MainStage presents the ultimate battle of the sexes in Charles L. Mee’s Big Love

Who
The ASU School of Theatre and Film in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

What
This Nov. 5–14, the ASU School of Theatre and Film’s MainStage Season presents Big Love, a tale of 50 Greek women who escape to an Italian villa from arranged marriages to 50 American cousins. Their intended grooms hunt them down to claim what they believe rightfully belongs to them. Big Love is intended for mature audiences, and contains violence nudity.

Playwright Charles L. Mee uses bold dancing, singing, language and drama in Big Love, which is inspired by one of the oldest works in Western literature, The Suppliant Women, or The Danaids, by Aeschylus, written circa 490 B.C.

According to Kim Weild, the play’s director and a visiting artist from Manhattan, Big Love examines ancient, yet still-relevant issues of women’s rights, gender inequality, politics, immigration, male/female stereotypes and the complicated, contradictory and conflicting nature of human relationships.

“Mee has taken the initial premise of The Suppliant Women and focused his lens on three of the sisters – originally 50 sisters functioned as a chorus – to amplify their plight and magnify the thoughts and emotions associated with love and marriage,” Weild says. “Within his re-making of the chorus, Mee gives each of the three women a distinct voice: the militant Thoyna, the conflicted Lydia, and the romantic Olympia, then releases them into a post-contemporary grand opera of a play.” In so doing, Weild adds, “Stereotypes are cracked open wide; human relationships are exposed, skinned to the bone and laid bare for all to see. This is an epic, messy battle of the sexes with the discovery that love conquers all: ‘Amor vincit omnia!’”

Where
Paul V. Galvin Playhouse, 51 E. 10th St., ASU Tempe campus

When
Nov. 5–6 and 12–13, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 7 and 14, 2 p.m. Big Love is intended for mature audiences, and contains violence and nudity.

Cost
$8–$23; Half-price tickets are available on the First Friday of any MainStage Season production. Student tickets are $8. ASU faculty and staff receive $12 tickets on Friday– Saturday performances, $10 Sunday–Thursday.

Public Contact
Herberger Institute box office, 480.965.6447
School of Theatre and Film, 480.965.5337 
http://mainstage.asu.edu
Join MainStage on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tempe-AZ/ASU-School-of-Theatre-and-Film/150806218263507

The School of Theatre and Film in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University provides a comprehensive range of courses in performance and directing; design and production; new work development; theatre and performance studies; film; and theatre for youth. Its Theatre for Youth program is nationally ranked in the top three and the dramatic writing/playwriting program is ranked 15th among public institutions by U.S.News & World Report. To learn more about the School of Theatre and Film, visit theatrefilm.asu.edu.

Media Contact:
Laurie A. Trotta Valenti 
ASU School of Theatre and Film
310.850.7105
laurie.trotta@asu.edu