THYONA from Big Love

Title

THYONA from Big Love

Creator

PLAYWRIGHT: Charles L. Mee

Director

DIRECTOR: Randy Baker

Contributor

Set Designer: Paige Hathaway

Costume Designer: Julie Cray-Leong

Lighting Designer: Brian S. Allard

Sound Designer: Thomas Sowers

Date

November 19-22, 2015

Abstract

Fifty brides seek refuge from their fifty grooms, doing whatever it takes to stop the wedding. Seeking asylum in a beautiful Italian villa, they experience threats of suicide, pacts of murderous revenge, and maybe – accidently – acts of love. Charles Mee’s explosive and poetic retelling of the world’s oldest play – Aeschylus’s The Suppliants – is equal parts comedy and tragedy, exploring themes of sex, revenge, and justice. And cake. Lots and lots of cake.

Description

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS: [The director] is inspired by Asian culture...He knows wedding dresses as being red, so we’re going with that…There are three feature wedding dresses. One of the red dress is a real showstopper, lacey, beaded, and with a va-va-voom vibe. [Julie Cray-Leong, The Tower, November 20, 2015]

This script calls for a large amount of stage blood, which gets on everything. The dress is designed for the blood to wash out, (but nothing is perfect). Because the clean-up took 4 hours, we had to build 2 of each dress since there wasn’t enough time between shows to accomplish the task. [Gail Beach, email dated 9/5/18]