Every four years, the University of Wyoming stages the classic holiday ballet, The Nutcracker. It’s a major undertaking involving the Department of Theatre and Dance, the UW Symphony Orchestra, and the Lab School Treble Choir, as well as numerous community members. In all, it takes 200 people to put on the show. Director Marsha Knight says the production is set at the Ivinson Mansion, in Old West Laramie, as it has been since 2006.
“This will be our third time where we’re really honing in on setting this piece locally, and we have a lot of fun with this ‘West’ theme going through the ballet,” she says.
The concept of the growing Christmas tree has been redesigned this year—with a windswept Wyoming look. The mice are modeled after the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, and the soldiers are dressed as U.S. Cavalry.
Aside from the time and resources it takes to produce The Nutcracker, Knight says the reason it’s produced every four years is to give students a chance to be part of the production at least once during their time at UW. “As dancers,” she explains, “at some point in their career, they’ll either direct this or they’ll choreograph it, or they'll be involved as dancers professionally. So it’s important that they have an acquaintance with the production. [The] same thing [goes] for the student musicians. Very frequently they’ll be in the pit for this piece at some point in their career.”
The Nutcracker runs Thursday, December 11 through Sunday, December 14 at UW’s Arts and Sciences Auditorium.
