People: Jul. 28, 1986

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Award-winning Children's Author Maurice Sendak has written or illustrated more than 80 books, designed costumes and sets for five operas and staged theatrical versions of his works, including the classic Where the Wild Things Are. Trying something new, Sendak last week was at work on his first movie. He teamed up with Director Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf) and Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet to film The Nutcracker, a production that Sendak designed three years ago at the request of Kent Stowell, the company's artistic director. The transition from page to stage to film, says Sendak, was radical because "being a writer and illustrator, I don't work in three-dimensional scale. There are no live people in books. Even in publishing there are few." The biggest adjustment came when the author donned tights for a cameo role as -- what else? -- a nutcracker. "I did it only because Carroll asked me to," Sendak says of his film debut, but admits, "At 58, to have my legs admired by young dancers was wonderful."