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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Muscovy
By James Emery Vigh of profbruno.com
Years ago, before they moved to San Jose, Ca., there was the Cleveland Ballet. Their home was the State Theatre. If I remember this correctly, The Cleveland Ballet specialized in a French-style expressionism. And expressive they were. I was not particularly into ballet at this time but they converted me. For several years, their most popular, and most attended ballet was "The Nutcracker". Right after Thanksgiving, they would put on 8-10 performances a week right on through New Years Eve. The ballet features children playing mice as well as some remote-controlled mice. It also uses several smoke machines, and various pyrotechnics. High above the stage there were crew members responsible for dropping paper confetti "snow" for one of the scenes. This of course, being live theatre, sometimes things went wrong. At any one performance, one or more of the following may have happened: 1. One or more of the remote-controlled mice go berserk and end up dropping into the orchestra pit. (A little fence was eventually installed to protect the vulnerable musicians from being attacked by mechanical rodents.) 2. A pyrotechnic flash goes awry causing part of the set to briefly catch fire. (The local fire department was not amused by this and changes were demanded.) 3. Overzealous smoke machine operators go just a teensy bit too far and layers of dry ice smoke pour into the orchestra pit almost asphyxiating the entire orchestra. 4. The crew members who make the "snow" drop too much, too fast creating a virtual white-out on stage. 5. The snow doesn't fall properly and gets stuck in a gigantic confetti ball that falls "plop" onto the stage barely missing one of the principle dancers. 6. The king and queen of Muscovy arrive on stage. The king tries to give his cape to an attendant, but the attendant accidentally steps on the cape causing the king to lurch violently forward. Ah live theatre. I miss it so. |
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You forgot about the 'prompt' who was on the wrong page!
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Nope. Didn't happen here. This was ballet... no dialog.
The Nutcracker is always a large and favorite production in Boston. It is performed annualy, just prior to Christmas and uses many local children. Great show.
Thanks for sharing, Jim.
Frederick
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