A play about a quiet man, and some very loud music...
 

Joe Jessup spends his days teaching earth sciences in Spokane, but his more private side is devoted to the music of Tchaikovsky. Escaping into the music of the master Romantic, Joe leaves the world of his lonely apartment and the middle school staff room, a thwarted affair with a fellow teacher, questions about his own sexuality...and slides into the life of Tchaikovsky himself. Through Joe's reveries, CASSE NOISETTE (or, The Nutcracker) dramatizes the events in the last years of Tchaikovsky’s life up until his still mysterious death in 1893  - all seen through the eyes of Joe, who must make decisions of his own about what sort of man he wishes to be.