By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The every other year production of the Prairie Nutcracker is coming this weekend to the Fox Theatre in Hutchinson.
"What this is, is really a love letter to Kansas," said Betsie Andrews with Prairie Nutcracker. "People just kind of kept excusing Kansas. I was from the East Coast. I thought, there's nothing to excuse for. The rhythm here is so great. We created this because, to us, we'd done the traditional Nutcracker for years and years and years and years until I could not hear that music in the mall. I'd have to leave if I just heard it. We have this, because we don't want it long. We want it to literally move along and when you walk out of the Fox Theatre, you'll look up at the sky and you'll think, either of the Prairie Nutcracker, or you'll be so glad you're in Kansas."
Like the old century Nutcracker, the new century Prairie Nutcracker is set in the late 1800s, but instead of Germany, it is set at a fort on the plains of America. A frontier soldier replaces the Nutcracker and a prairie doll, not the sugar plum fairy, welcomes a little girl and her family moving to Kansas from Boston. Her father, a Lieutenant in the cavalry, has just been assigned to Fort West.
"In 1869, there was, the train had come in, we would have had a prairie church, we would have had a prairie school," Andrews said. "It is historically authentic, as well as the costuming, which is very important."
The score, written by Rick Kuethe, combines the sounds of the Prairie with the setting of the Nutcracker. Kuethe died this past June.
"Rick wrote a score that has Indian flutes in it, it has cricket sounds, the winds, it opens up with the sound of the wind, so you know you're in December in Kansas," Andrews said. "How can I grieve, how can any of us grieve when we have him with us in his gorgeous score? That's a whole big, long story, which we do have in the program that's worth reading."
Prairie Nutcracker performances are Friday, December 10 and Saturday, December 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 12 at 3 p.m. at the Fox at 18 E 1st in Hutchinson. All tickets are general admission and are $28 for adults and $18 for children 4-12.