My Big, Fat, Ferocious Greek Wedding:
Big Love “draws on every facet of the student actor’s training”
HANOVER, NH—So you’ve witnessed some bad wedding receptions (perhaps your own)? Toasts offering too
much information? Bridezillas in a snit? Dance floor disasters? Newlyweds “playfully” shoving cake in each
others’ faces?
Chances are they can’t hold a candle to the riotous,
rambunctious reception following the wedding of many
brothers to many reluctant sisters in the play Big Love by
Charles Mee, running Thursday, November 8, through
Sunday, November 17, in a Dartmouth Department of
Theater production in The Moore Theater of Hopkins
Center.
Classical drama collides with modern-day excess in Mee’s
fiercely extravagant adaptation of Aeschylus' The
Suppliants that The New York Times described as "an
MGM musical in Technicolor, a circus and, believe it, a
Greek tragedy." In this wild, luxurious romp, 50 GreekAmerican sisters vow to escape their 50 Greek fiancés –
their cousins—on their wedding night. After they seek
asylum at the Italian villa of a relation who is unwilling to
take sides, the grooms catch up—by helicopter. With no
one to stand up for them, the women decide to stand up
for themselves by any means necessary, giving the term
"battle of the sexes" a whole new meaning. The
production contains adult language and themes.
Appropriately, the production team includes professional New York-based fight choreographer Ron Piretti,
who has staged fights for Broadway and regional theater productions and has taught stage combat. He
worked with the cast four times over the span of rehearsals, teaching them to appear to punch, bite, throw
down and otherwise clobber each other without causing actual harm.
(L-R) Rachel Decker-Sadowski ’14 (Lydia), Veronica Burt ’15 (Olympia) and Diane Chen ’14 (Thyona)
Auditions attracted about 60 students, the most in recent memory for Theater Department productions. That
may be thanks to Mee’s unique approach to intellectual property: since the 1990s, he has been making all his
plays available free of charge through the internet. It’s only fair, he writes: his plays are often “radical
reconstructions” of past works— “Euripides and Brecht and stuff out of Soap Opera Digest and the evening
news and the internet,” he writes on the website for his “re(making) project.”
This accessibility was useful. “Everyone had read the play, and once you read this play you want to be a part of
it,” said Amber Porter ’14, assistant to the director and outreach coordinator.
“Once they read the play, they could see how much fun it is,” said Tazewell Thompson, an internationally
known theater artist and the guest director for this production. “It draws on every facet of the student actor’s
training: comedy, drama, heightened language, movement and dance, combat, singing and playing of musical
instruments.”
In auditions, tumbling mats were spread about and students were required to somersault, cartwheel and
throw themselves on the ground. Thompson ended up with so many strong performers, he decided to enlarge
the cast to enlarge the number of bridal couples from three to seven. While fewer than the 50 couples in
Aeschylus’ version—that’s a lot of wedding dresses—it makes a satisfying mob for the post-vow melee.
Thompson has directed all styles of plays and musicals in major theaters nationally and opera in the leading
opera houses of Europe, Asia and South Africa; as well as having taught and directed in universities and
colleges across the country. The opera experience has been useful in this production, he said. “One of the
things I said to the cast at the first rehearsal was that I was going to guide them to work in a style that’s bigger
and more operatic than usual. The play calls for that. Also, the script contains a series of, I call them ‘arias,’
where a character offers their thoughts on politics, social issues, religion, gender politics” in language that’s
raw, at times, but startling and musical, he said.
More about the production team
In addition to his directing and teaching credits, Thompson is an award-winning playwright with commissions
from Lincoln Center Theater, Arena Stage, South Coast Rep and People's Light & Theater Company. His latest
play: Mary T. & Lizzy K. had its world premiere at Arena Stage in spring 2013 and is currently running at Park
Square Theater in St. Paul. Upcoming projects include the operas Carmen, A View From The Bridge, Four Saints
In Three Acts, Lost In The Stars and Appomattox by Philip Glass.
Piretti is an actor, fight director and director. He has staged the fights for the Broadway productions of West
Side Story, In the Heights, The Miracle Worker, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and The Performers, and the
recent production of Fly at the Dallas Theater Center. He appeared as Officer Krupke in the Broadway
production of West Side Story as well as appearing in film and TV. His directing credits include Big Mistake,
Marymount Manhattan College; Man in the Basement, The Barrow Group; Adventures of Alweida the Pirate
Queen, Snug Harbor; Romeo and Juliet, Wagner College; and the House of Yes. He has taught acting and/or
stage combat for the Actors Studio MFA Program at Pace University, Wagner College, Marymount Manhattan
College and The Barrow Group in NYC.
The production team also includes Dartmouth Theater faculty members Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili, set
designer, who is chief designer for two companies in the Republic of Georgia and has created sets and
costumes for hundreds of performances around the world, from New York to Moscow to Buenos Aires; and
Laurie Churba-Kohn, costume designer, who has worked extensively as a costume designer in NYC in theater,
television and film for 15 years; and, as guest artists, busy New York-based professionals Stephen Quandt,
lighting designer, and Fabian Obispo, composer and sound designer .
* * *
Founded in 1962, the Hopkins Center for the Arts is a multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing
arts center dedicated to uncovering insights, igniting passions, and nurturing talents to help Dartmouth and
the surrounding Upper Valley community engage imaginatively and contribute creatively to our world. Each
year the Hop presents more than 300 live events and films by visiting artists as well as Dartmouth students
and the Dartmouth community, and reaches more than 22,000 Upper Valley residents and students with
outreach and arts education programs. After a celebratory 50th-anniversary season in 2012-13, the Hop
enters its second half-century with renewed passion for mentoring young artists, supporting the
development of new work, and providing a laboratory for participation and experimentation in the arts.
* * *
RELEVANT LINKS
Big Love (Dartmouth production) https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/131108_theater
Charles Mee http://www.charlesmee.org/
Tazewell Thompson http://www.dartmouth.edu/~theater/faculty/tazewellthompson.html
Ron Piretti http://www.ronpiretti.net/
Georgi Alexi-Meskhishvili http://www.dartmouth.edu/~theater/faculty/alexi-meskhishvili.html
Laurie Churba-Kohn http://www.dartmouth.edu/~theater/faculty/kohn.html
Stephen Quandt http://www.quandt.com/srq.html
Fabian Obispo http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/artists/fabian-obispo/
Production stills
https://hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScont
ent::loadArticle::article_id=A14ACB33-679C-469F-9E075A08469894E7&sessionlanguage=&SessionSecurity::linkName=
CALENDAR LISTING:
Big Love, by Charles Mee, a Dartmouth Department of Theater production
Award-winning director Thompson, whose career spans four decades in theaters and opera companies
throughout the US, Europe and Africa, guest-directs American playwright Mee’s popular retelling of
Aeschylus’ tale of runaway brides in an Italian villa. Expect “a ferocious, comic-revenge-play; a vaudevillian
tragicomedy; a free-wheeling, outsized, epic, explosive, extreme, exhilarating, high-energy battle of the
sexes” (Tazewell Thompson). Contains adult language and themes.
Friday & Saturday, November 8 & 9, 8 pm
Thursday-Saturday, November 14-16, 8 pm
Sundays, November 10 & 17, 2 pm
The Moore Theater, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Hanover NH
Tickets $12; Dartmouth students $10; all other students $10
Information: Hopkins Center Box Office, 603.646.2422 or hop.dartmouth.edu
* * *
CONTACT:
Rebecca Bailey, Publicity Coordinator/Writer
Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College
rebecca.a.bailey@dartmouth.edu
693.646.3991