We’re well past the tech rehearsal phase now, of course, and are in “the tunnel”– 8 straight days of performances, including five days in a row with two shows each. The light at the end of the tunnel is Christmas Day, and then only two more days until a real rest.
2009 seems to be the Year of the Headpiece for Nutcracker. The costumes for our production were built in 1983 (with a few exceptions) and if you look closely, you can tell. Since there’s certainly no money to rebuild them, this year our wardrobe department decided to at least make a few new things, including several heapieces. They’re really beautiful, carefully made by Suzie Jenkins of our costume shop.
Here’s Julia modelling one of the demisolo Flower headpieces. Up til now, the Flower demis have had no distinguishing marks, which seemed a shame because they do quite a bit of front-and-center dancing. Now they have these lovely tiara-flowers:
Also new this year is Dewdrop’s headpiece. It’s similar to the old one, just a little more streamlined and lighter-weight. Here it is, resting at Candace’s makeup spot in the dressing room before she put it on for her performance tonight:
And last but not least, Sugarplum has new headgear as well. This is also similar to the old one, but more delicate and finely shaped. It has some little sparkly droplets, which are hard to see in this picture but are a beautiful touch. Here’s Grace, modelling it for me before she did her hair for tonight’s show:
So there you have it! Come see the Nutcracker for the high-wattage headpieces in addition to the high-octane dancing!
