Behind The Curtain of Charlotte Ballet’s Nutcracker
Take a peek backstage to see how this holiday classic comes to life
Charlotte Ballet has staged Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker each December since 2006. This winter, the professional ballet company’s 126 cast and 38 crew members hosted 17 performances at Belk Theater. We joined them for their final rehearsal before opening night to discover what—and who—it takes to create an onstage dream.
2:20 p.m.
Backstage, the linoleum floor practically vibrates as cast and crew members rush up and down the hallway. They dart in and out of the greenroom and seven dressing rooms, dodging costume racks and each other. A pair of Novant Health physical therapists have set up two treatment tables on one side of the greenroom—just in case. Stagehands wrangle jittery children dressed as mice, soldiers, and angels. A dancer stretches in every available cranny. Prop masters inspect, disinfect, and organize prop swords, wrenches, spoons, and tambourines. When the show’s principal dancers have a moment to spare between hair and makeup, they stop by a folding table in the hallway to autograph the inside covers of 15 photo books, to be sold in the Belk’s gift shop.
2:50 p.m.
Charlotte Ballet Artistic Director Alejandro Cerrudo—one hand under his chin, the other holding a mic in his lap—leans forward in his seat, eyes fixed on the stage as Drosselmeyer (played tonight by David Senti) unveils his life-size toy doll. To Cerrudo’s left sit Rehearsal Directors Alicia Delgadillo and Ana Lopez. Behind them, the show’s lead lighting designer and electrician sit at a makeshift table strewn with cords, papers, headphones, mics, and water bottles. The costume shop manager plops down in a seat to check her phone. The orchestra pit is empty tonight, but starting tomorrow, the Charlotte Symphony will accompany the dancers.
3:00 p.m.
OnstagE, Clara (played tonight by Elyn Jaime Jenkins) pretends to sleep in a chair downstage left as giant toys, each about three feet tall, move into position around her. Behind each one is a crouched stage tech dressed in black. Cerrudo lifts his mic to speak over the music. “Let’s have the toys come onstage again,” he says. The song, “Clara and the Nutcracker,” jumps back to before the toys’ musical cue. “And now and now and go and go and …,” Cerrudo directs each toy when to move. He restarts the scene twice more before he’s satisfied with the timing.
3:10 p.m.
“Mice, I can see you in the wings,” Cerrudo says over the speakers. Children dressed as light-gray mice scurry backward and away from the stage as their adult chaperones corral them into their places. The kids are around ages 9 and 10, students from Charlotte Ballet Academy and its Reach Scholarship Program. They’re still learning how to behave—and hide their tails—backstage. “Busy arms, busy arms, mice!” Cerrudo reminds them when it’s their turn to rush onstage for their scene with the Rat King (played tonight by Caleb Olenick).
Moments earlier, a stagehand helped Olenick put on the oversized rat head, which looks like something a sports mascot would wear. Before and after shows, the head stays on a shelf backstage, next to a second one like it and two giant Nutcracker heads that stagehands can sanitize and have ready.
Olenick moves his body continuously in the wings to keep his muscles warm until it’s time for his entrance—in a prop car pushed by his army of young mice.
At the end of the scene, the Nutcracker Prince slays the Rat King, who falls dramatically to the ground—too close to the wings. “Rat King,” Cerrudo’s voice comes over the speakers again, “you died too far out.”
3:30 p.m.
The show’s second act, set in the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets, contains the most technically difficult ballet in the production. Dancers waiting for or finished with their scenes stand in the wings to watch their fellow cast members. When the Sugar Plum Fairy (played tonight by Isabella Franco) lands a series of fouetté turns en pointe during “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” a small group of Flowers in pink and green tutus cheer and clap silently backstage.
4:30 p.m.
The dancers from Act 2 chat amongst themselves as they gather on a brightly lit stage for post-show notes. Cerrudo, Delgadillo, and Lopez stroll the stage to consult with individual dancers about their performances. Lopez has the female Chocolate lead (played tonight by Remi Okamoto) practice a minor adjustment to some footwork. Delgadillo works with the dancers playing Marzipan (played tonight by Serafina Wagenveld, Karsen Gresham, and Maia Lee).
4:40 p.m.
Backstage, stagehands move props and backdrops into position for tomorrow’s show. The Flowers crowd eagerly around their teacher, Laszlo Berdo, the associate director of Charlotte Ballet Academy’s pre-professional trainee division. He’s studied their performances from the wings and via a backstage video feed. Berdo offers a few statements that make the Flowers nod seriously, then giggle. “But it’s OK,” he says with a smile. “I think we’re in a good place.”
