Chattanoogans Online: Marcus Ellsworth

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Marcus Ellsworth: Chattanooga’s Ringmaster Goes Online

How do you take an intimate theater setting, move it behind a computer screen, and disperse it to thousands of viewers across town, even across the nation? How do you take the spontaneity of an open mic composed of everything from burlesque to hip hop and turn it into a pre-recorded show?

It’s not easy, but that’s what Marcus Ellsworth, Artistic Managing Director with Barking Legs Theater and Host and Ringmaster of the Legs’ monthly open-mic variety show, The Floor Is Yours, has been doing.

In case you’ve been living in a cave for the last decade, The Floor Is Yours is, as the Ringmaster reports, “an open mic variety show where almost anything can happen.”

Most open mics, Marcus notes, have a central focus or art form, such as music or slam poetry. But at The Floor Is Yours, you can see ballerinas and drag kings, hear country-western music and a ukulele solo, all in one evening. Content may be socially conscious or irreverent, subtle or in-your-face. As long as there are no dogs or open flames, you’re good to go. On any given night, you’ll laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time.

The epidemic changed that. By the end of March, intimate venues such as Barking Legs were a no-go. Marcus had to pivot on a dime.

“The first normal show would have been that Friday [April 3] and we decided to keep it going,” he says. “People were relying on this, our wonderful community regulars and a lot of new people who had just found out about us at the beginning of the year. We asked people to send videos and I created a clip show, with me hosting from the theater. This added some familiarity to it, the image of me standing on the stage, doing my entrance.”

Indeed, Marcus’ presence, though he doesn’t often perform, is part of both the balm and the zest of The Floor Is Yours. He can bridge over technical delays with spooky or magical tales, add a zing of humor, or sometimes bring healing after a particularly emotional moment by bursting into song (I can still hear his spontaneous, a capella rendition of “Hallelujah” five-odd years later).

The response to the new, online format went over the top. From 40 audience members at a typical live show, the open mic streaming on Facebook crossed the 100-viewer mark while it was live and now has been viewed almost 2,000 times. People from across the nation wised up and tuned in.

“I was like, ‘Oh, Jesus, this is serious!’” Marcus says. “In those viewers we found a couple of new folks who submitted [content], including some who used to submit but have moved away. Every show [since we went online] has had at least one former Chattanoogan’s submission, someone in another part of the country who we miss. It’s like they’re coming home.”

For a while, the demand for community was so great that The Floor Is Yours went live weekly. Something about this epidemic — even amidst pain and uncertainty — is inspiring people to create and especially to share art like never before. Marcus, who is both an artist himself and a promoter and community-builder for other artists — a true ringmaster — has been particularly moved by the experience.

“We have a wonderful community of artists here who are still creating wonderful things,” he says. He adds that Barking Legs is also delving into archival footage and posting it on The Floor Is Yours page.

There was a lot to learn as The Floor Is Yours went digital, and Marcus is still adjusting course as he goes. Licensing issues that aren’t a problem for one-time life shows emerge with using online music. The business of video production was new to Barking Legs, though they ramped up extremely quickly. Some weeks, Barking Legs’ other programming has taken priority to The Floor Is Yours.

However, even these pivots have brought new approaches and fresh collaborations. Dancer Kenneth “KG” Glatt has chosen to perform to rhymes by local hip hop artists so that the music won’t be muted by Facebook. Poet and singer Tiara Hoy, who usually performs a poem of her own, then sings a cover song, instead sent a poem for Marcus to read.

“The caveat was that I had to be reading it for the first time for the camera,” he says. “It was a heartfelt piece for me to read about the show and what it’s meant to her. I cried on camera … that was fun.”

Marcus’ conceit for the quarantine is that he is “sheltering in place at Barking Legs,” like an affable Phantom of the Opera. On the second show, he says, he tried to film from home and learned he needs the stage to do his best work, even an empty stage in an echoing theater.

Still, the show is called The Floor Is Yours: Connection.

“It’s about maintaining our ties to each other though we can’t physically be in the same space,” Marcus says. “In the comment threads, people are cheering each other on. Newcomers experience appreciating and being appreciated by other artists. Sometimes I think, ‘Why weren’t we building in this direction all the time?’”

I’m asking everyone I talk with lately what challenges they’re facing during the epidemic and what new strengths they’ve found. In response, Marcus expresses far more concern for others than for himself.

“It’s the worry that because we have friends and people who come to the theater who are essential workers now, some who are forced to go back to work — art is not everybody’s day job,” he says. “For most people, it’s something they do when they can and how they can. To be honest, I worry with things reopening in the arts sector, how do we do that? Is it safe to do that? I worry that people are being forced back to business as usual and we are not ready for it. At Barking Legs, we’re tightening our belts and making our sacrifices to weather the storm. I just hope other people are able to!”

For himself, though, Marcus has found that his nimbleness of thought and action are pulling him through. More of a surprise, he realized how much he relies on the encouragement of his community — and how strong that community is.

“I am surprisingly quick on my feet, adaptive!” he says. “I am really finding strength in the people I’m in contact with, the encouragement of family and friends. When I first started doing the open mic … I started second guessing myself. ‘Is this a vanity project? Do I just want to be on stage?’

“Getting the feedback helps break up the monotony and this feeling of loneliness. I realized I need to hear that. I need to hear that what we do matters — that it makes people happy. It gives them something that’s more than just the artist’s ego. That’s what I’ve really drawn strength from. Every silly video we post, every time we make people laugh or dance or consider something through our art, that’s helping in some way.”

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You can find the next installment of The Floor Is Yours: Connection on May 22 at 8 p.m. at Facebook.com/TFIYBLT. Submit your 10-inute-or-less songs, stand-up, dance, or other offerings by Wednesday, May 20.

Marcus notes that, since TFIY has gone remote, prohibitions against animal performers and pyromancy have been temporarily lifted.

Find archival footage of The Floor Is Yours and other programming at Barking Legs’ website, barkinglegs.org.

Photo by Alisha Cline of Cline Portraits, courtesy Marcus Ellsworth.