Topic: A Sugar Plum For Daddy

Washington Post
December 7, 2007
Pg. C3
The Reliable Source
By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Lt. Col. Frank Johnston just wanted to see his 7-year-old daughter, Isabelle, dance in the Washington Ballet's "Nutcracker" -- but what started as a simple request has turned into a holiday broadcast for soldiers around the world.
Isabelle, a second-grader at Ross Elementary, joined the ballet's school this year and is appearing in her first "Nutcracker" as one of 23 mice in Act 1's battle scene. Her dad, who's serving in Iraq, wanted to see his little girl's debut and wrote to the company asking for a video of the performance. "We webcam each other every Sunday morning," said his wife and Izzy's mom, Theresa Minni."He was thinking I could just stream it through my little laptop. It was meant to be a personal thing."
But ballet officials started thinking bigger: After getting permission from three unions, they looked for ways to transmit the Washington-based version of the ballet to Johnston, a Marine based at the Pentagon who was deployed to Fallujah in July. Now Channel 4 is filming the performance at the Warner Theatre, then giving the footage to cable's Pentagon Channel -- where it will be broadcast three times this month to more than 2 million members of the military.
Isabelle will be introduced to tonight's opening-night audience by Artistic Director Septime Webre, who will explain the reason for the cameras; she'll wear a yellow ribbon on her costume so her everyone (especially her dad) can pick her out onstage.
Father and daughter are both thrilled, said Minni, who will be in the audience with Izzy's aunts and grandmother. "It's very emotional."