I know what you’re thinking, it’s December and time for that same old Nutcracker show again! Honestly, I feel the same way! The Nutcracker was my very first production at the Reif Center 29 years ago!
Some of our Nutcracker set pieces, like the party scene stairs and growing tree have been around for years. Other times an idea comes up and only lasts one performance. Who remembers the remote-controlled mouse or the giant walnut the nutcracker soldier popped out of?
I only remember bits and pieces of Nutcrackers over the years. Early on I remember we used a twelve-foot-tall live pine tree for the party scene, that made for some interesting scene changes! Then, there were the infamous candy canes for Land of the Sweets. The first ones I built were beautiful, but not too stable. They were on top of the expensive dance flooring so they couldn’t be screwed into the floor, and we used stage weights instead. The first time one fell over was when we took The Nutcracker up to Hibbing one year. I let that one go as a fluke accident. But a year or so later we used the candy canes for a Christmas tour of Riders in the Sky. One of the candy canes fell and nearly took out Too Slim! That was it…the candy canes were gone! I believe they ended their days in David Marty’s burn pile. After that I built candy cane pillars that would be impossible to tip over! And now we rent a Land of the Sweets backdrop, and the candy cane pillars are stored away in the dungeon behind The Reif offices.
One of the highlights of The Nutcracker is the battle between the Nutcracker and the Rat Queen with their minions, soldiers for the Nutcracker and mice for the Rat Queen. I think Bev Wilson was the dance director who first asked for a cannon for the battle scene, and not just any cannon – a cheese cannon! The soldiers would fire the cannon to distract the mice! I jury rigged something with a cardboard concrete form, an ice-cream bucket and surgical tubing! The cheese cannon lasted for a while until someone else wanted a cannon that would fire smoke instead of cheese. I put my pyrotechnician skills to use and came up with a decent looking cannon that used electric matches and flash powder to produce a nice burst of smoke! That’s the cannon we’ve continued to use the last few years, but without the pyro.
Last year Dance Director, Raeanne Graupman, asked if we could build a new cheese cannon.
Scene Shop Supervisor, Greg Johnson, got to work on some ideas. “I do love a challenge because they call me the problem solver! Most of the things I build for Reif productions are simple. Sometimes, though, I get to build something that challenges me and my skills. Ariels Grotto that destructs in The Little Mermaid. A flower that opens and reveals a dancer in Thumbelina. And now, a cannon that shoots cheese! After doing a little bit of research, I decided that the least expensive, safest, and easiest to build would be similar to the first one the Reif had – a variation of a slingshot. I got the ‘firing mechanism’ built and working in a couple of days. And after a few modifications, I got the cannon to ‘shoot cheese’ about 10 feet!”
The cheese cannon isn’t the only old idea returning for Nutcracker 2025. During Act I Uncle Drosselmeyer brings magical mechanical dolls to the party. A long time ago I built three oversized presents for the doll dancers. At some point a different dance director wanted all three dolls to magically appear from a trunk that was obviously too small to hold all of them. To be honest I never thought it worked very well. The trunk was at center stage and to mask the dancers crawling to it, there had to be wall of female party guests to cover them. I don’t think anyone was fooled!
I’m happy to report that the gift boxes are coming back! The old ones were tossed years ago so Greg built new ones for this year.
“A few weeks ago, Raeanne asked me if it was possible to build 3 new doll boxes. She gave me some ideas of what she wanted. Three boxes about 6 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. Anyone who has been backstage during any production of The Nutcracker knows that there isn’t much room because of all the dancers and set pieces. The new cannon I built is almost 3 feet longer than the old one! The next day, I presented her with my idea – three giant boxes that would nest inside of each other while they were backstage. The largest box is 8 feet tall and 4 feet wide; the smallest box is about 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide. They take up just a little bit more floor space backstage than the previous single doll box. Challenges accepted and problems solved!”
If you thought you could skip this year’s Nutcracker because you came last year, think again! Our production is always changing and evolving with new set pieces, new choreography and new dancers. Writing this article has reminded me how much The Nutcracker has changed over the years, and I’m almost looking forward to it now!
