume Design: Kathleen Hegarty
Lighting Design: Lara Wilder
Sound Design: Matt Davis

The production falters ever so slightly during the few momentum-halting musical numbers. Pop culture non-sequiturs are a difficult endeavor and should be included either with caution or absolute abandon. In this case, though fun, they lack the gripping energy of the rest of the play.
Trevor Pendras, The Daily

The play is technically challenging. Chiang called in members of the UW Climbing Club to teach her actors rappelling (for when they make their entrance from the helicopter) and a choreographer to help the actresses fling themselves on the floor multiple times without hurting themselves. A wind machine will help create the illusion of a helicopter, while trick swords will produce the “blood.”
Nancy Wick, University Week
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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Columbia University 2009

Columbia Stages
Columbia University
Riverside Theatre (Riverside Church)
New York, New York
February 2009

Director: Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Set Designer: Laura Jellinek
Lighting Designer: Mike Inwood
Costume Designer: Amy Pedigo-Otto
Sound Designer: Chris Rummel
Fight Director: Alicia Rodis
Dance Choreographer: Clare Cook


[The director] uses a large, rectangular sand pit ... to evoke a sense of play that enables the many different media to converge.
Louisa Levy, Columbia Spectator
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2009/02/17/out-sandbox-our-minds
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University of Texas 2008

Oscar G. Brockett Theatre
Department of Theatre & Dance
Austin, Texas
February 2008

Director: Fran Dorn
Scene Design: Michelle Ferrier
Costume Design: Allison Heryer
Lighting Design: Darren Levin
Sound Design: Derek Moon

Dance-like movements, coupled with potent monologues and a slow-motion fight scene all strengthen the characters objections to societal pressures. The cast was encouraged to improvise the fight choreography to keep the scenes original.
Jill Harris, The Daily Texas

The stage picture almost never stops moving, and though the movement serves to distract on occasion, for the most part it works [...] Much of the play is dancelike and is, in fact, set against music...
Barry Pineo, Austin Chronicle
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