Martin Brady wrote about this week’s final Music City run of Mark Cabus’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL in this week’s Nashville Scene:

Swan song

This weekend, after a solid decade of important local theatrical work, Mark Cabus will be presenting the final show from his Green Room Projects production company, his perennial one-man performance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

By fall ‘09, Cabus will be in a master’s directing program, more than likely in Chicago, Boston or on the West Coast. Before that happens, Cabus will finish his undergraduate degree at Belmont University in May, completing a roundabout academic journey that began nearly 30 years ago with stints at East Tennessee State and Milligan College, then continued with conservatory training as an actor. He’s also been tapped to supervise the team film project for this year’s Nashville Film Festival, so Cabus will have plenty on his plate in the near future.

Meanwhile, A Christmas Carol will provide him with a load of work as a thespian—about three dozen roles, in fact.

“I like doing one-man shows,” Cabus says. “They’re challenging. I was always a fan of Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness and their one-man movie gigs. To me, that’s what an actor does: He plays a whole bunch of different parts.”

First mounted in 1998 at the Darkhorse Theater, Cabus’ Carol has become a semi-regular holiday favorite in Music City. For the last five years, he’s been performing an abbreviated one-hour interactive version in Middle Tennessee schools under the auspices of TPAC Education.

“Externally, the piece hasn’t changed a whole lot,” says Cabus. “The costumes alter a little over the course of time, as does the furniture. Yet internally, I think it’s always different, because every year I’m a different person, and the things that have happened throughout the world have a great deal of effect on how I interpret the play.”

Cabus cites the 2001 performance following 9/11 as particularly memorable. “Everyone was dealing with the idea of mortality and how quickly things are taken from us. I think audiences really sought us out that year, looking for some kind of hope.”

Cabus believes this year’s economic woes may find a thorny resonance, especially through Ebenezer Scrooge’s rejection of charitable causes and cavalier talk of prisons and poor houses.

“One of the things people have appreciated about the show,” says Cabus, “is the fact that it’s not your happy-go-lucky Christmas play. Dickens didn’t write it that way. It’s a gloomy ghost story, but over the last 100 years it’s probably had many simplified re-interpretations that convey a more upbeat perception. The good news is that theatergoers who have seen this show repeatedly seem to find something new in it every time out.”

A Christmas Carol runs Dec. 18-21 at Belmont’s Black Box Theater.

Green Room Projects and Naked Stages Founding Artistic Director Mark Cabus is starting a new chapter in his professional and personal life as he closes an old one. He spoke about the end of Naked Stages and his Nashville performances of A CHRISTMAS CAROL prior to his December 18-21 appearance at Belmont University’s Black Box Theater:

1. How has your adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL evolved over the 10 years you’ve been doing it?

The play hasn’t changed much externally. We’ve tweaked a couple of things over the years, but by and large, it’s still the same simple “naked” stage. A CHRISTMAS CAROL actually started me on my vision-quest for theater unadorned of conventional trappings, theater focused on heroic acting and dynamic stories (I use the term ‘heroic’ in the sense of committed, expansive, and determined).

However, the play has undergone several internal transformations, in the way I view it and interpret it year after year. Ironically, these changes are usually influenced by external forces. For instance, in 2001, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers deeply affected the way I understood the play, just as the invasion of Iraq shaped my performance the following season. Each year, something or someone had an effect on my reading.

This season, CHRISTMAS CAROL will undoubtedly be affected by our current economic and social conditions. Remember, even though this play ends in light, it begins with a grave. Even as we anticipate a hopeful beginning of a new presidency of decency and integrity, we also face one of the worst financial crises in recent history.  Unemployment rises even as the market drops. Unwanted war still looms over our heads and that of our neighbors. The leaders of our past leave little but worry and apprehension to the guiders of our future. Much like Bob Cratchit and his tiny family, we hold out for hope of a brighter tomorrow even as we confront a grim world of little prospect.

