Sewanee Theatre & Dance Presents ‘Big Love’
by Beth Riner, Messenger Staff Writer
Imagine performing an outdoor play in Sewanee’s Angel Park where 50 bridegrooms helicopter in to ambush 50 reluctant brides — that’s just one challenge facing the director, cast, and crew of “Big Love.”
Sewanee’s Department of Theater and Dance will present “Big Love” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 26, through Saturday, April 29, outdoors at Angel Park, weather permitting.
Written by Charles Mee, “Big Love” is about 50 brides who flee to an Italian manor to avoid marrying their cousins. It’s based on Aeschylus’s “The Suppliants,” one of the earliest plays in the Western world.
“Mee’s become very well-known for doing contemporary adaptations of Greek plays,” said Sewanee Theater Department Chair Jim Crawford. “The play deals with serious topics, but it has a real fun side to it — an exuberance.”
Crawford taught acting to Guest Director Chris McCreary when McCreary was an undergraduate at Southern Methodist University. McCreary has a master of fine arts in directing.
“The play is a larger-than-life piece,” McCreary said. “We wanted to think of things that would engage the audience. It’s a fun story — it’s intentional chaos. The front row is going to be the splash zone — fair warning.”
Writer Mee encourages changes to the script to make the play different for each cast.
“It will very much be Sewanee’s production of ‘Big Love,’” McCreary said. “It’s a really fun, messy, active investigation of who you are. It’s about the pursuit of happiness, and what every single character in the play wants just happens to be in conflict with everyone else.”
One of the driving forces behind the production is the park itself.
“What I really like about doing this play in this setting is the limitations,” said Guest Director Chris McCreary. “I love limitations in theater. It breeds freedom and creativity. The play gives us seemingly impossible things to do with light and sound and music. It really forces you to solve important problems.”
Working closely with McCreary is Stage Manager Olivia Millwood, a junior theater major, and Mac Walker, a senior theater major, who is in charge of costumes.
“Chris is wonderful — very collaborative and also open to ideas from everyone. It’s very refreshing,” Millwood said, who most recently was stage manager for Sewanee’s production of the musical “Urinetown.”
“He’s been a big hit with the students,” Crawford noted.
Walker, whose newfound love of costume design has inspired graduate school specialization in it, praised McCreary for creating a space where students were encouraged to go bigger and look into their ideas.
“I like working with people who are passionate, and the students are really great,” McCreary said. “I can’t wait to see all the work they’re going to do. Everyone in the cast and crew has really shown up. It’s become an ensemble. It’s been a really generative and generous group.”
Cast members include Sofia Tripoli, Ivy Francis Moore, Grace Hurt, Will Johannsson, William Cunningham, David Durden, Emma Dillinger, Jai Manacsa, and Kenzie Donald.
Chorus members include Mac Walker, David Mohrmann, Abbie Holloway, Ellanna Swope, Gracie McGelroy, Anna Stone, Colin Rice, Keegan Congleton, and Patrick Eikenhorst.
According to Crawford, the tradition of doing plays in Angel Park started about three years ago during COVID. He added that because Sewanee is in such an isolated area that people — students, faculty, staff, and the community — tend to come out for the entertainment.
“It really feels like we’re in conversation with the community here,” Crawford said. “The community really shows up for it, and it’s a great experience for our students.”
Crawford noted that “Big Love” is not suitable for children under 12.
“It’s PG-13 — not as family friendly as some of the ones we’ve done,” he said.
“It’s true to the human experience,” Millwood expounded, “but sometimes the human condition is not appropriate for young children.”
The 80 minute play is BYOC: bring your own chair — or blanket. Although there is no intermission, McCreary hopes to have some sort of post-show wedding-type reception in a nod to the production’s matrimonial theme.
“We’d love to be able to talk to the community about the show they just saw,” he said.
To reserve free tickets, go to <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/big-love-tickets-615801477797;.