Dear Friends,

Don Quixote is honestly one of the greatest productions PNB presents. It’s funny, heartwarming, visually stunning and full of the extraordinary dancing our audiences relish. We’ve been having a blast in the studio over the past several weeks and now we’re ready to bring you the fruits of our labor. Here are a few facts about Don Quixote that you may not know.

Yes, it all arrives on nine shipping containers from Amsterdam. As a point of reference, the Stowell/Sendak Nutcracker fits on two shipping containers.

300 costumes (125-150 used per performance), 30 wigs, 50 specialty hair pieces, 103 roles. You get the picture.

Alexei went back to the original 1869 Moscow production in which the story of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza was as important as the story of Kitri and Basilio. This allowed him to include the scenes with the man in the moon, the cacti and the monsters, as well as all of the antics of the Don and Sancho.

We have two casts of Don Quixote; Tom Skerritt and Otto Neubert, and two casts of Sancho, Allan Galli and Jonathan Porretta. In Holland, the Dutch National Ballet hired two local comics called Maxi and Minnie to play these roles.

There are five Kitris with role debuts for Lindsi Dec and Elizabeth Murphy and five Basilios with a role debut for William Lin-Yee.

On Saturday night, the role of the beggar will be played by Glenn Kawasaki. The dancers have been instructed not to give Glenn any money; he’ll just donate it to PNB.

When Chelsea Adomaitis plays Joanna, she actually knits on the balcony.

Our crew pulled an all-nighter to build these sets in time for opening night.

PNB now has three ballets in our repertoire with designs by Jerome Kaplan. Don Quixote’s one of them. Can you name the other two?

We look forward to sharing Don Quixote with you this weekend and next. Once you’ve seen the show, spread the word. We don’t want anyone to miss it.

Featured photo: PNB Company Dancers in Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote, photo © Angela Sterling.