Ellington

Santa created the wacky script himself, collaborating mostly with Mrs. Santa who “wrote a few tunes for it.” He shoehorned his innovative musical comedy into only sixty minutes, and recruited a fired-up cast of fifteen.

“I’d like millions to see it,” says Santa, hiding any disappointment he may harbor knowing his masterpiece will play only six times this Christmas season, in a small venue tucked away on campus at Chattanooga State Community College. “On stage, there is energy. There’s a spirit of fun. Performers really want to do this show.”

Santa calls “The Nutcracker Christmas Carol” a world premiere though it’s been evolving for several years. “It’s continuing to premiere here because it hasn’t gone anywhere else yet,” quips the jovial playwright whose royalty checks, if there were any, would be made out to Rex Knowles, 62, the award-winning producer and executive director of the Chattanooga State Repertoire Theatre. But this script was written mostly for laughs, according to Sherry Knowles, his childhood sweetheart and lifelong partner in theatre. “My job is cheerleader and director,” understates Mrs. Santa.

The Knowles’ combination of favorite Christmas themes and original music is captivating. “It’s phenomenal!” says Edward Nichols, a math professor at the college. “My family has seen it every year. I have never heard of anyone walking away disappointed. Once I told Rex the only thing missing from the Nutcracker Christmas Carol was a fruitcake. I think I saw his eyes sparkle with a new idea!”

The son of a pastor, Knowles grew up in the Midwest and Kentucky where he attended high school. “That’s where I met Sherry,” he says. “We were in our first drama jobs, working at an outdoor theatre.” Knowles eventually earned a master’s degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Following a year-long tour with “Godspell” in the ‘70s, he and Mrs. Santa settled in Los Angeles, where their two daughters, Jessie and Canedy, were born.

As a theatrical producer, Knowles has garnered awards from Los Angeles Drama Critics for best production, best director, and best ensemble. His acting credits include movies and television shows like M*A*S*H and The Dukes of Hazzard. He has written for TV game shows, and in 2008 produced for the New York Musical Theatre Festival “That Other Woman’s Child,” an acclaimed foot-stomping, bluegrass musical which was co-written by his wife.

A Chattanooga native, Sherry’s equally impressive resume includes co-founding the award-winning improv comedy group Chattanoodle. Appearing in commercials, movies and television shows under her professional name, Sherry Landrum, she hosted her own show on CBS while the couple lived in Los Angeles. She also co-wrote two musicals and directed several others.

But Santa’s wacky opus is among her favorites. “It’s got wit,” she says. “The script is what makes it; he (Rex) depends on his funny bone. He tickles himself. He gets on a roll and just thinks of funnier, funnier and funnier things. It just gets more absurd as it goes. And the songs will just brighten your heart."

The idea for a different kind of Christmas show was born in the early ’90s when the couple first lived in Chattanooga together, says Knowles. “There were five ballet companies doing the Nutcracker, and three theatres were doing some version of The Christmas Carol. Sherry and I knew someone in all these productions and we wondered, ‘how are we going to get to see all of them?’ We started thinking, ‘what if we had one show, and put all of them together?’ You’d only have to go to one; then you could go shopping at Wal-Mart!”

“We improvised it, around 1990,” he adds. “We had fun with it, but then put it away.” The couple moved to New York, but started thinking about it again upon returning to Chattanooga ten years later. “We did the first version in 2003,” he says. “Since then Sherry, Alan (Ledford) and I have been adding songs and reviving it. Being an artist, I always want to change things.” Last year, the play wound up “pretty much in the shape we’re going to do it in,” says Knowles, who estimates only three- to four-thousand people have seen it.

No attempt has been made to monetize the show. Though he once mailed the script to a performing theatre in Florida, Knowles says a musical score was not included, nor was there a recorded demo available to send. “We’re doing it just because it’s a lot of fun to do.” People who come to see the production are not required to buy tickets, though there is a “suggested donation of $10,” says Knowles, who likes the idea of making theatre accessible for “those who find a 20- or 30-dollar ticket very difficult. We have people come in and give us 20 bucks; we had someone walk in and give us 50.”

Santa’s workshop, situated in relative obscurity within the Humanities Building at Chattanooga State, is a well-designed auditorium with “excellent acoustics” and “comfortable seating built with theatre in mind,” says Knowles. The facility seats 300 persons, while supporting student curriculum and Chattanooga State’s highly touted Professional Actor Training Program— “a good curriculum based on two-year programs in New York City where aspirants who are serious about being professional actors are trained,” notes Sherry. “You come out of this at least ready to take an entry level position in theatre.”

Everyone involved in the Nutcracker Christmas Carol is “either student, graduate, faculty or a child of a faculty member so we’re all connected to Chattanooga State,” notes Knowles, whose daughter, Jessie, was a cast member two years ago. “A lot of people call to ask if we’re going to do it again, because it’s the favorite thing they do during the holidays, besides open presents. It’s so wacky — intelligent wacky!”

When to see it

Performances of the Nutcracker Christmas Carol are set for Dec. 10, 11, 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m., and Dec. 12 and 19 at 2:30 p.m.