From the age of sixteen, Alliance Theater wasn’t just an experience which remained in the roots of Marshall Mabry’s artistry but was also maintained as being an absolute goal and a testament to Marshall’s career path. After restless weekends full of performances with the teen ensemble, witnessing the same showstopping numbers on about four different occasions, Marshall never rushed the process of improving their craft and trying to leave Alliance. If anything, Alliance Theater was where Marshall felt the most at-home. “...I remember journaling at 16 and bein’ like, ‘One of these days…’. Because you know, everyone has like a bucket list of top ten theatres they gotta get to, but one [for me, it] has always been Alliance. It has never been anywhere else.” Now, Mabry is bathing in abundant blessings of gratitude, a hard work ethic, and success, due to being cast as Juicy in Alliance’s production of Fat Ham, right here in Atlanta.
Fat Ham has been established as Marshall’s favorite play from the start of the interview. “I auditioned for the Broadway production, I was 19 years old… it broke my heart when I didn’t get it.” Following a piece of advice from a Broadway idol and Alliance’s production of Seize the King commencing, ambition and perseverance took over the young idol’s instincts. Marshall reached out to the Artistic Director of the theatre and was invited to witness the behind-the-scenes action in preparation of the show. Marshall passionately reminisced on that moment: “I sat there in that rehearsal room, and my brain broke open. I had never heard people that looked like me speaking verse and speaking prose and in this heightened language… and making it sound like music.”
It was this moment that made Marshall commit to their craft more than ever before, and if luck is still where preparation meets opportunity, Marshall’s resilient instincts guided him to never let the role of Juicy leave his mind. “With this play specifically, I think this is truthfully a contemporary master work. Before I even got the chance to play Juicy, I was a student of this play. On every plane ride I took, I read this play. I never wanted to get far away from it, because [I knew] one of these days, it’s coming back around.”
More prepared and filled with fervor, sending seven emails and connecting with an alumna from Spelman College who had already been accepted to callbacks in the production, Mabry decided to express interest in Fat Ham one more time. “..the worst they can say is no, and you’ve already heard the word. I sent that email on a Tuesday, [by] Wednesday, Chris said, ‘We’ll get you an audition.’ Friday, I had my audition, and Friday, I was cast.”
Marshall says: “Theatre is really like a church in the wild, and it really offers these… soul-shaking experiences if you’re open to it.”
Marshall Mabry begins the role of Juicy in Fat Ham on opening night on April 3 at 7 p.m. on the Hertz Stage.
"There’s nothing like sitting in an audience here, you know? I met Keith David and Cheryl Lee Ralph at the Alliance… this [is a] space of Black excellence, and the space for true inquisition, asking questions, and really taking people away for a night and breaking things down for people in a way that really feels human, that you can’t help but to connect to.”
