"Big Love" Katzen Studio Theatre Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m. Student tickets: $5
The AU Players' stunning new production of Chuck Mee's play "Big Love" has undergone a complete metamorphosis in the last three months.
"More than a third of what you see is not by Chuck Mee," said Sean Bartley, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the director of the show. "It grew into this amazing thing."
It all started when AU Players began accepting proposals for their fall season. Bartley proposed either "Big Love" or the Steven Sondheim musical "Assassins." AU Players Executive Director Anne Veal, a senior in CAS, thought it was important to stage a musical because the Department of Performing Arts only had one on their schedule this year, as opposed to the usual two. However, she knew they didn't have the budget for "Assassins."
"In a pretty brilliant decision on her part, we went with 'Big Love' and made it a musical," Bartley said.
That was when the rewriting began. Bartley and Veal became a part of Mee's (Re)Making Project. Mee is supported by patrons, so he doesn't need to make his living through royalties on his work. He publishes all of his plays online and actually invites other playwrights to alter and build upon them.
"Most plays have lots of rules or you are breaking copyright. ... You can't change anything," Veal said. "But he wants you to break rules. He wants you to create, because that is what art is."
They decided to "Moulin Rouge it," as Bartley said, because copyright laws allow the use of one song from an album in a performance without paying royalties. They also decided to develop several characters well beyond their initial role in the play.
"The relationship between Ed and Giuliano is almost completely new," Bartlett said. "Entire scenes have been cut and rewritten."
The cumulative effect of their work is spectacular. The AU Players version of the show is one of the most original, challenging and insightful performances this campus has ever seen. It guarantees to raise the bar for theatre at this university.
Educated theatre minds agree.
"That was some of the best work I've seen from these people," said Carl Menninger, director of Theatre and Music theatre in the Department of Performing Arts.
The play focuses on relationships: sisterhood, marriage, motherhood and love. Usually student performance groups have trouble portraying such intense and visceral emotions. However, this is the real strength of the Players' show. They don't hold anything back and give truly realistic and believable portrayals. The kisses are tender and the sex is raunchy. Even better, the love is honestly depicted as difficult, flawed and sometimes painful.
Alex Lenarsky, a sophomore in CAS who plays Oed in the musical, turns in an impressive performance while trapped in the love triangle between Giuliano (Roddy Flynn, a junior in the School of Public Affairs) and Olympia (Katie Lock, a freshman in CAS). From the moment he sings "Smile" by Nat King Cole, the audience is entranced. His relationship with Giuliano is a poignant testament to the difficulty experienced by many members of the gay community when they decide to come out.
The AU Players have also discovered some incredible new talent. When Anne Leonard (Greek Chorus), a freshman in CAS, starts singing "Happy to Keep His Dinner Warm" by Frank Loesser, it becomes clear that she will grace many more stages in her time here. Moreover, CAS freshman Nick Jonczak (Nikos) delivers a truly endearing performance that will surely win over even those who are inclined to agree with Thyona's (Taryn Olsen, a senior in CAS) views about men.
More interestingly, the performance breaks down the wall between the cast, audience and stage crew. The cast gestures directly to the audience and even acknowledges Music Director and AU alumni Kent Peacock before starting a song.
Of course, it is not without its fumbles. The space is difficult to work in and occasionally makes it difficult to see the characters' faces. Some of the emotions come on without warning and for apparently no reason. Lock still needs to pump up the volume and really vamp for the audience during her performance of "Gorgeous" by Jerry Bock.
However, the connection between the audience and the cast makes the messages of the play strong enough to overcome these minor errors. And the climactic death scene should resolve any doubts the audience might have had.
"This play is full of questions of morality," Veal said. "We're not trying to preach anything. We're not trying to change anyone's mind. We're attempting to show how theatre can and should be a forum for discussion and entertainment simultaneously."
AU Players succeed with flying colors. Make sure to get tickets in advance, because there are fewer than a hundred seats in the Katzen Studio Theatre and "Big Love" is sure to fill them quickly.
