The Nutcracker

Another event that conjures up the glow of the holidays is Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker. As a little girl my mother and I signed up to go with some other students from my class to see it. We all met outside the school in the bitter cold and waited for the yellow school bus to pick us up and take us to Boston. I was so excited. I had been watching the movie of the Royal Ballet's production and was totally into it, except for the parts with Uncle Drosselmeyer, who scared the hell out of me. I wore a dress that most resembled Clara's and entered the opera hall for the first time with awe and excitement. It was, and will forever be, the most beautiful production I've ever seen. The costumes, the scenery, the story....Tchaikovsky's melodies giving you chills. I wanted to be a sugar plum fairy so badly.

Then, 15 years later...I found a way to become a volunteer backstage at the Nutcracker through one of my college classes. To be backstage was surreal. The costume room was the most incredible part of it all. Racks and stacks of bejeweled, sequined, and meticulously stitched gowns in creamy pinks and purples...delicately laced sugar plum tutus covered in glistening ice crystals....the details were incredible. You can't see them all from the audience, but ultimately, those details do matter, and they are what make the production glimmer like it does...........