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:

Another review and more praise for CORIOLANUS! Amy Stumpfl had this and more to say in Friday’s City Paper :

“Known for his thoughtful and often unadorned stage work, Naked Stages’ Mark Cabus directs this production with a clear vision and plenty of action.”

“Roy Cox’s fight choreography is outstanding, complemented by Anne Willingham’s smart lighting. And Billy Ditty lends his considerable talents to the production’s costume design, which evokes a delightful blend of ancient Rome meets punk rock.”

“Christopher Brown … is excellent as the brooding Coriolanus, full of bluster and bravado. But this is no one-note performance. Just watch as Brown’s impenetrable he-man is reduced to petulant schoolboy by a domineering mother — played with equal gusto by Rona Carter.”

“Other standouts include a strapping Kamal Bolden as Coriolanus’ rival Aufidius and Rodrikus Springfield as the elder statesman Menenius. But Brenda Sparks (Junius Brutus) and Jessejames Locorriere (Sicinius Velutus) are especially riveting as the conniving tribunes hell-bent on bringing Coriolanus down.”

Click here for the full review.

CORIOLANUS on NPT Arts Break

Martin Brady had some good things to say about CORIOLANUS, which he called “…a strong production, for this or any other year.” Here’s an excerpt:

Director Mark Cabus was originally planning to stage this drama with his own Naked Stages ensemble, but a fortuitous meeting with NSF artistic director Denice Hicks resulted in the companies joining forces.

Cabus seems very much at home working in Centennial Park, regaling his audience with an open and exceedingly active staging, including battle scenes and a violent Caesarian climax, plus a generally strong cast of principals supported gamely by the energetic NSF apprentice company.

While the Bard’s text remains intact where its Roman references are concerned, Cabus’ conceptualizing takes the play out of that strictly defined arena. Jonathan Hammel’s set is simple yet effective, with a large scaffolding behind the playing area, which is in turn anchored by a central sand pit that hosts the main events, both physical and rhetorical. In addition, Billy Ditty’s costumes are at least a few hundred years away from any toga party, with a manly simplicity for the males, and purple, magenta and burgundy hues in the females’ attractive dresses.

Click here for the full review.

Today’s Tennessean Arts and Entertainment section has a cover story on CORIOLANUS! Click here to read it online!