nutcrackerCongratulations to the eight winning families for tickets to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s autism-friendly production of The Nutcracker!  It was a spirited competition, with more than 50 families vying for a chance to see the show next Friday afternoon at the Benedum Center.

 

Tickets are still available at the PBT website or by calling the Benedum Center Ticket Office at 1-800-282-8495.

So many families expressed appreciation that the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre would present such a special performance.  And so many familes were hopeful to win this contest!  From one of the winners:

Thank you so much. It has been a really tough week and this is wonderful news.

I just wanted all of you to know the last time I saw the Nutcracker I was pregnant with our daughter (very pregnant as she was born on December 21st). I had visions of taking my little Princess, dressed in her finest, to see the Nutcracker. I saw the wonder on her face and the delight in her eyes. This dream was very important to me as I had been a professional ballet dancer in my youth and have danced the Nutcracker many times.

Then she was diagnosed on the spectrum and all dreams of the Nutcracker were erased. While I open my children up to as many opportunities as possible, a ballet was out of the question as ballet patrons would not be pleased to have an autistic child in their midst. I wrote to PBT years ago suggesting an autism performance of the Nutcracker and now here it is!

Thank you all so much for giving us this opportunity. I had been unable to scrape together the money to buy tickets. You have literally made a dream come true!

 

We hope to be able to offer this contest again in the future (and wouldn’t it be nice if autism-friendly theater and music productions could occur more than once a year?).

Thanks to everyone who entered!  Enjoy your holiday, and enjoy the show!

 

(Yahoo!Images)