I said I’d talk a little more about Nutcracker this week, so here you go.
This year we did three shows at two venues. Our standard venue in one town raised its prices beyond what we could afford, so we were prepared to not do a show in that town at all. But then the city offered their civic center auditorium for free because they appreciated the show so much.
It took some effort to squeeze our production into the civic center. We’re used to a 45-foot wide stage that’s 35-40 feet deep. This stage was closer to 35 feet wide and about 25 deep. The opening Drosselmeyer’s toy shop scene usually happens in front of the grand curtain, but the civic center only has about three feet from the grand to the edge of the stage. Our solution to that was to move the scene between the grand and the mid.
The backstage area at the civic center is…sparse. Stage right had only slightly more space than we have at the two schools where we usually perform. Stage left though had essentially nothing usable. But that side opened into a gymnasium (which doubled as a dressing room), so we could still work with it.
We had a lot of fun, despite the chaos. The third show was added after the original schedule went out, so some of our younger dancers couldn’t make it. In some cases, we did without. In others, we called on understudies at literally the last minute. And our dancers may be young, but they’re troopers.
Diana joined me on stage this year as Drosselmeyer’s partner for the cup dance (AKA the wine dance). Middle Daughter danced as a Toy Soldier and choreographed/taught a number of the dances, too. We’re stupid proud of her.
Christmas Haul
I got a little of this and a little of that. Youngest Son got me a set of headphones to replace my old ones that randomly failed a couple of months ago. Middle Son picked out a set of New Orleans Saints-branded kitchen knives. Diana gave me a couple of other kitchen knives, so I’m pretty well set there. I got a book about writing media tie-ins that I’ve been wanting for a while, and a few other gadgets and gee-gaws, so it was a good year for me.
Youngest and Middle Daughters drew Oldest Daughter and Lego Dude for the gift exchange, so they went in together and made matching sweatshirts for them with their name and their anniversary date. Pretty sweet, I thought. Tears were shed.
McNugget Tamer got a little weepy when she finally understood the family warning about putting things on your wishlist for Grandpa. He loves to spoil his kids and grandkids, so he’ll get you almost anything that ends up on your Christmas list. Seriously. My first Christmas, he got me a mountain bike. And he wrapped the box. Number Two Son got two computers because Youngest Son and Grandpa apparently clicked “Add to Cart” at the same time. I think he was more surprised by getting it from Youngest Son.
It was a good time.
Writing
This is my last post for 2024.
I didn’t make my wordcount goal for the year, but I did much better towards the end of the year.
On the blog, I maintained the streak and wrote six more posts this year than last.
I wrote about 54,000 words in both the blog and fiction for about 108,000 words. My goal is to more than double that next year to 240,000 words, which sounds like a huge jump. But if I maintain the rate I had these last few months, it’s doable.
May the coming year be better than this last, and not as good as the next.
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