Finding Beauty in the Beast in 'Mixed Nuts'

[caption id="attachment_75298" align="alignnone" width="800"] The 2017 "Mixed Nuts" production opens December 15. Photos courtesy Studio 3.[/caption]

By Michelle Trauring

When Diane Shumway picked up the phone, she was elbow deep in Mrs. Potts, sewing one costume sleeve as the handle, the other as the spout.

This may seem unusual, but it is fairly regular behavior come December. While the characters are rarely the same in Studio 3’s “Mixed Nuts” mash-up — this year it incorporates “Beauty and the Beast,” while last year was Neverland — two common threads always remain: “The Nutcracker” storyline and Shumway’s craftiness.

“I have this permanent setup in my house — it’s a big sewing, crafting area. It’s a mess right now. Costumes everywhere,” said the studio founder, at home in Southampton. “My husband passed away in February and if he were alive, he would be having a fit. He typically couldn’t stand this time of year when I was so stressed about the shows, but now the whole house is taken over. I can just hear him now saying, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

[caption id="attachment_75299" align="alignright" width="396"] Courtesy Studio 3[/caption]

She was quiet for a moment.

Her husband, Richard “Rick” Shumway, had been sick for a year, she later explained, and so she stepped away from teaching to be by his side. Easing back into the studio has been slow, she said, and decided to take on a producing role for “Mixed Nuts” — leaving the choreography to her daughter, Meredith, and Jenna Mazanowski and Megan Callahan, and this year’s theme to the cast of 45, some as young as age 6.

“We had so many kids saying that they wanted to do ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and I wasn’t really super thrilled — not that I had another idea in mind,” Shumway said. “But I just thought, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is everywhere, every school is doing it. But because the kids were so excited about it, and then the teachers got on board, I said, ‘Okay great, you guys. You do the choreography, you figure it out!’”

In the weeks since, Shumway has watched the production come together, which will mash up the two storylines — and their respective music — with ballet, jazz and contemporary dance. It is one of the more challenging performances they have ever done, Shumway said, and as such, her tune has completely changed.

“I’m so into it now. I can’t even tell you, I had to create 10 teacups out of nothing. Out of nothing. And they’re fantastic! Oh my gosh, not to pat myself on the back, but they really came out great,” she said. “I’m obsessed. It’s consuming me, I don’t know what I’m going to do when the show’s over.

“It’s been a tough year, but thank God for the studio,” she continued. “I’m really thankful that I have such great teachers who just jumped in, but it’s good for me to be back to work and back to teaching. So I’m doing fine.”

Shumway focused her attention back on the costume in her lap.

“This girl who is playing Mrs. Potts, she is the skinniest, teeniest thing you ever saw. So I’m trying to transform something that we’ve used in another show and, literally, I’ve had to take it back there every day for these fittings,” she said. “But, hopefully, it’s going to turn out fantastic.”

Studio 3 will present “Mixed Nuts” on Friday, December 15, at 7 p.m. at Bay Street Theater, located at 1 Bay Street in Sag Harbor. Additional performances will be held on Saturday, December 16, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, December 17, at 1 p.m. Tickets are $25. For more information, please visit dancestudio3.com.

[caption id="attachment_75300" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Courtesy Studio 3.[/caption]