Three studio owners share their know-how and numbers.

Don’t duke it out over prices for your Nutcracker.

Chances are, you either produce an annual Nutcracker each winter or students are constantly begging you to institute one. It’s no small undertaking: A comprehensive Nutcracker means budgeting for costumes, backdrops, insurance, marketing, guest-artist salaries and more. Most studio owners don’t undertake these productions as profit generators; they see them as an investment in community visibility and an opportunity to promote studio loyalty. No matter your studio size or where your production falls on the spectrum of all things Nutcracker, you’re surely always looking for ways to cut costs, raise revenue and brand your winter show to guarantee its status as a community staple. Here, owners of three studios of varying sizes and locations share their tricks of the Nutcracker trade.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

For her annual Nutcracker production, Nicole Benson, owner of the 150-student Benson Academy of Dance, Inc., in Ocala, Florida, turns to the Marion Ballet Theatre that her mother, Jeanne Benson Smith, founded as the studio’s resident company more than 30 years ago. As a nonprofit, MBT qualifies for state and community grants and private donations, which cover most of the production costs. (Nicole, who took over the studio after her mother died, was also appointed artistic director of MBT by the nonprofit’s board of directors.) Benson charges $25 per dancer for auditions, which are also open to the community. Dancers who make it into MBT also pay a $50 membership fee.

Ticket Price: $20 (10 shows total)

Overall Budget: $100,000

To Cut Costs

A friend of Benson’s offered to create the ballet’s four backdrops, which means Benson no longer has to fork over a couple thousand dollars each year for scenery.

Several MBT moms went to “tutu school,” where they learned to sew basic classical tutus, in both short and Romantic lengths. Afterward, one mother created all the “Waltz of the Flowers” costumes.

Benson found company dads to volunteer for event security, eliminating that expense.

To Fund the Production

Each child in the ballet has to sell two advertisements for the program magazine.

Last year, Benson’s board of directors raised ticket sales by organizing field trips for three different groups of Marion County schoolchildren to see MBT’s Nutcracker. Benson cut the show to a half-hour for these performances—so they could happen over the course of one day, one right after another, and the dancers wouldn’t miss too much school themselves.

Branding Strategies

Benson gets her ballet company out in the community as often as possible. When the local library put on a fairy-tale festival, Benson sent her Sugar Plum Fairy in costume as a representative. She supplied dancers for book signings when a local author published a book about the ballet.

Selected Budget Items

•Ocala Civic Theatre rental, for two weeks: $8,500

•Lighting and sound, for design work and tech time: $7,500

•Costumes: $3,000 to replace the “Waltz of the Flowers” corps’ and soloists’ outfits last year.

•Marketing (local magazine and newspaper advertising, posters and two or three billboards): $7,500

•Liability insurance: $3,500

•Guest artists (performance stipend, travel, car rental, accommodations): $15,000

Extras Renting a recording studio to re-record Tchaikovsky’s music in a new order each year and program printing

HOME IS WHERE THE TALENT IS

Unlike most Nutcracker productions, studio owner Gina Chiavelli’s ballet only features dancers who audition from among her 600 students at Pinewood School of Dance and the local Dutchess and Putnam County, New York, area. She saves thousands of dollars on guest-artist travel, accommodations and performance stipends, while simultaneously creating a niche of pure local talent for her production, now in its 10th year. The combined performance troupe is known as the Dutchess Dance Theatre. Each child pays an $85 participation fee.

Ticket price: $17 (two shows)

Overall Budget: $33,000

To Cut Costs

For Chiavelli’s first Nutcracker, a studio mom offered to make all the angel, mouse and soldier costumes; Chiavelli, who paid for materials, still uses these costumes today.

Every parent with a child in the ballet has to volunteer, whether ushering, selling concessions, installing backdrops, laying marley, altering costumes, selling tickets or coordinating other volunteers.

To Fund the Production

Each student is asked to sell at least one ad in the program to a local business.

Chiavelli runs a concession stand before the show and during intermission.

Branding Strategies

Tapping into community pride, Chiavelli promotes her show as being entirely homegrown—and without watering down the notoriously difficult choreography.

Selected Budget Items

•Local high school theater rental, for four days (two dress rehearsals and two performances): $5,000

•Lighting crew of five: $1,500

•Costumes, replaced every few years: $800 per soloist tutu

•Scenery (three backdrops): $1,500

•Marketing (newspapers, PennySaver, posters and e-mail blasts): $5,000

Extras Rehearsal assistants’ salaries and the monthly cost of storage space

BUILDING A TOWN TRADITION

Of the 800 students at Lisa Tuska’s Colorado School of Dance in Parker, Colorado, 120 participate in the school’s annual Nutcracker production, each paying an $85 fee. Tuska aims to cover at least two-thirds of her expenses with revenues. She named her production the Nutcracker of Parker, enlisted support from the mayor and put on community performances, making it an essential part of the town’s holiday season.

Ticket Price: $20–25 (six shows)

Overall Budget: $33,000

To Cut Costs

When she learned that the Parker community was building a cultural arts center, Tuska began writing letters of intent to the city from the Nutcracker of Parker, rather than her studio. Because her winter ballet has become a community event endorsed by the mayor, Tuska is able to split her ticket sales with the theater, in lieu of paying rent.

To Fund the Production

Tuska created a “Junior Clara Club,” in which kids ages 4 to 7 pay $25 each to learn a dance, dress up and then do a performance during the mayor’s annual toast to the production.

She joined the chamber of commerce and obtained the mailing list for sponsorships; Tuska targeted these businesses when selling publicity spots in the program.

Branding Strategies

By officially naming her ballet the Nutcracker of Parker, Tuska cemented her studio’s role in the community’s winter holiday activities. She invited the mayor to make an opening toast during the first night of performances. Studio members also perform during the town’s Christmas tree–lighting ceremony.

Selected Budget Items

•Props: $2,000–3,000

•Backdrop rental (three backdrops): $1,400

•Costumes (last year, Tuska replaced the Snow costumes and accounted for alterations): $4,200

•Photographer: $900

Extras Awards and ribbons for the cast DT

From top: photo by Dave Schlenker, courtesy of Nicole Benson; by Jeffrey Baker, courtesy of Gina Chiavelli; by Darcy Miccio Pace, courtesy of Lisa Tuska