Sitting down to watch a performance of The Nutcracker whisks you off into a land of graceful ballerinas wearing intricate costumes dancing to music in the magical Land of the Sweets. As all the elements come together, it’s easy to forget the intensive labor it takes to make such a show come to fruition.
After more than a year and a half of work, the Boulder Ballet will reveal all new sets for its production of The Nutcracker this year. Replacing 20-year-old sets, the new, personalized pieces will debut at the company’s shows at Macky Auditorium Nov. 27-29 and then again at Vance Brand Civic Auditorium Dec. 5-6. Performances will be accompanied by the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra and the Longmont Symphony, respectively.
At first, Boulder Ballet’s Executive Director Wrenn Combs thought it’d be a short process to procure new sets when she started with the company in September 2013.
“When I started here I noticed a line item in the funds for new sets, and I started inquiring, and people said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to do new sets!’ But nothing was happening. … We weren’t getting anywhere fast,” Combs says.
Eventually, Boulder Ballet’s creative team selected designer Susan Crabtree, who teaches scenic design at various universities and whose clients include the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Denver Center Theatre Company and the University of Colorado. They had their first meeting with Crabtree in July 2014. New to the set design process, Combs figured after a couple meetings and some magic, the sets would be ready in a snap.
“When we all sat down, just to get to know each other, I was saying, ‘OK, when are we going to get a timeline and when are we going to get a budget?’ and they looked at me and laughed and said, ‘No no. This is a little bit more organic than that,’” she says.
Throughout the year and a half process, everyone met several times to iron out all the details — and there were a lot of them. What seem like simple choices actually require careful consideration. A single prop on stage could garner a dozen questions: Would it block a dancer’s entrance? How would stage hands get the prop on and off stage, and in what direction would it enter and exit? How would the prop look from the audience’s perspective from the front row to the last row? Was there enough room for it to be stored?
Other concerns include sizing, lighting, theater dimensions and making the sets versatile and adaptable to various theaters. Sketches were made and then models, alongside several more meetings, one of which lasted more than eight hours.
“We have literally taken it from big, to the minutia, back out again,” Combs says. “When we were looking at the models, and going scene by scene by scene, we spent three and a half hours just going over the details of the parlor.”
Painting the sets took three artists nine weeks to get a majority of the work done, but there was still more work that Crabtree subsequently completed. She says there’s an astonishing amount of scenery, estimating 8-9,000 square feet.
The creation and building process might have been laborious, but Combs says it’s worth it in the end. Having its own sets allows Boulder Ballet to create a more personalized experience — an advantage not all companies have.
“Most ballet companies don’t have sets made for them,” Combs says. “They rent them, so you’re getting generic sets. The fact that this has been done with Boulder Ballet … is very unique.”
Crabtree says she was able to realize the elements of the storyline that were important to Boulder Ballet, including Clara’s dream state and Drosselmeyer’s magic.
“Now they have a set that completely supports their storyline. It’s their own signature production,” she says. “In a ballet company, that’s one of the things that’s the most important element. … I worked very diligently with the Boulder Ballet to try to help them create their signature work of The Nutcracker. It doesn’t look like anyone else’s Nutcracker. It is nobody else’s. It’s theirs.”
Creating the sets for such a wellknown show can be intimidating, but the creative team wanted a fresh approach. Combs says the team liked Crabtree because she wanted surprises, not tired clichés like candy canes and cupcakes in the Land of the Sweets.
“She said that’s overdone, and that’s what everyone expects with The Nutcracker. She wanted to do the unexpected,” Combs says.
Part of the inspiration for Boulder Ballet’s new sets came from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman’s original Nutcracker story. Crabtree also blended a variety of different architectural references and motifs, and included what she calls “fanciful elements” throughout the show.
One of the main focuses in designing the new sets was creating a cohesive flow that leads the audience from scene to scene. Toys sitting lifeless on a bookshelf in one scene come to life in the next. In another scene, the audience sees the forest that Clara visits in her dream through the windows.
“We wanted there to be continuity between the scenes. I think, especially in our production, it seemed to be very disjointed,” Combs says. “Clara fell asleep in her bed, then she’s in the living room, then she’s in a forest, and how do we get there? Yes it’s a dream, but how do we take the audience through that progression? And that’s what we’ve tried to do.
“Susan [Crabtree] really wanted it to be almost like a book, where you move from each scene to the next like you’d turn a page.”
Beyond the sets, this year’s production also features new costumes and new choreography.
“That’s why we say, ‘See it again for the first time,’” Combs says.
Excitement and anticipation have been percolating up to the big reveal, Combs says. The Nutcracker is an iconic show and the new sets serve as a milestone for Boulder Ballet. Combs hopes everyone involved with the production will return in future years and keep the legacy alive.
“I just want people to understand how special this is, and it’s a community effort,” Combs says. “How cool would it be for our dancers that are in high school to bring their children back? That’s what makes this special. It’s been a labor of love for everyone.”
ON THE BILL: The Nutcracker Ballet Friday-Saturday, Nov. 27-28, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder, 303-449-1343, ext. 2. Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 5-6, Vance Brand Civic Auditorium, 600 E. Mountain View Ave., Longmont, 303-772-5796. Tickets available at Boulderballet.org.
