Tacoma City Ballet kicked off a scavenger hunt in January the likes of which Tacoma has never seen - a yearlong search for nuts. You heard right. Nuts. The nuts tie into the company's highly anticipated December performances of The Nutcracker and The Tale of the Hard Nut. The contest in a nutshell: TCB hides hand-painted Golden Krakatuk Nuts inside jewel boxes around Tacoma; inside the boxes is a scroll with prize details, such as gift certificates, merchandise or tickets to Tacoma City Ballet's World Premier of said Nutcracker in December. You find the Golden Krakatuk Nuts and great riches will be heaped upon you. No, this is not nuts. It's a cool way to introduce the new Nutcracker act. TCB Artistic Director Erin M. Ceragioli hand painted a limited number of Golden Krakatuk Nuts too. The Hard Nut is a prequel to the original Nutcracker, which explains why a prince is trapped inside a nutcracker doll. Apparently, the evil Mouse Queen curses a beautiful princess into ugliness. To break the curse, Christian Elias Drosselmeyer has to find the magical Golden Krakatuk Nut - the hardest nut in the entire world - and the young man who is fated to crack it. Except, as we now know, Drosselmeyer needs the entire city of Tacoma to help him. Is your head spinning like a Sugar Plum Fairy? Maybe you need a primer. The Tacoma City Ballet will open its rehearsal for the show Nov. 2, including a lecture presentation about the history of The Nutcracker and the creation of the new tale. Oh, the next scavenger hunt clue drops Nov. 1 on our Walkie Talkie blog.

THE NUTCRACKER AND THE TALE OF THE HARD NUT, 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Jan Collum Ballroom Studio, Merlino Art Center, 508 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, free admission, 253.272.4219

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