A big hand for Big Love
Big Love is UT’s largest and most ambitious in-house, professional production to date.
Ellenor Riley-Condit and Eleanor Davis put on makeup for the opening night of University Theater’s production of Big Love, directed by Sean Graney. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Ellenor Riley-Condit, Alli Urbanik, Mary Claire Walther, and Eleanor Davis perform in University Theater’s production of Big Love. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Megan Kingsbury takes an axe to her groom-to-be played by John Woodard Davis IV in University Theater’s production of Big Love. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Ellenor Riley-Condit, Alli Urbanik, Mary Claire Walther, Evan Gluey Garrett, and Eleanor Davis perform in Big Love. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Mary Claire Walther strangles her groom-to-be played by Khyle Gill in University Theater’s production of Big Love. (Photo by Jason Smith)
University Theater performs Big Love by Charles L. Mee. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Second-year Eleanor Davis and third-year Alicia Graff help with the construction of the set for University Theater’s production of Big Love. (Photo by Jason Smith)
Theater programs usually feature an unexpectedly large number of behind-the-scenes artists.
In the case of Big Love, University Theater’s mainstage show, which opened in the Reynolds Club’s First Floor Theater on March 4, that number is 16—that is, 16 design and technical assistants who manage every aspect of production ranging from running sound cues to providing professional director and lecturer in the College Sean Graney with direct artistic feedback.
‘A dream-like tale of a throng of Greek women’
Big Love is the third professionally directed show produced by the Theater and Performance Studies Program and University Theater in the past three years. The TAPS/UT production tradition began in fall 2007, when Graney was invited to helm Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls at the College. In response to student talent and requests, Heidi Coleman, Director of Theater and Performance Studies and University Theater, made a grant request to the Arts Council in order to hire director and designers. The funding that was received set the process in motion.
The production and experience were so successful that TAPS invited Jon Berry, another rising Chicago director, to oversee the meta-musical Urinetown last winter. This year, Graney returns to mount Chuck Mee’s Big Love, a dream-like tale of a throng of Greek women who flee their native country to escape arranged marriages, and land among a gaggle of off-kilter Italians.
UT’s biggest mentored team yet
Every TAPS/UT production features student assistants, but high student demand and an ambitious design transformed this into UT’s biggest mentored assistant team thus far. When Graney first came in to discuss the show with TAPS professionals last summer, the design goals were relatively modest.
But as discussions got under way, the design became increasingly complex (the multi-tiered set, for example, now features an entire living room filled with upside-down furniture). TAPS director of design Tom Burch was thrilled at the opportunities Graney’s bold choices presented. “A lot of students showed interest,” he says. And “with a bunch of bigger [designs] than we originally conceived, it made sense to get as many people on board as we possibly could.”
Costumes, lighting, and sound
Early last fall, students submitted applications to work with the various professional staff. Alongside Graney and Burch, professional costume designer Elizabeth Wislar, lighting designer Heather Gilbert, and sound designer Miles Polaski were hired to join the team.
Fourth year Melissa Ng was one of three students tapped to assist Wislar. Her work has ranged from building and buying costume pieces to providing input on aesthetic choices. “We’re revising one of the costumes,” says Ng, “and she did ask me what would be a good revision, because it didn’t really work the first time.”
But Ng, an aspiring costume designer herself, maintains that the most beneficial experiences have come simply from talking to Wislar one-on-one, “and learning about how she got into the field and worked her way up.”
Second-year co-assistant Molly FitzMaurice concurs. “Learning about her reasons for working in costume design was really interesting for me as I assess where I want to work,” she says.
Hands-on work ‘most useful and helpful’
At a light hang—an event where a crew suspends the production’s lights in place—assistant lighting designer Sara Tamler adds her own perspective on the collaboration. Tamler considers her contributions to Big Love thus far—from hanging lights to entering light cues into a computer—mostly “grunt work.” But she contends that it’s just this hands-on work that proves “most useful and helpful” for aspiring light designers, and the production in general.
Gilbert apparently agrees. At the same light hang, she pauses for a brief interview as Tamler and two other students work. Gilbert always uses assistants to help her hang lights. But she insists on this group’s exceptionalism. “I walked in this morning… and all these lights were hung and ready to go.”
By Christopher Shea, fourth year in the College