In addition, my personal experiences of the past few months will certainly affect my narrative. I am faced with real questions of mortality and transience this year more than ever. As I enter the second half of my first century, I’m beginning a new phase of my life. I graduate from Belmont in May, and if the stars are with me, I’ll enter a graduate school program next fall.

At the same time, I watch my parents face the final stages of their lives. Their fragile minds and bodies betray them even as the shadows seek to cheat their sons and grandson of their sweet company. This story, more than any other Holiday tale, confronts this dark vale with unswerving resolve. It reminds us that we must venture through the gloom of unhappy loss in order to reach its bright and shining end.

2. What’s the most difficult aspect of doing all the roles you have to play in the piece?

Endurance (laughs). Two hours of dancing through the lives of 36 different characters is a real test to my stamina and fortitude. All that time at the gym needs to pay off for something.

But, honestly, I’ve never had a difficulty portraying various roles. My brother claims I’ve always had multiple personalities, and if he’s to be believed, I don’t have clothes in my closet, only costumes. It’s just a question of who I’m going to be on any given day (laughs).

Actually, I was inspired to become an actor by watching chameleons like Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers. Their ability to put their own egos aside and transform completely into the roles they played fascinated me. Motivated by classic films like KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS and DR. STRANGELOVE, I invested myself in years of study and discovered I had a natural talent for mimicry and movement. Finding the individual tone and physicalization for each character is the hardest part of such an acting challenge like A CHRISTMAS CAROL. There are many techniques I have learned over the years, but I’ve found, that if I just get out of the way, those characters find me.

3. This may be your final time to do this show in Nashville. What are your personal feelings about that?

It’s been a good run, a sweet ride. I’m grateful to anyone and everyone that’s patronized the play over the years. I swear it has some of the most loyal audience members I’ve ever seen. Some folks have been every single season, which is amazing. The comments, the letters I’ve received from those moved and inspired by A CHRISTMAS CAROL leave me humbled.

I’m obliged to those who touted and championed the play over the past decade. Kevin Nance, former critic for the Tennessean, was the most vocal proponent, defending the play every chance he had. Over the years, however, Fiona Soltes, Amy Stumpfl, and Martin Brady, thoughtful journalists all, have carried that torch bravely. Their constancy with every season assures me of their commitment to promote good theater in Nashville.

CHRISTMAS CAROL has empowered me as an actor.

Holding an audience’s attention alone for two hours is an enormous challenge for any actor. Few would even attempt such a dare. But the experience demanded much of me and pushed me to my creative limits. It’s tested my skills for spontaneity and improvisation. It’s made me a better actor and a more thoughtful and committed artist. Between the full-length or abridged versions, I’ve performed CHRISTMAS CAROL for over 12,000 people in the past ten years. That in and of itself is overwhelming. I’ve enjoyed every bit of it, but it’ll be nice to get my Christmas holidays back.

Finally, it propelled Green Room Projects into a full-fledged Equity-affiliated theater company called Naked Stages. I’ve dreamed of fronting a theater of my own for years, and this play made that a reality. I’m exceedingly proud of all that Naked Stages accomplished in its first year. We presented the area premieres of two acclaimed new plays: SOUVENIR and I AM MY OWN WIFE. We produced not one but two Shakespeare classics: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and TWELFTH NIGHT. We collaborated on the successful Shakespeare in the Park production of CORIOLANUS with our good friends at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. We featured three nationally-recognized female playwrights in our first ever NAKED PLAYS New Play Festival. And just for good measure — every play we produced this season offered a gay character or gay theme presented in a positive and forward-thinking way. No theater company in this state can make that claim.

But on top of all that, the Nashville SCENE recognized Naked Stages’ contribution to the Nashville theater community by honoring it with four “Best of Nashville” awards and all in our first (and only) season! How great is that?

4. What’s next for Naked Stages?

(Laughs) Unfortunately, some dreams die. This is the end of the road for Naked Stages. Yes, I’m disappointed. Heartbroken, actually. I’ve worked hard — hell, we’ve all worked hard for the last year and a half trying to keep this company afloat, but with the current economy, with all that’s happened in my personal life … well, all good things must come to an end. Like A CHRISTMAS CAROL, it’s been a good run.

