OPENING FRIDAY IN BATON ROUGE: BIG LOVE



We've been working really hard on this one. Given all the hurricane weirdness and rescheduling, we ended up with only two weeks of formal reharsal with the full cast. Granted, the core players, LSU's current MFA acting class, have been working on this on and off throughout the semester whenever we could squeeze in some time between Arms and the Man rehearsals and performances, but when we finally put our noses to the grindstone, it was rough going--we got thirty hours of rehearsal packed into three days over the Thanksgiving holiday. But I think it's going to turn out to be pretty great. Everything's falling into place.

The script is incredible: Charles Mee, the playwright, is the Bob Dylan of our time. He takes on some extraordinarily difficult issues and makes them beautiful. Mee is essentially redefining theater for the 21st century, dumping realism, but not completely, while drawing liberally from classical civilization, all the while being thoroughly modern, thoroughly cutting edge. If you ever wonder what's happening right now with relevant and meaningful theater, Charles Mee is it. If you can't get to Baton Rouge to see our production, at the very least you should read the script, which is online in its entirety here.

Here are some pictures I've taken from dress rehearsals the last couple of days:


Lydia (Anna Richardson) delivers a heartfelt speech about diversity and justice while being drowned out by the would-be grooms' approaching helicopter.


The would-be grooms (Mark Jaynes, Derek Mudd, Reuben Mitchell) arrive to confront their runaway brides.


The runaway brides (Anna Richardson, Nikki Travis, Kesha Bullard) stand in defiance of their stalking suitors.

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