Fort Wayne Ballet’s The Nutcracker always takes you on a journey to the Land of sweets, but this year will also be a journey back in time. 

FWB will bring this iconic show back to Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center for the first time in more than a decade. For one weekend only, audience members will get to see the talented performers take the stage of this historic venue. 

But don’t worry: There will be plenty of tickets to go around due to the large seating capacity of the facility. 

The Nutcracker will run from Dec. 6-8 with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Fort Wayne Children’s Choir. There will also be a sensory-friendly show Tuesday, Dec. 10. 

Following its run in Fort Wayne, the second act of the show hits the road, performing “Land of Sweets” at Kendallville Community Learning Center on Thursday, Dec. 12, and at Defiance Community Auditorium on Saturday, Dec. 14. 

Reminiscing with Escosa

AnnElise Escosa, daughter of FWB founders Dorothy and John Escosa, has spent most of her years living and breathing ballet. 

“There wasn’t a time in my life when I didn’t really want to be a ballet dancer,” she said. 

Escosa wasn’t alone in her desire to be a ballet dancer, it seems to be in the family’s DNA. 

“My brother, sister, and I were all in the first three Nutcrackers that Fort Wayne Ballet did,” she said. 

Escosa said her brother, John Escosa, was the first FWB Nutcracker Prince. 

“He was so smart,” Escosa said. “He always knew the choreography, and he was so good at remembering the blocking. They would call him in every year to help rehearse the blocking for each scene.”

Following in the footsteps — or, dance steps — of her family members, John Escosa’s daughter Elizabeth also went on to dance ballet professionally, portraying the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy for FWB while still in high school. 

Escosa fondly recalled her time dancing with FWB in Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center.

“My reminiscence of the Scottish Rite (The Goldstine) is not only massively tied to The Nutcracker and ballet, but many, many, many performances I saw and participated in there,” she said. “It was the performance space where I would go see community concerts and Fort Wayne Philharmonic concerts. I have a plethora of visual, auditory, and even tactile memories that are so tied with the building. 

“I went to the theater recently to help clean and decorate the dressing rooms and it just brought back so many memories. It was fun. Really fun!”

Traditions and New Technology

FWB will be using some new technology to ensure the audience can experience the beloved traditions of The Nutcracker, even in a different space as renovations continue at Arts United Center.

One of the most iconic moments in the show is the Snow Scene: Dancers dressed in white spin on their toes as the curtain descends and snow begins to fall on the audience. The mechanisms that allow snow to come down on the audience are not normally used at the The Goldstine, so the artistic staff did what artists do best. They got creative. 

“This building presents us with some amazing opportunities,” FWB Artistic Director Karen Gibbons-Brown said. “It’s an older building, so we’ve had some challenges that we’ve addressed with creative solutions.” 

Deciding how to handle backdrops and props in the space was another challenge that required some artistic ingenuity. In place of typical painted canvas backdrops that fly in and out throughout the show, projections will be used. 

“We’ve hired a gentleman out of California named Bryce Cutler to create the projections for us,” Gibbons-Brown said. “He’s incredibly gifted and I’m very excited to see how it looks with the dancers performing in front of it.” 

In true FWB style, the company is handling each of the challenges with grace and creativity that lead to an enhanced audience experience. 

A Flurry of Snow … and Preparation

The weeks leading up to The Nutcracker are some of the most exciting of the year for every member of the cast, from the smallest mouse to the most experienced Sugar Plum Fairy. 

“As you can imagine, we’re all a flurry with The Nutcracker,” Gibbons-Brown said.  

Gibbons-Brown discussed that preparation began a little early this year due to the need to prepare for the new theater space.  

“The Robert Goldstine Performing Arts Center is a whole different setup than our typical performance space,” she said. “Not only is the stage different, but also the dressing rooms, the formula for getting people in and out of the space, and the lighting logistics, to name a few things, are all very different. We’ve had to begin early to make sure our dancers and production crew are ready for the new space.”

On the Road

As if one new theater wasn’t enough, FWB will take the second act, “The Land of Sweets,” of The Nutcracker on the road this year.

On Dec. 12, they will appear on stage in Kendallville, and on Dec. 14 the company will perform in Defiance, Ohio. It’s a chance for members of these communities to experience the magic of an FWB The Nutcracker without having to travel all the way to Fort Wayne. 

“We get audiences from a lot of different places, including Defiance and Kendallville, so we’ll be taking a part of The Nutcracker to them this year,” Gibbons-Brown said. 

Some audience members come from even farther than these locations to experience the show.

“This year, I got a lovely note from a woman who said she and her children would often come to the FWB Nutcracker when they were growing up,” Gibbons-Brown said. “Her children are now grown and live multiple states away from Indiana, and they’re coming in to see Nutcracker in Fort Wayne this year.”