Alexa Brown as Clara in Schuylkill Ballet Theatre's "The Nutcracker." PHOTOS BY JACQUELINE DORMER
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on November 30, 2021.
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - The ballerinas stood all in a row, the epitome of beauty and grace. Their slippered feet pattered as they went through their courtly, highly rehearsed movements to the mysterious, ethereal music of Tchaikovsky. This can only mean one thing - Schuylkill Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” was back, for the 42nd year. At Sunday’s matinee in Schuylkill Haven Area High School’s Zweling Auditorium, I saw a charming production with clever direction and choreography by Vivian Connor and Sarah Schimpf.
The story of “The Nutcracker” is as old as a fruitcake and has been retold countless times. How do you keep it fresh after over 40 years? You can do what Connor and Schimpf did, adding character-driven choreography and a change of scenery. Rather than opening in Clara’s (Pine Grove freshman Alexa Brown) family home on Christmas Eve, the story begins in the workshop of Herr Drosselmeyer (played by Dave Donlin as a benevolent combination of Vincent Price and Count Dracula). We see Drosselmeyer enchanting his life-size toys and bringing them to life, including the Nutcracker Prince (Greg Schuettler). In this interpretation of the story, Drosselmeyer is a thematic bridge, guiding Clara - and the audience - on their journey. In a sense, “The Nutcracker” is the story of a young girl experiencing
(L-R) Brittany Schock, Abigayle Krewson and Greg Schuettler as Herr Drosselmeyer's toys.
With a breathtaking transition, we then see Drosselmeyer’s toys at Clara’s family Christmas party, where a maid serves guests - how ironic! - from a plate of cheese. The cheese makes another appearance when the mice, led by a glamorous and flamboyant Queen (Amanda Johns, whose red lipstick popped against her grey velvet mouse costume) use a block of cheese as a makeshift Sherman tank against the Nutcracker’s toy soldiers. This “Nutcracker” easily could have been a series of exploding Christmas crackers, colorful diversions without much substance. Instead, the audience is transported into a world of shadow and details, where the dancers’ bodies create evocative images (the mice terrorizing Clara in her bed, Snowflakes collapsing to the ground). The dancers not only dance but act, using their faces and bodies to say what mere words cannot.
As Clara, Brown’s performance reached its greatest height during the climactic Pas de Deux between the Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy (Sheridan Bensinger in a radiant performance). As the dance builds up into its climax, Clara’s face, along with the music, contorts itself into the extreme of yearning and ecstasy. The Prince carries Sugar Plum across the stage. The dancers shall grow old, but the dance shall not. The Prince and the Fairy will forever be young. With every year, every generation, it will forever be Christmas Eve in a young girl’s imagination. Their costumes will never fade. Clara will always be yearning.
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