ACT 1 celebrates Tennessee Williams' 100th birthday with IGUANA

Cinda McCain may have been born with the express purpose of bringing Tennessee Williams' wounded yet fiery Southern heroines to life. Unique among Nashville actresses, she's played Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and Flora in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton - and now she is playing Maxine Fault in ACT 1's production of The Night of the Iguana at Nashville's Darkhorse Theater.

But McCain is just one of the veteran actors leading first-time director Anne-Geri Fann's cast in this tribute to the 100^th anniversary of Tennessee Williams' birth. She is joined onstage by, among others, Jack Chambers (cast as the Rev. Shannon) and Robyn Berg (who plays Hannah Jelkes).

The three actors and their director took time off from their hectic hell week preparations for the show's opening to reflect on their roles, how the play fits into the Williams canon of Southern gothic masterpieces and, frankly, why audiences should come see their show (which continues at Darkhorse through Saturday, March 19).

How has this experience differed from others for you personally?

Cinda McCain: After years and years of theater production after theater production, I strayed to film during the last few years. Preparation for Maxine has been especially stressful for me, because it's the most complex character I've done onstage in several years.

Robyn Berg: I've never actually done a Williams piece - outside of classroom scenework. So, trying to figure out how to approach an entire Williams play has been a challenge. In the beginning, I felt like it was a huge puzzle with missing pieces - pieces I did not think I'd ever find. A few days prior to opening, I don't think I've found them all yet - but a lot more seem to be falling into place over that last week or two!

Anne-Geri Fann: I can't answer this one yet!

What's your take on your role in this production?

Jack Chambers: I was joking with people early on in rehearsals about what more famous Williams character each of us was. I said that Maxine was like the earthy physical Stella, and Hannah was the too-sensitive, lost Blanche - but actually, I'm Blanche. Shannon's a lost figure from another world, and simply can't make it in this world. He's too self-destructive, too sensitive, too easily damaged, but fights and scrapes for his dignity all the while.

Anne-Geri Fann: I'm directing this beautiful show. Not only am I a tad obsessed with Williams' work and characters, I have also lived in Central America, which makes this a fitting script for me. My goal was to honor Tennessee Williams' 100^th birthday with his last great success, to dive into each character with a smiliar passion as he writes them, and to literally recreate Mexico in the Darkhorse Theater. Williams was significantly innovative with sets, so to honor him this year, I wanted to pull out the stops.

Robyn Berg: It took me a long time to decide if Hannah and Maxine were real characters with real problems, or merely served as external manifestations of Shannon's inner battle. Eventually, I realized they could be both! Hannah certainly has a dilemma (or two or three) on her hands before she even meets Shannon. So trying to "take care of him" while she's dealing with a dying grandfather and being broke, just adds dimensions to her - and says a lot about her choices as a human being.

Cinda McCain: [Maxine is] yet another female role in his work, where he tends to whisper in my ear exactly how to play her. Although she is not the leading role, I consider her the nucleus of the piece...bringing many of the important messages of the play together.

How does The Night of the Iguana fit into the Tennessee Williams canon? Are there some typical Williamsian plot points or characters we should be looking for?

Anne-Geri Fann: In many ways, The Night of the Iguana is familiar Tennessee Williams territory - artistic souls anguished by their demons and under attack by cruel people who have never been kind to a stranger. And, like all of Williams' work, his personal life collides on every page with the fictional world he has created. His sister Rose, his Episcopalian priest grandfather, his wounded self, all reverberate in the story of Rev. Shannon, Hannah Jelkes and Maxine Fault, as clearly as they do in familiar classics like A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie and Suddenly, Last Summer. But this play is different than what came before it and what cam after, because it escapes Williams' Southern universe and finds itself hovering over a Mexican rainforest. And although sex may be, as usual, front and center, God plays a starring role. No other major Williams play is so intimately concerned with faith, with God, with God's silence, God's wrath and God' love. I think that only a man with such love for humankind could give so accurate a picture of humanity in his plays; I think that is why I am such a Williams fan as well.

Robyn Berg: The first time I read it, I thought "what?" - especially at the first entrance of the Germans. That is a very whimsical and dream-like moment that did not seem to fit into the story being told thus far. But, it takes some time to sink your teeth into something before realizing there is a method to Williams' madness. There are still The Lofty and poetic stage directions typical of a Williams play...but I think the subject matter is so much deeper than Menagerie or Cat on A Hot Tin Roof - and that is saying a lot - as those plays aren't about trivial matters themselves.

Why should audiences come to see this show?

Jack Chambers: I hope that folks will out and see Iguana because it's maybe the culmination of the career of arguably the greatest 20^th Century playwright. It's been called the most mature of Williams' work and it seems to be a kind of swan song, in many ways - people finding out exactly what they can hope for out of life, and coming to accept that. Also, it's only been one one other time in town that I can remember, and that was over 15 years ago [in a Mockingbird Theatre production starring David Alford and Denice Hicks]. In a town where half a dozen shows seem to be performed a half-dozen times a year all over town, there's got to be space for a show like this more often than that.

Cinda McCain: First and foremost, because it's Tennessee Williams - my favorite playwright. It's an anniversary production, chockful of interesting and thought-provoking scenes, not to mention plenty of comic relief. I believe it's a must-see.

Anne-Geri Fann: To celebrate the 100^th birthday of one of the geniuses of the American theater with one of his profound, but more hopeful, shows, which introduces us to characters teetering on the brink of nothingness...but who find themselves through a funny, alive and thrilling script.

Robyn Berg: It's certainly a lesser-known Williams play, but that doesn't make it any less brilliant. Not many theaters produce this play regularly - so check it out while you can!

If you could take on any other role in a Tennessee Williams play what would it be?

Robyn Berg: I'm going to be cliché, but Blanche has been on my "must play" list for years now.

Jack Chambers: I hope I still have a chance to play Stanley in Streetcar and John Buchanan in Summer and Smoke at some point; unfortunately, I've probably missed my window to play Brick in Cat.

Anne-Geri Fann: Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie.

Cinda McCain: I would have loved to have played Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when I was younger. Too late for that, but I feel very fortunate to have played some of Tennessee's best characters ever: Blanche DukBois, Amanda Wingfield, Flora ("Baby") in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, and now Maxine in Iguana.

ACT 1's production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana continues at Darhorse Theatre, Nashville, through March 19. For reservations, go to www.TicketsNashville.com, and for details about ACT 1, visit the company website at www.ACT1online.com.

 

 

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