For Immediate Release:  March 13, 2006
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan     
610-328-8535  
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/     

Swarthmore College Department of Theater to Present 'Big Love'
by Obie-Award Winning Playwright Charles Mee

"Big Love," by Obie-award winning playwright Charles Mee, will be presented by the Department of Theater at Swarthmore College on Saturday and Sunday, March 25 and 26, at 7 p.m.  All performances will be in the Pearson-Hall Theater, Lang Performing Arts Center, and are free and open to the public without advance reservation.  There will be a post-show discussion with the playwright following the Sunday show.

"Big Love" is directed by assistant professor of theater Erin Mee, the playwright's daughter, and marks Marsha Ginsberg's campus debut as the department's resident set and costume designer.  The cast features Colin Aarons '09, Jackie Avitabile '09, Marilyn Batonga '08, Joseph Borkowski , '08 Anne Coleman '09, Garth Griffin '09, Randall Johnston '09, Michael Karcher '07, Alicia Lemke '09, Allison McCarthy '09, Sofia Rivkin-Haas '09, Kate Sauvain '09, and Jackie Vitale '09.  Lighting design is by James Murphy, choreography by Janice Im '06, and sound design by Charles Coes '06.

Charles Mee's plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and abroad by directors such as Anne Bogart, Ivo van Hove, Brian Kulick, Martha Clarke, and Erin Mee.  He is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Obie award for "Big Love."

Erin Mee has directed plays at the Public Theatre in New York, New York Theatre Workshop, the Magic Theater in San Francisco, and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, as well as two productions in India with Sopanam, one of India's leading theater companies.

Marsha Ginsberg has previously taught at the Parsons School of Design, UCLA, Wesleyan University, and Dartmouth College. She is professionally active in both theater and opera design throughout the U.S. and in Europe.  She has designed for New York Theatre Workshop, the Vineyard Theatre (NYC), The Mark Taper Forum (Los Angeles), Eureka Theatre (San Francisco), San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Long Beach Opera, Nationaltheater Manheim (Germany), Bayerisches, Staatsoper (Munich).