Adapted by Rob Ashman and Johnny Cartwright
It’s Christmas Eve and Drosselmeyer is putting the finishing touches to a very special present for his niece Clara.
Join Clara and her beloved nutcracker doll as it magically transforms into a handsome prince. Help defeat the evil Mouse King and fly with them to the Land of Sweets for a meeting with the beautiful Sugar Plum Fairy.
Set in Drosselmeyer’s amazing toy shop and using the much loved scoreline of Tchiakovsky’s famous ballet, Sea legs invite you to a delicious festive feast of storytelling, music and puppetry.
For children age 3+
“A magical show. The look on the children’s faces was amazing. It was a thoroughly professional and enjoyable performance. Thank you very much.” – Jan Willetts, Headteacher, Lea Street First School, Kidderminster.
The Nutcracker was produced for a 53 show schools tour in Christmas 2005. It was an extremely ambitious production. I had decided to perform it as a one man show but just how does one man animate a battle scene with a hoard of screeching mice and an army of toy soldiers? It was a question that took us all around the houses and back. Finally we settled on a simple but highly organised shadow scene. With an enormous amount of planning, making, rehearsal and reserves of energy I never knew I had, I took the show on the road.
I have to admit Sea Legs sailed very close to the wind with this one and for the first few shows I was flying by the seat of my pants, but we very quickly sorted out any teething problems and I settled into an exhausting but exhilarating touring schedule that took me all over the Midlands and South Wales with a final show on 21st December at Hereford Cathedral (see below).
Puppeteer helps charity
A puppeteer is donating the proceeds from his show in Hereford Cathedral to an international children’s charity.
Rob Ashman, from Sea Legs Puppet Theatre, is handing over 80% of the money from his performance of The Nutcracker to Children of Peace, which aims to build cross boundary friendships between children in the middle-east.
The remaining money is making its way to the Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust.
Children of Peace chairman Richard Martin, who hails from Hereford, was on hand to watch the production and collect the money for the charity.
“It was a super production,” said Richard. “A lovely show, real old fashioned entertainment and the children loved it.”
More than £200 was raised and donations were still being made.
From the Hereford Times January 11th 2006.