THE BIG MEAL to Open Artists Rep's 2013-14 Season, 9/3-10/6

Artists Rep's 2013/14 season kicks off with The Big Meal by Dan LeFranc in its West Coast premiere, directed by new Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez. Set in a quintessential American restaurant, entire lives whiz by for a modern family whose stage and age are short-order fare. From birth to that inevitable last course - and every corndog, calamari and Cadillac margarita in between - a multi-generational potluck of characters live life's major and minor moments around the dinner table.

At the production's first rehearsal, Director Dámaso Rodriguez said that this play, with its strong themes of family and food, beginning and endings, gatherings and goodbyes, couldn't be a better start to his tenure as Artists Rep's Artistic Director.

Portraying 26 characters and five generations in 80 minutes with eight actors is an unprecedented undertaking for a playwright, a director and a cast. Written more like a score than a play, The Big Meal's unique format allows for a flow of overlapping dialogue and tangential conversations found at any family's dinner table. With quick time shifts over the course of the play, the essence of characters get passed to another actor in the next age.

"At first it feels like a cute romantic comedy," said director Damaso Rodriguez. "And then it transforms, becoming more abstract and expressionistic as it goes." The complexity of life is reflected in how the play is told. Rodriguez continues, "This play speaks to universal things that if told traditionally would be prosaic but in this condensed form really looks at the whole of life in a very interesting and all-encompassing way."

He said The Big Meal is a "real ensemble piece that needs smart, fast, intuitive actors." The outstanding cast includes Allen Nause (former Artistic Director, Resident Artist), Vana O'Brien (Resident Artist), Scott Lowell (lauded LA-based screen and stage veteran), along with Val Landrum, Britt Harris, Andy Lee-Hillstrom, Agatha Olson and Harper Lea.

Scenic Design by LA-based, award-winning designer Susan Gratch, Sound Design by Rodolfo Ortega, Resident Artist; Lighting Design by Brent J. Sullivan; Costume Design by Jessica Bobillot; Properties Design by Rusty Tennant. The Stage Manager is Michelle Jazuk, the Assistant Director is John Steinkamp, and Stephanie Mulligan is the Production Manager.

The Big Meal, written by Dan LeFranc and directed by Dámaso Rodriguez features Vana O'Brien, Allen Nause, Val Landrum, Scott Lowell, Britt Harris, Andy Lee-Hillstrom, Agatha Olson and Harper Lea. Performance Dates: Sept. 3 - Oct. 6. Preview performances September 3-6. Opening Night is Saturday, September 7. Show runs Wednesday through Sunday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2pm. All performances play the Artists Repertory Theatre - Alder Stage (16th and Alder St.). Tickets: $25-$55. Box Office: 503.241.1278 or www.artistsrep.org.

Dan LeFranc received the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for Sixty Miles to Silver Lake, premiered by Page 73 Productions and Soho Rep. His play The Big Meal received its world premiere at American Theatre Company in Chicago, where it was declared the "#1 Play of 2011" by Time Out Chicago and garnered five Joseph Jefferson Award nominations. The Big Meal received its off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons, where it picked up a Drama Desk nomination and four Lucille Lortel nominations, including for Outstanding Play. His most recent play, Troublemaker or The Freakin Kick-A Adventures of Bradley Boatright recently premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Dan's other plays include Backyard, Bruise Easy, Catgut, The Fishbone Fables, In the Labyrinth, Kill the Keepers, Night Surf, and Origin Story. Dan is currently working on commissions for Yale Rep, South Coast Rep, and Playwrights Horizons. He has been recognized with the Helen Merrill Award and the Whitfield Cook Award, plus a Djerassi Resident Artists Program Fellowship, a John C. Russell Fellowship, and two MacDowell Colony/Alpert Foundation Residencies. He is a member of the MCC Playwrights Coalition and New Dramatists, and a former member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. A graduate of the MFA playwriting program at Brown University, Dan served as head playwriting instructor for the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium and visiting faculty at Brown, SUNY Purchase, and Yale University, among others. Sixty Miles to Silver Lake andThe Big Meal have been published by Samuel French. The Big Meal also appeared in TheatreForum, McSweeney's quarterly food journal Lucky Peach, and the Methuen Drama Book of New American Plays, edited by Sarah Benson. Dan is currently the Playwright-In-Residence at Playwrights Horizons.

Dámaso Rodriguez joined Artists Rep as Artistic Director in July of 2013. He is a Co-Founder of the Los Angeles-based Furious Theatre Company, an ensemble-driven theatre committed to daring, socially relevant new plays of visceral impact, where he served as Co-Artistic Director from 2001-2012. From 2007-2010 he served as Associate Artistic Director of the Pasadena Playhouse, where he directed main stage productions and oversaw programming for The Playhouse's Second Stage, including its Hothouse New Play Development Program. His directing credits include work at the Pasadena Playhouse, Intiman Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Laguna Playhouse, A Noise Within, The Theatre@Boston Court, Odyssey Theatre, The Blank Theatre, The Road Theatre and Furious Theatre. Dámaso is a recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Back Stage Garland Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, and the Pasadena Arts Council's Gold Crown Award. In 2010, Furious Theatre Company was named to LA Weekly's list of "Best Theatres of the Decade." In 2012, he was honored as a finalist for the Zelda Fichandler Award. He is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. Recent productions: Ruth & Augustus Goetz' The Heiress (starring Richard Chamberlain), Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes (starring Kelly McGillis) and Austin Pendleton's Orson's Shadow (starring Sharon Lawrence) at the Pasadena Playhouse; the reading of Steven Drukman's The Prince of Atlantis for the Pacific Playwrights Festival at South Coast Repertory, Clifford Odets'Paradise Lost at Intiman Theatre; Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, Tennessee Williams' The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, Bernard Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma at A Noise Within. Furious Theatre credits include the Los Angeles premieres of Craig Wright's Grace, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's Boom and Hunter Gatherers, Bruce Norris' The Pain and the Itch, Yussef El Guindi's Back of the Throat, Richard Bean's The God Botherers, Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things, and the world premieres of Alex Jones' Canned Peaches in Syrup and Matt Pelfrey's An Impending Rupture of the Belly and No Good Deed, among many others. His film directing credits include the darkly comic feature Pure Shock Value, which was selected as the Centerpiece Film of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, and episodes of the web series A G.A.N.G. by screenwriter Matt Pelfrey (MTV's Skins). More information at: www.damaso-rodriguez.com.

Founded in 1982, Artists Repertory Theatre is the longest-running professional theatre company in Portland. Artists Rep is committed to world-class acting, directing, design and stagecraft that support new playwriting and aspires to embody great literature, moving audiences to truly feel - to experience - storytelling in a way that only the best live theatre can.

Portland's premiere mid-size regional theatre company is led by Artistic Director Dámaso Rodriguez and Managing Director Sarah Horton. For the 2013/14 season Artists Rep will offer nine bold and entertaining new plays written by internationally acclaimed playwrights, and guided by esteemed directors. Artists Rep productions will feature the work of a core group of accomplished Resident Artists, each with a shared history and a shorthand for collaboration, working alongside guest artists from Portland and beyond.

Our Mission: Artists Repertory Theatre challenges artists and audiences with adventurous and provocative plays staged in an intimate environment. Artists Rep feeds our community's artistic soul with premieres, re-imagined classics, new play development and educational outreach.

To post a comment, you must register and login.