VERO BEACH — Two Christmases ago, Barry Trammell’s version of “The Nutcracker” ballet was the only show in town.
Riverside Children’s Theatre had recently discontinued bringing in traveling “Nutcrackers” staged by out-of-town companies, supplemented by students from local ballet schools.
Trammell, a relative newcomer to Vero since 2004, had graciously helped with those efforts, says Riverside’s director, Linda Downey. In the void, he drew from his own newly created dance school, Vero Classical Ballet, to launch the spectacle himself.
For an audience of parents and children that packed the house at Vero Beach High School’s Performing Arts Center, Trammell and his ballerina wife, Amy, danced the leading roles, accompanied by a cast of enough little children to fill a school cafeteria.
That kid-filled cast is what makes most “Nutcracker” productions a financial sure bet for ballet. For every Mouse or Soldier or Party Girl, figure at least four relatives will pay to watch, not to mention tradition-starved families looking for a bit of shared holiday culture.
Last year, Trammell’s earnest, enthusiastic production faced competition for the first time, when Riverside Children’s Theatre’s recently expanded dance conservatory staged a more contemporary version of the story: “The Nutcracker: In Swing Time!”
The jazz-filled version originally staged by the famed ballet company Harlem Dance Theatre to Duke Ellington’s take on the story, featured original choreography by Riverside’s new director of dance, Adam Schnell. Featuring 70 local children, the three days of shows were a sell-out.
“We had to add another weekend this year,” says Downey.
This year, with both Riverside’s and Trammell’s, word comes that a third Nutcracker experience is planned for Vero, this one at St. Edward’s Waxlax Center, to be staged by the newcomer Space Coast Symphony Orchestra in tandem with a Brevard County ballet company.
Selections from Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece will be performed in the second half of the Space Coast’s Christmas concert, accompanied by the Galmont Youth Ballet Company.
For Trammell, the effort is becoming something of an act of public service.
“The first two years we did it, we made maybe $1,000,” he says. “With all the work, it’s totally not worth it. People have no idea what it takes” to mount the production, he says.
While the high school cut him a break on renting the auditorium, and parents built the signature Christmas tree that grows, Trammell still has to rent the backdrops and costumes, never mind the hours of rehearsal and production time.
While he owns the sheet music to the score, he can’t afford musicians.
With wife Amy, formerly of the Colorado Ballet, dancing the female roles including the Sugar Plum Fairy, Trammell himself dances all the male roles, from the godfather Drosselmeyer to the Nutcracker Prince.
“We would love to hire another dancer, but it’s a minimum of $1,000,” he says.