Backstage at "Nutcracker"

Sunday evening we were delighted to have the rare opportunity to sit back stage and watch Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of "Nutcracker." With sets and costumes by children's book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and choreography by recently retired artistic director and resident choreographer Kent Stowell, the production is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Our older offspring danced in it the past two years, and our younger offspring is in it this year. We have also contributed to the ballet, so the combination of the two led us to an invitation to watch from back stage during one of #2's performances.

We picked Sunday night's performance because our favorite male principal, Stanko Milov (I've written about him before), danced the prince, and our favorite dancer, Stacy Lowenberg, danced both Mrs. Stahlbaum (Clara's mother, in the first act), and the Peacock (in the second act). It turns out a lot of dancers liked the casting too -- three people in the space of ten minutes at #2's ballet class mentioned it.

We dropped off #2 at the stage door, and met up with our fourth in our party, the mother of one of the other children in the cast. After waiting a bit, we were met by the highly capable Charitable Giving specialist, Katie Johnson, who was even cuter in person than on the phone. She took us back and down to the backstage entrance.

We met Jill, the amazing Stage Manager for the ballet, who was our shepherd. The volunteer coordinator, Dianna, who has the unofficial title of Child Wrangler, was also there to help us settle in. We were given the rules: Stay in our corner when we're asked to, don't go in front of the light grids in the wings, don't talk to the dancers unless they talk to you.

We had a great chance to look at the sets and backdrops. The thing that struck all of us is that the stage is much smaller than it looks from the audience. The forced perspective in the sets and drops is fantastic. And close, the color, texture, depth and richness of the sets and costumes is impressive.

We asked for, and were given, headsets to listen to the stage manager and crew. The assistant stage manager was running cues so the stage manager had a little more freedom to move around and make sure things were running smoothly. They answer trivia questions, read by the acting stage manager so she could stop when she needed to give cues, and chatter quite a bit. We were able to talk, if we wanted to, and #1 and I even answered a couple of questions.

Just before curtain, Dianna came up with our two little dancers in tow. She showed us where we could stand in the wings and watch the prologue, a mere couple of feet from the performance, but still (of course) hidden from the audience. I think the kids really liked being able to see it from that perspective, since they are in the dressing rooms for the first act. At the end of the Prologue, Clara's bed set exited right by us with a whoosh.

After that, the kids went back downstairs, and we settled down in our seats until we were able to move around. After that, we moved from the wings to other perspectives backstage to watch the performance, until of course it was time to stay out of the way again.

There are a tremendous number of sets for this ballet, and most of them were stored on stage left where we were seated. At intermission, we were able to take a closer look at some of the sets that hadn't been on that side before Act I.

For the second act, we were able to stand and watch our dancer perform, which was a real treat. The game of trivia also resumed.

At the end of the second act, after the curtain call, #2 finally ran over to us and said hello. then ran downstairs to take off makeup and costume. We went up a short time later, collected our dancers, and left.

Later, as we were discussing the experience, my spouse made the observation that he was surprised by how calm it was back stage. He had expected a lot of panic, or at least rushing around, but everyone knew what to do and when to do it.

All in all, it was a marvelous experience, certainly one that not many people get a chance to have. We have such a great understanding, now, of what the children's cast members experience. Watching the smooth competence of both backstage crew and onstage cast, it is easy to understand why the children dancing in "Nutcracker" quickly gain a kind of confidence and poise that they don't have prior to that first performance.