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The Kansas Nutcracker; 2011 Sesquicentennial Edition with Mandolin Orchestra
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.
Performances
Friday and Saturday, December 9 and 10, 7 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, December 16 and 17, 7 p.m.
Sunday, December 11 and 18, 2:00 p.m.
The History Behind the Story of A Kansas Nutcracker: Sesquicentennial Edition
Tickets
$18 adults $12 students/seniors
You are Cordially Invited!
Clara's Tea Party
Join us for tea, treats & photos with the cast promptly at 12:30, just before each Sunday matinee performance of A Kansas Nutcracker
Sunday, December 11 and
Sunday, December 18
12:30 tea (shows follow at 2 p.m.)
in the Arts Center main gallery
$30 adult and one child
$10 each additional child
call to reserve your seats today! space is limited
This year's event poster features an original paper cut by Lawrence artist, Dave Loewenstein, commissioned by the Lawrence Art Center for the 2011 Sesquicentennial Edition performance. The piece features a ballet dancer inside our state flower, the sunflower. Radiating out from this center are Christmas trees and wheat, alternating with the Mouse King and Nutcracker Prince in battle. We are honored to have this wonderful artwork which truly reflects the community spirit and local history at the heart of this Arts Center holiday production. There will be a limited number of 11" x 17" posters signed by the artist available for purchase in the Suite Shoppe this year!
More about Dave Loewenstein
Lawrence residents might be familiar with the mural titled Pollinators on the north side of the building at 9th and New Hampshire in downtown Lawrence, where it can be seen from the city parking lot where the Lawrence Farmers Market is held.
Dave Loewenstein is a muralist, writer, and printmaker based in Lawrence, Kansas. In addition to his more than twenty public works in Kansas, examples of his dynamic community-based murals can be found across the United States in Missouri, Arizona, Mississippi, Iowa, Illinois, Oklahoma, New Orleans, New York City and in Northern Ireland. Dave’s stencil prints are exhibited nationally and are in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library and the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. He is the co-author of “Kansas Murals,” a 2007 Kansas Notable Book Award Winner, published by the University Press of Kansas; and the co-director of the documentary film “Creating Counterparts” which won Best Documentary at the 2003 Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee. Dave is one of the founders of the Lawrence Percolator community art space; and currently teaches the course Roots and Practice: Community-Based Public Art at Washburn University in Topeka. You can see more of his work at www.davidloewenstein.com