Northwestern University Theater in January

EVANSTON, Ill. --- A recently rejuvenated Northwestern University theater venue will greet audiences who attend the Mainstage winter 2016 production of an updated version of an ancient fable attributed to Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

The modern takeoff of the Greek myth -- about a group of runaway brides being pursued by their jilted grooms -- was adapted by American playwright and historian Charles L. Mee. Mee is known for his “collage-like style of playwriting, which makes use of radical reconstructions of found texts.”

Presented by the School of Communication’s Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, Mee’s play “Big Love” will be this season’s first production in Northwestern’s enhanced Josephine Louis Theater.

The rehabbed Louis Theater is part of the Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts, 1949 Campus Drive, and formerly known as the Theater and Interpretation Center.

The updated Louis Theater now features 288 comfortable new seats, a center aisle, more wheelchair accessible seating, a reconfigured floor that reduced the rake (sloping angle) of the theater and seating that is broken up into six sections.

Two other upcoming Northwestern productions will soon be staged in the Louis Theater. Tickets for both of the following shows also go on sale Dec. 15:

• Danceworks 2016, Feb. 26 to March 6, the dance program’s annual showcase, will feature innovative choreography by Tony and Olivier award-winner Garth Fagan; 2015 Guggenheim Fellow Rosy Simas; Hedwig Dances Artistic Associate Maray Gutíérrez, and Northwestern dance faculty members Jeffrey Hancock and Joel Valentín-Martínez. Single tickets are $5 to $25.

• This spring, Henry Godinez, a Northwestern theater professor and Goodman Theatre resident artistic associate, will direct Nilo Cruz’s “Anna in the Tropics,” May 13 to 22. Set in 1929 Florida, it follows a group of proud Cuban immigrants who toil in a factory hand-rolling cigars as a lector reads Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” to them, igniting their passions as they struggle to uphold tradition in the face of encroaching factory mechanization. Single tickets are $5 to $25.

More information about the January production and upcoming Winter 2016 Stage on Screen events follow:  

JANUARY 2016 MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

• “Big Love” by Charles L. Mee, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30; 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7, at the Josephine Louis Theater. Fifty terrified brides fleeing an arranged marriage take refuge in an Italian Villa, with 50 angry grooms hot on their trail, hell-bent on reclaiming their “property.” As tensions rise and their trip down the aisle nears, sisters Tyona, Olympia and Lydia hatch a desperate plan to escape the darker side of love and matrimony. Northwestern University School of Communication MFA candidate Gina Marie Hayes directs a radicalized version of an Aeschylus play that explores the gender divide and gives new meaning to “until death do us part.” Talkback discussions will follow the Friday, Jan. 29 and Thursday, Feb. 4 evening performances. Single tickets are $25 for the general public; $22 for Northwestern faculty and staff, educators and seniors over age 62; and $5 for Northwestern students with valid IDs on advance purchase only, or $10 at the door. NOTE: Single tickets go on sale Tuesday, Dec. 15. 

WINTER 2016 STAGE ON SCREEN BROADCASTS

Upcoming Stage on Screen broadcasts will include National Theatre Live broadcasts of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” March 30 with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role; Charlotte Bronte’s classic “Jane Eyre” on Feb. 2; Donmar Warehouse’s highly-anticipated new production of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (March 1) with a cast that includes Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Janet McTeer (“The White Queen”) and Dominic West (“The Wire”); and Rosalie Craig in “As You Like It” on March 29, directed by Polly Findlay.

National Theatre Live (NT Live) is sponsored by Aviva and supported with public funding by Arts Council England. The Wirtz Center’s NT Live broadcasts are sponsored by a generous grant from The Alumnae of Northwestern University.

Tickets to Stage on Screen events are $20 general public, $16 for Northwestern faculty and staff members (in-person or phone order only) or $10 full-time students (under 30 with current IDs).

For more information, visit wirtz.northwestern.edu or contact the Wirtz Center Box Office at 847-491-7282.