Sisters Olivia and Mary Thomas MacKinnon competed over the lead role in The Nutcracker at a special performance in Mobile, Alabama. Leotards on, hair up, they each embodied Clara in their own way—and they were ready to shine. Only, the stage curtain looked suspiciously like table linens. The ticket sellers resembled their three younger siblings. The dancer who played the Prince, just like their older brother. The audience? Their parents.
The rivalry mounted between the two girls—Mary Thomas and Olivia, then 10 and 6—until seconds before curtain call, when they came to an agreement: They’d share the role. The audience and ticket sellers went wild.
“The living room floor was our first stage,” Olivia, now 29, told me with a laugh.
