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Schools

'Big Love' Hits the Stage at Newton North

Student-directed play will be performed nightly through Saturday.

Tonight through Saturday night, ’s Theatre Ink will be performing the musical Big Love at 7:30 p.m. in the high school’s Little Theatre. 

Written by Charles Mee, the play was inspired by the Greek classic play The Suppliant Maidens by Aeschylus, telling the story of 50 brides-to-be who run away from their arranged marriages in Greece only to be tracked down by their potential husbands, causing a war of the sexes. 

“It takes an intense look at gender,” says Adam Brown, faculty director for Theatre Ink, explaining how the play presents gender roles in the tradition of arranged marriage, making the audience consider how love happens and if it is something that can really be arranged.

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Big Love, which premiered Wednesday night, was chosen and directed by students Katherine Norris and Caleb Bromberg, both seniors at Newton North.

A “teaching and working theatre,” Theatre Ink lets the students take control of the productions, says Brown. 

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“When students choose the plays, it’s their voice and their generation,” he says.  “It gives it more meaning with their peers who are coming to see it.”

Student director Norris says that she and co-director Bromberg chose Big Love because the prose is very poetic and unlike any play done previously by Theatre Ink. 

The play also resonated with them because it addresses the roles of gender in society, a subject that matters to them, she says.

“I see [gender roles] every day in high school,” says Norris. “It’s so prevalent because we’re developing our identities. We’re struggling to define ourselves.” 

“People have trouble breaking away from the traditional definitions of men and women and this play concentrates on that,” she adds.

Norris and Bromberg were chosen as directors through an application process where they had to present their proposed play in writing and through interviews, says Brown.

“[Big Love] was picked mostly because the directors really sold it, justified it, and had a vision of what they wanted,” says Brown. 

Norris says working on this play has been a good experience for her. 

“I’ve never completed a project this big before and seen it through from beginning to end,” she says.  “Seeing the realization of something I’ve worked on has assured me that I can do things like this in the future.”

Brown says working with the student directors has impressed him. 

“They work harder and are more driven than many adults I’ve worked with,” he says.  “I’m lucky to have the opportunity to work with them.” 

Tickets to Big Love are $7 and can be purchased online

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