I’m indebted to those stalwart souls who believed in the idea of Naked Stages and of Green Room Projects, those faithful artists that gave of themselves to its creation and preservation. To Jennifer Jewell, I owe much. As our Founding Executive Director, she gave Green Room Projects legs to stand on. She pushed this organization into a realm of real viability among other arts institutions in Tennessee. She carried the dream like a torch, high above her head and heart, and I am grateful for her dedication and resolution. Christopher Brown joined Jennifer and me in forming Green Room. He completed out our triumvirate, and his loyalty, steadfastness, and artistry lent legitimacy to our nascent company. He is a good friend and an impeccable artist.

But when Naked Stages came into being, a new team appeared on the scene. Brian Russell, who served as our intrepid Equity advisor and liaison, christened this tight-knit group “The Mule Team.” Besides, Brian, the MTs included Tee Quillin as our invaluable IT Guy, Ginger Newman as GRP’s Education Director and Rita Frizzell, our graphics and marketing wizard who, through her talent and skill, created our logo and branding.

Their collaboration, loyalty, support, and wisdom offered me confidence and encouragement, especially in the most difficult of times. Most importantly, they offered an unswerving belief in an unconventional vision for alternative theater in Nashville. I’m grateful for their friendship. I’m blessed to have these talented and generous folks in my life. I wish them nothing but the best. Any theater company would be honored to have them in their fold. I hope we have the chance to do it all again sometime.

5. What’s next for you?

The next few months of my life are dedicated to matriculation and getting enrolled in a graduate school program in some far away city. After that … who knows? Nashville will never be off my radar, but I’m setting my sights on other horizons. It’s time to try something else.

I’ve flirted with directing for years, but now I want to make a career of it. Nothing turns me on more in the morning than knowing I have a play to direct that day. Anticipating the collaboration of other creative artists, to be their catalyst, the lens through which their talents are focused, energizes me more than a dozen pots of coffee. Most recently, as with MERCHANT OF VENICE and CORIOLANUS, the chemical balancing act of pulling those divergent talents together restored and stimulated me. I practically ran to rehearsals, grinning from ear to ear.

As an actor, my pleasure comes from inventing and animating the lives of the characters I play. Delving into the foundations of a given character satisfied me for a while. After 38 years of that career, however, I find I prefer the process to the performance. The time spent in rehearsal excites me more than the time spent on stage. Studying the style, the genre, and the period of a play, researching its underpinnings – physical, social and psychological – keeps me buzzing all the time.

Moliére once wrote, “The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.” He must have been talking about me. Standing smack-dab in the middle of my first century, I believe this re-inventive leap from actor to director empowers me to find a deeper means of artistic freedom and expression, to bear my best fruit. The research, the synergy, the creation of a theatrical world is infinitely more engaging than the singular work I experienced as an actor. Interpreting one aspect of a play cannot begin to compare to the complex and multileveled possibilities woven together with my own two hands as a director. I look forward to this new adventure. Whee (laughs).

We’re sorry if you’re been frustrated with us the past few days. Our site crashed unexpectedly, but we’re back and ready for business. If you’d like to buy tickets to the final performances of Mark Cabus’ solo performance of Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, go to the TicketsNashville site and purchase your tickets now.

Mark Cabus (winner of the Nashville SCENE’s Best of Nashville “Best One-Man Show” for his solo performance of I AM MY OWN WIFE) returns by popular demand in his acclaimed one-man performance of Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL.  This favorite of audiences and critics alike is back for its tenth anniversary with only four special Holiday performances, December 18-21, at Belmont’s Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $10 for adults online ($15 at the box office) and $5 for students and seniors.  Cabus’ interpretation avoids sugary sentimentality as he portrays all 36 characters from Ebenezer Scrooge to Tiny Tim.

