December 2001 / January 2002 2001 Next Wave Festival Denise Green, For Merce 2000 BAM Next Wave Festival sponsor: PHILIP MORRIS ~lAGf8lll COM PAN I E 5 INC. Brooklyn Academy of Music Bruce C. Ratner Alan H. Fishman Chairman of the Board Chairman, Campaign for BAM Karen Brooks Hopkins Joseph V. Melillo President Executive Producer presents Big Love Approximate BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater running time: Nov 30, Dec 1, 4-8, 2001, at 7:30pm 1 hour 40 Dec 2 & 9 at 3pm; Dec 8 at 2pm minutes, no intermission By Charles L. Mee Director Les Waters A Goodman Theatre Production Movement Jean Isaacs Scenic designer Annie Smart Costume designer James Schuette Lighti ng designer Robert Wierzel Sound design Rob Milburn & Michael Bodeen Production stage manager Kimberly Osgood* Stage manager Elisa Guthertz* Dance/Fight captain K.J. Sanchez Assistant director Steve Cosson Cast Lyd ia Carolyn Baeumler* Constantine Mark Zeisler* Giuliano Tony Speciale* Oed J. Matthew Jenkins* Olympia Aimee Guillot* Extra Brides Amy Landecker*, Thyona K.J. Sanchez* Lusia Strus* Bella/Eleanor LaurenKlein* Extra Grooms Adrian Danzig*, Piero/Leo J. Michael Flynn* Chuck Stubbings* Nikos Bruce McKenzie* Understudies never substitute for a listed player unless an announcement is made at the beginning of the play: Adrian Danzig*-Nikos, Giuliano; Joe Dempsey*-Groom #1, Groom #2, Piero, Leo; Amy Landecker*-Lydia, Thyona; Lisa Rothschiller-Bride #1, Bride #2, Olympia; Chuck Stubbings*-Constantine, Oed; Lusia Strus*-Bella, Eleanor. *The stage managers and actors affiliated with this production are members of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers of the United States. World premiere: March 2000, Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. Original casting at the Humana Festival: Judy Bowman, Laura Richin, Richin casting Opening night support provided by Chrysler. BAM thanks Theatre Development Fund for its support of this season. 17 s~~ _ Location: A villa on the coast of Italy Time: The present Big Love was inspired by what scholars consider to be the earliest surviving play of Western literature, Aeschylus' The Suppliant Women. Fifty sisters from Greece arrive on their family's yacht and anchor off a villa on the coast of present­ day Italy. They ask the owner of the villa to take them in and protect them, for they are refugees. On the day of their arranged marriages to their 50 cousins they decided to leave their grooms at the altar and face exile instead. They need protection, too, for their grooms are pursuing them. The cousins arrive in Italy to claim their brides, but the sisters will not go down without a fight. \ALba' c::. \ALba _ Carolyn Baeumler (Lydia) appeared as Lydia in Theater, Soho Rep, the Lunar Cabaret, and Big Love at Berkeley Repertory, Long Wharf Bailiwick. He has performed at the Goodman Theatre, and the Humana Festival premiere at Theatre in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore; with Actors Theatre of Louisville. Her recent off­ Lookingglass Theater Company in Metamor­ Broadway credits include Mae West in West's phoses, (Chicago and San Francisco) and as play Sex for the Hourglass Group, In Betweens the Baron in Baron in the Trees; as Quasimodo at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and Courtney Love in Hunchback with Redmoon Theatre at in Love in the Void. She understudied both Steppenwolf Studio and the Joseph Papp Blanche and Stella in New York Theatre Public Theater; and at Gnuyak Studio in Workshop's production of A Streetcar Named Murke's Collected Silences, and as ringmaster, Desire, directed by Ivo Vov Hove. Regionally Marco Poyo in Le Cirque Nair. He teaches at she appeared as Marilyn Monroe at A Roosevelt University, and is a clown with the Contemporary Theatre in Miss Golden Dreams, Big Apple Circus Clown Care Unit at the in Life Under 30 at Actors Theatre of Louisville, University of Chicago Children's Hospital and at and in A Clockwork Orange directed by Terry La Rabida Children's Hospital. Kinney at Steppenwolf. Recent film credits include Happy Anniversary Harry, Shipping J. Michael Flynn (Piero/Leo) makes his first and Handling, and Gypsy 83. She is a found­ appearance at BAM. He has performed in ing member of the Hourglass Group, which many cities in the United States, playing every­ produced Sex and A Usual Suspect at New thing from a French aristocrat to a junkyard York Theatre Workshop. dog. Theaters include A Contemporary Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), Adrian Danzig (ensemble) is an actor, director, Baltimore Center Stage, Berkeley Repertory and clown. Danzig created and performs in Theatre, Cleveland Play House, GeVa Theatre, 500 Clown Macbeth, which will return to Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Long Chicago this spring; produced City of Fools at Wharf Theatre, Magic Theatre, Old Globe Chicago's Clown Theater Festival; and has Theatre, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, worked