Nutcracker for all
Popular production geared for everyone
It’s one of those productions that heralds the start of the holiday season but for those not familiar with ballet, attending a full-fledged production of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” may seem daunting.
With that in mind, the Savoy Theatre’s production of “The Nutcracker: A Selection of Favourites From The Ballet” is geared towards everyone and you can thank Cynthia Lahey for that.
“It would probably be close to five years ago Pam Leader mentioned to me that she would like to do some version of `The Nutcracker’ ballet here at the Savoy,” recalled Lahey, who wrote the narrative which she directs for the upcoming Savoy production. “So, we bandied about ideas for a few months and I think the one thing that we were really hoping to do with our Nutcracker was to draw on more than just the dance audience, more than people who would normally go to a ballet. So, I talked about an idea of having some way that the dances weren’t just performed but also explained.
“So how it works now is there’s an older sister telling her little sister the story of the Nutcracker and also the audience so we have an idea of what they are seeing — she’ll explain to her what they’re about to see and then we see the dance and then they interact and then she tells her some more of the story and it goes on like that for the whole show.”
The show will return to the Savoy stage this weekend for a fourth time and Lahey, who’s also production manager, couldn’t be more pleased.
“We’ve had great audiences from the very first year,” she says. “And since then it’s just grown on the idea that it’s
a nice outing for families at Christmas. It’s very beautiful to watch — sparkly dance dresses and big set pieces and we actually have new set pieces this year that are more than lifesized versions of ice cream and
cupcakes, so it’s visually very exciting for kids and family.”
The entire cast is from the local area and features all ages.
“When you put everybody between cast, crew, sound, we actually have 72 people involved in this production. Just the cast alone is 59 people. It’s a big production. I think our youngest dancer is seven and our oldest dancer is 71.”
Interestingly enough, even though Lahey is involved in what is essentially a dance production, she isn’t a dancer.
“I was in dancing when I was very young for a few years and that was it, but my sisters danced and you know you gain an appreciation as an audience member going to see them.”
She hopes audiences for this year’s production will consider adding the show to their annual holiday traditions like many already have.
“I know that we have people that have been in our audience since year one that continue to come that have no connection to anybody in the actual production — just that they love to see it and it has become a family tradition for them. We hope to be able to continue that.”
“Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker: A Selection of Favourites From The Ballet,” runs Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay.