The Kansas Nutcracker at Lawrence Arts Center

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2. The Kansas Nutcracker

Artistic Direction and Choreography by Deb Bettinger, Script and Stage Direction by Ric Averill, Orchestration and Conducting by Jeff Dearinger.

In honor of Kansas’ sesquicentennial, the Arts Center has re-cast the beloved Christmas ballet and set it in 1861, Kansas’ first year of statehood. More than 130 dancers and actors, from students to professionals, and a 13-piece orchestra featuring a mandolin quartet weave together Kansas’ abolition, sufferage and temperance politics with oversized personalities, unpredictable weather, plains landscape and the Civil War into Clara’s surreal ballet dreams.