In 2014, the San Francisco Symphony asked me to create a brand-new “Christmas Spectacular” that was durable enough to run annually for the foreseeable future, so I went on the hunt for untapped sources of holiday nostalgia. This led me down the long road of adapting the New York Theatre Ballet’s delightful production of A Charlie Brown Christmas for West Coast audiences. With characters and music by local Bay Area heroes Charles Schultz, Vince Guaraldi and Lee Mendelson, it was the perfect fit.

Director and choreographer Liza Gennaro’s clever combination of live dancers, ballet pantomime and real children reciting the classic dialogue felt fresh and surprising. By far, the best part was the personification of the “sad Christmas tree” as an adorable little girl in a brown leotard with twigs, who stole the show every time she appeared. With Schultz’s illustrations providing an animated backdrop and Guaraldi’s iconic music flowing from the orchestra, the show became an instant classic for the SF Symphony.

Nothing about the original production was designed to travel, and in bringing it to San Francisco, I had to stretch the SF Symphony’s organizational capabilities. I built a local ballet corp in direct competition with “Nutcracker season” and sorted out proper child work rules for the five cast members under 18.

Meanwhile, I had to establish trust amongst the dozen-or-so creative stakeholders (including the license-holders for the Peanuts brand) that everything would come together beautifully. Thankfully everything fell into place just in the nick of time, and the production still returns to the stage every December.