LONE PINE, AR—Four chairs holding three girls and one boy dressed as mice and cracking pecans set the stage for a production of the Christmas classic, “The Nutcracker” this week. The four children, who made up the entire cast of the production, cracked nuts using dolls for an hour and a half.

The production was put on by locals Betty Langston and Rose Smith who have started their own theatre company in the small town with the population of 1,229. Langston and Smith are also the mothers of the four actors.

“We are so dang excited to be putting on big Broadway-type shows here in our little town! We are gonna call our theater ‘What Happens in Lone Pine, Stays in Lone Pine.’ We are even getting a sign made tomorrow,” said Langston.

“No. No. Betty! We are calling our theatre ‘Once Upon a Time.’ Gosh, Betty, I think this is the first theatre in Lone Pine!” said Smith, “And ‘The Nutcracker’ is our very first show! We are so proud of our little ones! And all seven people in the audience said it was ‘great’ even though it was a play.”

While Langston and Smith have yet to agree on the name of their theatre company, there is one thing they agree on unanimously – they will cast and produce all shows themselves and will not bother with scripts because they “have heard all the stories before.“