Nutcracker suite Theater, ballet, literature come together at Maine Discovery Museum

Are visions of sugarplum fairies dancing in your head?

A trip to the Maine Discovery Museum can give you – and the kids – a pre-performance dose of Nutcracker cheer.

For 18 years, the Robinson Ballet Company and Bangor Symphony Orchestra have collaborated on “The Nutcracker” ballet, a much-anticipated holiday tradition. This year, the groups have teamed up with the Maine Discovery Museum and Orono Community Theatre to present “Nutcracker Neighborhood,” an interactive exhibit that focuses on many facets of the classic Christmas tale.

“‘The Nutcracker’ seemed to lend itself to this sort of thing,” said Sandra Cyrus of the Orono Community Theatre. “One of the ideas was that there are these different aspects – dance, music, narrative. … Each telling in each different medium has a different focus. If people come to all three events, they get a big-picture idea of what’s going on.”

Even if you’ve seen the ballet a dozen times, “Nutcracker

Neighborhood” may surprise you. Did you know that in the original story there was a Mouse Queen? And that the Mouse King initially had seven heads? And that in some adaptations he is called the Rat King? The tale, it seems, is a tough nut to crack. But the exhibit, which includes interpretations of the book, the ballet and the musical score, is making it a little easier.

The museum has given its Booktown area a new look for the event. The portraits of authors have been replaced with the portraits of such key “Nutcracker” players as composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, BSO director Xiao-Lu Li and Robinson Ballet co-artistic directors Maureen Lynch and Keith Robinson.

Giant murals from the “Nutcracker” book, illustrated by Julie Paschkis and adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s original story, adorn the walls. The lighthouse has been covered with a dazzling Christmas tree, and the barnyard vegetable garden from “Charlotte’s Web” has been replaced with a candy garden where children can plant sugarplums, candy canes and chocolates.

“We didn’t want Booktown to go away,” said Natalie Whitehouse, the museum’s marketing and development director. “We wanted to create something that would be a transformation for the holidays, but after the holidays, Booktown will be back.”

Cyrus and other members of the Orono Community Theatre have put Booktown’s puppet theater to use with an interactive show that introduces families to the story’s main characters: Herr and Frau Silberhaus, their children Clara and Fritz, Uncle Drosselmeyer, and the Mouse Queen.

“We brought the magical transformation of the story to life through shadow puppetry,” Cyrus said. “You have to bring in that element of magic – that’s what the ‘Nutcracker’ is all about.”

Last weekend, members of the Robinson Ballet Company dropped by the museum to present selections from their performance and teach young museum-goers a few moves. This weekend, the dancers leap into their “Nutcracker” schedule with two sold-out shows in Machias. The ballet will be performed at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono on Dec. 7 and 8.

“For most people this is the one time of the year they see a live ballet and the one time of the year they go see a live symphony production,” said Whitehouse, who moonlights as a cellist with the BSO. “But we all have things going on year-round.”

Generating year-round interest was what Karen Hartnagle of the Robinson Ballet had in mind when she approached Andrea Stark, the museum’s director of exhibitions, this summer. Stark, who has a background in dance and choreography, took the idea and ran with it. Given its affiliation with “The Nutcracker,” the BSO was a natural fit for the project, and Cyrus, who is active in the cultural community, was happy to offer the services of the Orono Community Theatre.

“Making the arts thrive in this community, that’s the goal of all these organizations,” said Catherine LeClair of the BSO. “I think there’s a real momentum to put our creative energy together.”

By building the “Nutcracker Neighborhood” at the Maine Discovery Museum, the groups are exposing a new generation to the arts. But just because the activities are geared toward children doesn’t mean that adults can’t have fun, too. There’s no age limit on the magic of the “Nutcracker,” after all.

“There’s a child in all of us,” Hartnagle said. “You don’t have to be grown-up all the time.”