“This CHRISTMAS CAROL is one of the smallest yet most sensational shows of the year. Don’t miss it.” THE TENNESSEAN

Tickets for the final Nashville performances of Mark Cabus’ one-man A CHRISTMAS CAROL are now on sale! Click here to go to the TicketsNashville site and buy your seats for the Dec. 18-21 run at Belmont University’s Black Box Theater!

Ebenezer Scrooge is an old-school London businessman with a decidedly no-nonsense attitude toward work, life and death. This tight-fisted hand at the grindstone spoke to NAKED STAGES prior to his December 18-21 appearance at Belmont University’s Black Box Theatre:

1. What is your opinion of your late partner Jacob Marley?

We were partners for I don’t know how many years. I was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner. His death seven years ago was a sad event, but I remained a man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnized it with an undoubted bargain. I never painted out Old Marley’s name. It’s still there, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business call me Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but I answer to both names. It’s all the same to me.

2. How about your clerk Bob Cratchit?

My clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talks about a Merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam. He thinks it’s convenient for me to give him the whole day off just because it’s once a year. It’s not convenient, and I think I’m ill-used to a pay a day’s wages for no work. A poor excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!

3. It sounds like you’ve got a real problem with Christmas. Why are you so cross about it?

What else can I be when I live in such a world of fools? Merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.

4. Money seems to be what you’re interested in no matter what the season. You came from humble origins yet you’re no quite wealthy. Why do you seem so unhappy?

Bah! Humbug! This is the even-handed dealing of the world. There is nothing on which it is as hard as poverty, and yet there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth! 

5. One last question. Do you believe in spirits?

I don’t. Even if my senses were to tell me they existed I know that a slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. They may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about them, whatever they are!

NAKED STAGES ensemble member Rita Frizzell is a graphic designer with her own business called Dakini Graphics. The NAKED STAGES logo is one of her many imaginative creations:

Best Director

We know you love us! Now tell the rest of Nashville - please! We promise to keep loving you right back with more of the theater you want from Naked Stages. Click on the icon below to vote by 5 PM Wednesday, September 10. And thanks, thanks and ever thanks for your support!

I want everybody who gets our newsletter to know how much we appreciate the great folks at Nashville Shakespeare Festival. Denice Hicks, Nancy VanReece, Claire Syler, Robert Marigza and the rest of the gang are terrific artists and professionals and it’s been delightful collaborating with them on CORIOLANUS. We sent out our monthly newsletter today and in our eagerness forgot to mention Nashville Shakespeare Festival by name. Naked Stages and I want you to know we feel bad about that and are sorry for the regrettable omission. Come see the show this week and make sure to donate some money to Nashville Shakespeare Festival. They deserve not only recognition but also all the support this wonderful community can give them!

Regards,

Mark Cabus

1. What do you enjoy most when contributing your talents to stage productions? 

Anne Willingham: There is a moment of magic in the production process.  After months of design meetings and weeks of rehearsal, there is a point when it all comes together. There is a moment when all of the elements meld and you have a show. Sure you might have to tweak things, repair this or change that. But it goes from being a mishmash of personalities and ideas to being a single entity. You quit seeing the parts and get pulled into the whole.  It becomes alive. That moment is an intoxicating rush.  All of the headaches and late hours fade away. You get drawn into this world you have created and you believe fully. What a great thing to be a part of that!

Billy Ditty: Many things. I like seeing the actors eyes glow when I’m able to bring the final puzzle piece to the character they might not have expected, but needed. I also enjoy when ordinary citizens (not other creatives) find a subtle connection between a character and their clothes.

2. Is balance between the various elements of a production the most important aspect of stage artists’ collaborations?

AW: Certainly if the production elements aren’t balanced the show suffers.  There is a tension onstage when the production elements are independent of each other.  The audience might not be able to say, “Hmmmm, the lighting and the scenery/costumes don’t seem to mesh,” but they will certainly know that something is off.  It will be visually uncomfortable.

