Our History

2003

September

  • Green Room Projects incorporated. Friends Christopher Brown, Mark Cabus, and Jennifer Jewell form an alliance to bring innovative, non-profit performing arts with a conscience to Nashville and Middle Tennessee.  Jewell assumes Executive Director duties with Cabus as Artistic Director and Brown, Associate Artistic Director.

October

  • CONJURE WOMEN: a Celebration of Music, Movement, and Mouth, a six day festival dedicated to women in the arts, opens at Darkhorse Theater.

November

  • Green Room Projects begins its artist-in-residency at Freedom Middle School in Franklin, TN.
  • THE GUYS, a drama confronting the presonal tragedy of 9/11, opens at the Freedom Middle School Theater, directed by Christopher Browne and starring Jennifer Jewell and Mark Cabus. Its opening night is a benefit for the 100 Club, a charity assisting the families of firefighters and police officers killed in the line of duty. Free student matinees are offered Freedom Middle’s students. The firefighters of Franklin’s Station 2 make pre-show, in-class visits facilitated by Green Room’s teaching artists. A post-performance discussion with students focuses on the importance of telling our own stories especially in times of crisis.
  • Christopher Browne begins an internship at The Shakespeare Theater in Washington DC and goes on to join the world-renowned performance company, Blue Man Group.  He steps down as Associate AD.

December

  • A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the critically-acclaimed solo performance by Mark Cabus, is presented for the first time in Franklin, TN at the Freedom Middle School Theater.  Free student matinees were given for all Freedom Middle’s students.  The play is officially included in the city’s “Dicken’s of a Christmas” Festival.

2004

January

  • Green Room ends its residence at Freedom Middle School and begins its artist-in-residency at the Alternative Learning Center of Williamson County, a high school/middle school for zero tolerance offenders, working with students one day a week as a part of the school’s service learning program.

February

  • Movement and improvisation workshops featuring Jon Morris, Cirque de Soliel artist and teacher, are sponsored for students and professionals throughout the Nashville and Middle Tennessee area.

June

  • ANIMAL FARM, an original adaptation of the George Orwell story by Mark Cabus with music by Clay Steakley, holds its first staged readings at Darkhorse Theater.  A pre-show workshop for teens with the Maryland Farms YMCA Summer YCAP program is sponsored by TPAC Education.

September

  • Second school year residency at the ALC begins.  A new interactive theater program, The Forum, is established.  Based in the pioneering work of Augusto Boal, Viola Spolin, and Michael Rohds as well as in  the ideals of service learning, The Forum, is designed not only to teach alternative avenues of self-expression but to help teens redirect choices and goals, to aid in building self-esteem and social responsibility.  Teaching artists win students’ trust though theater games and improvisation, expanding to discussions and directed scriptwriting around social themes and issues.

December

  • ANIMAL FARM is awarded the “Tennessee Williams Fellowship”, sponsoring a one week residency/workshop at Sewanee’s University of the South. Two readings of the play are staged at the Tennessee Williams Center for the Arts.
  • A CHRISTMAS CAROL, starring Brian Webb Russell, tours Nashville Metro schools, serving over 1000 students.

2005

February

  • ANIMAL FARM, presented by the TPAC Education and the Humanities Outreach Tennessee programs, runs for three sold-0ut weeks of student matinees at the Johnson Theater. Over 3,750 students are served.

March

  • Project: 1317, an interactive arts program for at-risk teens based on the principles of The Forum and created through starter funding from TPAC, Tennessee Repertory Theater, and the Community and the Predators’ Foundations, is launched.

May

  • Project: 1317 is installed at the Oasis Crisis Shelter, a temporary, emergency shelter for teens in crisis. The program includes The Forum and the new Rhythm Workshop, an interactive drumming program.

August

  • The third school year residency at ALC begins.

October

  • GB Shaw’s DON JUAN IN HELL, a topical comedy, sponsored by the Sacred Space for the City performing arts program, opens at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Nashville.

November

  • Project: 1317 is awarded the “For At-Risk Youth” grant for My Friend’s House, an temporary, emergency shelter for abused and neglected teenaged boys in Franklin, TN, by the Tennessee Arts Commission.

December

  • A CHRISTMAS CAROL, starring Mark Cabus and sponsored by TPAC Education and H.O.T., tours Middle Tennessee schools, serving over 1400 students.
  • Project: 1317 is awarded funding for My Friend’s House from the Middle Tennessee Electric Customers Care, Inc.

2006

February

  • Project: 1317 is established at My Friend’s House in Franklin, TN.  The program includes the new Art Studio, an interactive visual arts program, as well as The Rhythm Workshop and The Forum.  The Middle Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home is the beneficiary of the project.
  • The Rhythm Workshop begins at the ALC.  Green Room now leads two days at the school.

May

  • A Celebration Day is held at the Middle Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home hosted by the Boys from My Friend’s House.  A Project: 1317 event, the party offers self-created skits and drumming demonstrations by the MFH Boys for the residents of the Children’s Home.  A collection of paintings — a series of helping hands based on the organization’s logo, each hand representing an aspect of service the Home provides for its residents — is presented.  These paintings hang in the lobby of the Children’s Home’s multi-purpose building. 

September

  • THE GUYS, revived for Sacred Space for the City, opens at Christ Church Cathedral as part of the church’s 9/11 Memorial Observance.  Christopher Browne and Richard Northcutt direct.
  • Jennifer Jewell accepts a playwrighting commission from the Atlas Theater of Cheyenne, WY, and steps down as Executive Director of Green Room Projects.

October

  • William Shakespeare’s HAMLET is presented in collaboration with the Valhalla Shakespeare Project at the Valhalla Farm in Woodbury, TN.  Mark Cabus directs.

November

  • Richard Northcutt is named Green Room’s new Executive Director and Ginger Newman, Education Director.

December

  • A CHRISTMAS CAROL tours Middle Tennessee schools, serving nearly 5,0oo students.
  • Green Room’s Artistic Company is established, a collective of professional actors, writers, directors, designers, and educators, united in the belief that art is a catalyst for change in individuals and in communities.

2007

January

  • William Shakespeare’s HAMLET is presented in collaboration with the Valhalla Shakespeare Project at the University School of Nashville, in conjunction with the National Shakespeare Convention.

February

  • Project: 1317 returns to My Friend’s House and the Oasis Crisis Shelter.  It includes the new Word for Word, an interactive creative writing, poetry, and performance program.

April

June

  • Green Room announces its first full season consisting of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and TWELFTH NIGHT (in collaboration with the Valhalla Shakespeare Project) with SOUVENIR, I AM MY OWN WIFE, and ANGELS in AMERICA: Part One “Millennium Approaches.” Mark Cabus’ acclaimed solo performance of A CHRISTMAS CAROL returns in December for a three-night Holiday fundraiser.

August

  • Naked Stages is offered as Green Room’s new professional theater wing. The company maintains its excellence as an arts education and community outreach organization while Naked Stages pledges to bring Nashville quality contemporary and classical theater, utilizing the area’s professional finest actors, writers, directors, and designers.