As the Melbourne season of Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker draws closer, The Australian Ballet’s ‘gentleman’s cutter’, Peggy Moad, walks us through the all-important costume and technical run.
I had my stage debut with Principal Artist Damien Welch today. The response from our fearless leader and Artistic Director David McAlister was, “Fabulous darling, what’s your availability?” Of course it was just the costume and technical run for Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker Act II, and I was just testing the royal box wheel with the backstage crew, seeing how it worked with people inside. That’s what you get when you go on stage just to check a costume.
It’s bump-in week for the touring staff and dancers and it’s a big week – for me it’s just over 60 hours and I’m a lightweight. Act II has a lot of quick changes for the dancers and the best way to check for any potential wardrobe malfunctions is to stand backstage and get feedback from the dressers and dancers right before and after those quick changes happen. Things can also seem to fit a little differently in the translation from fitting room to the stage.
Another big part of tech week is the costume fittings for the extras, including child extras. With 16 boys to fit into three costumes each, as well as half a dozen adult extras just for the men’s department, it’s quite a scheduling dance to make sure it all happens and that all the alterations are completed. Not to mention the odd bit of soft props, just to mix it up a bit
All in all just another week in the office really. Better go start sorting The Sleeping Beauty costumes.
Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker – The Story of Clara opens in Melbourne this Friday 5 June