From a lighting standpoint, the balance is important just to make it work.  If I have not communicated with the costumer, my color choices might ruin the costume color palette.  If the set designer and I have not played sweetly, it might be physically impossible to light the stage appropriately.  And it is completely possible for my lighting design to visually eliminate elements of the set.  The collaboration is essential.

The best part of working with other designers is the ability to feed off of each other.  With the best productions there is a lot of give and take in design meetings.  The set designer might say something that sparks the costumer’s imagination which in turn creates an element the lighting designer can play with.  The director is there to guide the process down the right path and to maintain the overall picture.  With the best of collaborations there is an excitement about the whole visual package.  The process is great fun!

BD: One of the most important aspects of stage artists’ collaborations to me is knowing when to push your area to the front and when to hold your area to the background. The give and take. Of course every artist wants their work to be strong the whole play, but there are times when it’s important to see the actor and not notice the clothes, set, lights, etc. I also think sometimes think the “stuff” can be the focus that manipulates the actor, and the audiences focus. The director is ultimately the conductor.

3. What is the difference for your work in doing a show outdoors as opposed to indoors?

AW: Working outside is somewhat limiting.  Obviously nature factors in.  Inside a theatre I can usually go to complete dark.  For Coriolanus dark is a moving target.  During techs it was getting dark around intermission.  By the end of the run it will be getting dark sooner, so there was some guessing about appropriate light levels. You can’t see the theatrical lighting when the sun is out.  It kind of kills the subtlety and art.

In addition, the park facility is limiting.  Inside a theatre there are lighting positions everywhere- above the stage, behind the stage, to the front and to the sides.  There are usually lots of places to plug things in.  The park has limited power and few places to hang the equipment.  You have to get creative with what you have and be willing to let go of certain looks you might want.  You have to balance what could be with what is physically possible.  There is some creative frustration involved!

Another factor in the park is that much of the lighting equipment must be put away every night.  When I work inside a theatre I know that the lights will maintain a focus.  They don’t move around a lot.  In the park the lights get bounced and jostled as they are re-installed nightly.  You just never know if things will be aimed correctly from night to night.  More creative frustration!

BD: The process is the same - make everything useable for the environment.

4. Does Shakespeare in general present different challenges from the other stage projects you’ve been involved in?

AW: I love doing Shakespeare!  I love that the language is strong enough to allow you to mess around with the environment.  I love that people in 2008 can understand and enjoy a work created hundreds of years ago.  In our present culture of “15 minutes of fame”, the endurance of Shakespeare’s works is phenomenal.

The real challenge of Shakespeare is for the director.  As a designer I simply go along with the directorial concept and work to support it.  That is no different from any other stage project.  The director, however, must create a world that is plausible and acceptable to a modern audience, while not compromising the integrity of the play.  Thankfully that is not my challenge!

BD: No. The challenges are surprisingly similar for most types of plays. In overly simple terms, the actors need clothes that help them tell a story that fits the director’s vision.

5. What are some of the specific things you’re doing in concert with Mark Cabus and the rest of the production team to bring this version of CORIOLANUS to fruition?

AW: A production is only successful if the director has a strong vision of the final product.  The director’s job is to herd the rest of us down the chosen path.  It’s a tricky and delicate job to be sure, as you have to deal with artistic types and wildly creative folks.  I imagine it is often like herding cats.  Not only do you have to get them where you want them, but it must also seem like their idea as well.  Indeed, we are a temperamental lot!

This play is successful because Mark came into the process with clear ideas.  He created a framework for us from the very beginning and then allowed us to play with it.  Mark has juggled our ideas and thoughts and still maintained the integrity of his initial vision.  His guidance has allowed all of us, production team and actors alike, the freedom to expand and explore and create.  The final product is stronger for it.  This obscure tragedy has morphed into a beautiful, powerful piece with contemporary relevance.  It has been a great experience.

BD: I think we have all worked hard to not pinpoint a specific date in time by mixing periods in a subtle way. Also, showing a society rebuilding itself by using incomplete parts and pieces was a specific choice.

Below are some costume renderings by Billy Ditty: