The Nutcracker, with its seasonal import and its many roles for children, is perhaps the story ballet best suited to reflect a community back on itself. Last weekend we drove down to Mansfield to see what turned out to be a Nutcracker with unusually deep roots in that part of Ohio.
Neos Dance Theatre sets A 1940s Nutcracker in World War II-era Mansfield, and that ambiance proclaimed itself from the moment we walked into the lobby of the Renaissance Theatre. We were surrounded by Mansfield history and WWII and 1940s artifacts. In one kiosk, a docent in vintage WWII military uniform displayed authentic munitions, equipment and uniforms — many of them manufactured in and around Mansfield. The front pages of local newspapers heralded the surrender of Germany and Japan. “Lots more in our museum,” said the docent, handing us a brochure for Mansfield Memorial Museum.
We walked around the next exhibit, a beautifully restored 1949 Ford. “Just like one my uncle used to drive,” Vic told the docent. It took us back.
A banner hung over another part of the lobby, “Ask me about the 1940s.” Under the banner a pair of 40s-vintage arm chairs sat empty. We guessed that the old-timers who were to have occupied those chairs had slipped off for a nap. Octogenarians are entitled that way.
As a recording of the familiar Nutcracker overture played, the curtains opened on projections of falling snowflakes and many, many vintage photos. There were photos of Mansfield buildings and places but mostly of people. Individual portraits of young men in military uniforms, yes, but mostly the stuff of every-day 1940s civilian nostalgia. High school graduation photos, prom photos, families in formal studio portraits and in casual snapshots. Even though we recognized few of the places and none of the people in the photos, we felt a warm glow growing in the auditorium.
The moving projections of Mansfield zoomed in on the front steps of one apartment building and become the set for the initial scene. Details here and throughout this Nutcracker are telling. For instance, the blue star on the front door signifies a family with a living member in active military service. There were lots of those in the 1940s. Inside the apartment, the projections again provide much of the set — a fireplace, window treatments, and a Christmas tree. Props — including a vacuum sweeper from the 1940s — and furnishings are carefully chosen to correspond to the 1940s.
For the projections, credit visual effects specialist Andy Gardner, the same Emmy-Award-winner who wowed us in Neos’ Halloween production of Count… the legend of Dracula. Credit is due also to his assistants, Kathy Hilton and Lindsay Mulhollen.
All the characters dress and behave in a way that corresponds to Mansfield in the 1940s. So, Marie — played by Mary-Elizabeth Fenn — and her future Nutcracker prince, Johnny — played by Ethan Michael Lee — are ordinary 1940s teens. Marie’s mother — played by Anna Trumbo — is a harried wartime housewife, holding things together on the home front without her husband. Aged Drosselmeyer and his dramatic, magical surprises is replaced by Father played by Bobby Wesner who returns unexpectedly home on leave and produces Christmas presents from a WWII vintage duffel bag.
Instead of the dancing automatons, we have Theresa Holland dancing the role of Jane Jacobs Badini of Cuyahoga Falls, a baseball player from All American Girls Professional Baseball League. Throughout, we got the feeling of research into local history and a search for the right vintage prop or costume. Credit Mansfield Memorial Museum, Sherri Penny of Antiques on Main, and costume designers Bobby Wesner and Helen Wesner.
Yes, there is a battle scene with the Nutcracker’s army in U.S. military uniforms. Fortunately, the mice are just mice. No swastikas. No goose stepping. This is a 1940s Nutcracker but it’s played for rosy-hued nostalgia rather than over-the-top humor.
The choreography and the costumes for the snowstorm could fit comfortably into many Nutcrackers, but it takes place against a projection of a house by a lake, perhaps a well-known Mansfield scene. As in most Nutcrackers, it’s our first look at full- out pointe dancing that fills the stage. Brooke Wesner takes a well-deserved solo as the lead snowflake, her extensions tasteful and correct but incredibly high.
After the intermission Johnny takes Marie not to the Land of the Sweets but “into a magical journey through Richland County area in the early 1940s.” Again, the tone is rosy-hued nostalgia as we visit O’Neil’s — a high-end department store where the dancers look wonderful in 40s dresses. A visit to the Mansfield Tire factory introduces us to two Rosie the Riveter types, Allyson Utz and Caitlin Smith, looking strong and comfortable in their pointe shoes.
A Mae West movie at the Ohio Theatre provides Juliana Freude a chance to vamp in a spectacularly imagined gown. Genevieve Wesner is the acrobatic Newspaper Delivery Boy for the Mansfield News-Journal. The Women’s Club at Kingwood holds a low-key garden party to the music for Marzipan. And instead of Mother Ginger we get a mobile factory for Shirley Temple dolls.”Awww!” says the audience as the first doll comes off the assembly line. Soon five little local girls done up in Shirley Temple curls are stealing the show, accompanied by the taller and older Justice Gardner, who we saw as a sort of Bill Bojangles Robinson figure.
The big ensemble number, Waltz of the Flowers, takes place at the Greystone, a local nightclub. The dancing borrows a lot from Hollywood jazz dancing. Think Fred Astaire in Holiday Inn or Easter Parade.
Whether it’s set in the Land of Sweets or magical Mansfield, most any Nutcracker that’s ridden the narrative arc of the score this far has produced a blissed-out audience. Babies in the audience have stopped crying. Parents and grandparents are shooting loving looks at their children on stage. Neos’ dancers also sported smiles. Not the professional smiles of performers but the same irrepressible, blissed-out smiles the audience is wearing.
But who will dance the climactic grand pas de deux and what in Mansfield will serve as a throne room? Well, it seems that Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart had their wedding and honeymoon right outside Canton at Malabar Farm on May 21, 1945. So Brooke and Bobby stand in for Bacall and Bogart, looking classy.
Safe to say that every dance company hopes to learn their community and engage with their community, but we seldom see a production that so successfully embodies those goals. Clearly, Neos has done loving research into Mansfield’s past and put local history into play in a clever and spirited reimagining of Nutcracker. Not satisfied with dancing the steps, they’ve danced a city.
Neos Dance Theatre performed A 1940s Nutcracker at the Renaissance Theatre in Mansfield, Ohio on Saturday 12/12.
[Written by Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas]