NFMAA presents virtual Nutcracker
For years, the North Fort Myers Academy for the Arts has presented “The Nutcracker” ballet during the holiday season, with the big show happening at the Barbara B. Mann Center for the Performing Arts, where a sellout crowd comes to see it.
But in a year unlike any other, the COVID pandemic prevented such a show from happening, at least live.
That didn’t stop the teachers and students from giving it their best shot. This past weekend, they gave those online the opportunity to see it virtually and in a way it has never been held before.
“We still wanted to do the Nutcracker, so the dance teachers and the artists team has been working together and they researched people who could edit it for them,” said principal Andrea Gunns, who played Auntie Drosselmeyer. “We planned out how we can safely have our students perform and still hold it.”
Teacher Lori Nadl said she didn’t want to disappoint the students, especially those who have performed it multiple times and are now in seventh or eighth grade and have worked their way up to a feature role.
“We’ve had these kids since kindergarten and their dream was to be onstage in one of the lead roles. So we made ourselves think of how we can make their dreams cone true, so we did a taped version,” Nadl said.
While it isn’t the same, Nadl said in some respects it’s better because they could use special effects and the students could use home connect to get into costume and have the video editor edit them into the performance. It also allowed for multiple takes to get things just right.
Nicole Hoeberling, another teacher, said the virtual performance also allowed them to have a bigger cast because they could include more elementary school students.
“We usually have 12 gingerbread men, but with the editing, we were able to include more students through home recordings and HomeConnect. A lot of editing was needed but it was awesome for the younger students,” Hoeberling said.
Atruyu Bott, a seventh-grader who played the Nutcracker, said it was exciting to have the lead role and that the ability to do multiple takes helped make it look better.
“It would have been more exhilarating to do it live, but it was good to do it how we did it,” Bott said. “It’s great because we all get to work together and have fun onstage.”
Jordyn Barrett, an eighth-grader who played Clara, said the role was challenging, especially since social distancing made physical contact with the Nutcracker, which has happened in the past, a non-starter.
“We made it work. In fact, it worked out well even though we couldn’t touch each other, it was still respectful. We still did a lot of things together,” Barrett said. “I would have been happy doing it live or virtually. It can be fun doing it live because the crowd is there, but without the crowd we got all the support we needed.”
As far as whether shows will be done this way in the future, it’s pretty doubtful.
“There’s nothing like doing a show live, but taking everything into account, this was the best solution and it turned out great,” Hoeberling said. “We hope a lot of people support it.”