with Joanne Akalaitis, Anne Bogart, Portland Center Stage, Pittsburgh Public Yvonne Rainer, Bernie Sahlins, Bread and Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, Seattle Puppet Theater, Shakespeare & Company, the Repertory Theatre, and the Sundance Institute. Neo-Futurists, Midnight Circus, and Redmoon Theater, of which he was a founding member. Aimee Guillot (Olympia) makes her BAM debut Danzig has performed his solo works at many in Big Love. She has appeared in the produc­ venues in New York and Chicago, including tions of Big Love at Berkeley Rep, the Actors The Kitchen, P.S. 122, the Ontological-Hysteric Theatre of Louisville, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Goodman Theatre. Other regional credits 18 include Cecily in The Importance of Being Amy Landecker (ensemble) appeared in Big Earnest at La Jolla Playhouse (also directed by Love at the Goodman, where she also appeared Les Waters), for which she received a Drama­ last season as Beth in Blue Surge and before Logue Award for Outstanding Performance. In that as Alice in Zoot Suit. Other Chicago credits New York she has performed with the Builders include Yodellers at Donnie's Skybox, The Duel Association in Master Builder and also with European Repertory Company; Killer Joe Xtravaganza, which appeared at the with Cole Theatricals; Steel Magnolias at Guggenheim MuseumIWorks in Process and Theatre at the Center; Danny Bouncing at the Whitney Museum Performance Space on Victory Gardens; Wolf Lullaby and A Streetcar 42nd Street. She also toured Xtravaganza in Named Desire at Steppenwolf; Bus Stop at Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium. American Theater Company; EI Paso Blue with Television and film credits include Interstate 84 Teatro Vista at Next Theatre; Hurricane at (official selection, Toronto Film Festival), So Famous Door; The Possessed with Prop What Do You Think? (New York Comedy Theatre; Victims of Duty at Red Orchid Theatre; Festival), MTV's Austin Stories, and As the The Conduct of Life, Edmond, and Coyote Ugly World Turns, among others. Guillot is a gradu­ with the Pillar Studio. Television credits include ate of the master of fine arts program at the Turks and Early Edition. Film credits include University of California, San Diego. Temporary Girl and Light It Up. She is a mem­ ber of SAG, AFTRA, and AEA. J. Matthew Jenkins (Oed) has been part of the Big Love ensemble since its premiere at the Bruce McKenzie (Nikos) appeared in Big Love Humana Festival 2000 in Louisville, and at Berkeley Rep and Long Wharf Theatre. He is makes his debut at BAM. His recent credits a co-founder of San Diego's Sledgehammer include Backstory (Humana 2000), Sister Theater, working there from 1987-95. Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, Machinal, Performances include Endgame, Drums in the and Suddenly Last Summer. His television/film Night, Pre-Paradise Sorry Now, War to End credits include The Guiding Light and several War, The Revenger's Tragedy, the title role in independent films. He is a graduate of the Hamlet, and a solo performance of Beckett's University of Virginia. Ping, among others. As a member of Actors Theatre of Louisville'S 1998-99 company, he Lauren Klein (Bella/Eleanor) has been part of reprised the title role in Hamlet. Other regional the Big Love ensemble since its premiere. Her works include Othello, Polaroid Stories, Aloha Broadway credits are Lost in Yonkers and Say, The Pretty Girls, Noises Off, all at Actors Broken Glass (original cast member of both); Theatre of Louisville; The Tempest for La Jolla national tours include Broadway Bound and I'm Playhouse; The End of the Day at Magic Theatre; Not Rappaport; and off-Broadway credits are Krapp's Last Tape and Skin at Dallas Theatre Death Defying Acts, What's Wrong with This Center; and Albanian Softshoe, Cymbeline, and Picture?, and Passion Play. Klein's regional Heathen Valley at San Diego Rep. His New York credits include Denial (Pope Theatre), for which credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (New she won the Carbonell/Best Actress award­ York Theatre Workshop), Marlowe's Eye (Theatre 1997, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Harvey of S1. Clements/Tectonic) and No Time Uke the (Cleveland Playhouse); Nine Armenians Present (Whitney Museum of American Art). (Intiman Theatre); and Hayfever, Another Part McKenzie was a member of the 2000 company of the Forest, and History of the American Film of the Sundance Theatre Lab. A member of the at ACT while a member of their conservatory band Maquiladora, McKenzie plays accordion, and acting company. Film and television credits upright bass, lap steel, guitar, and other instru­ include A Price Above Rubies, Snooze, and the ments. The band recently completed a seven recurring role of Judge Carla Solomon on Law & country European tour and last performed in the Order. Klein holds a master of fine arts from Bay Area at Bottom of the Hill.