Author Spotlight
Caroline Wood
Due to COVID-19, Kansas City Ballet’s annual performance of “The Nutcracker” has been canceled, while Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol” will broadcast the performance in place of hosting a live audience.
After considering the factors of their cast being too large to socially distance, not being able to host an orchestra and having to limit the number of audience members, KC Ballet decided it was not worth putting on “The Nutcracker” this year. This will be the first time since they began performing the show in 1972 that KC Ballet will not be having it.
KC Ballet Production Director and East mom Amy Taylor’s main project every Christmas season is to manage “The Nutcracker” production.
“We have so many people that come through the doors at Kauffman Center to see [“The Nutcracker”] every year,” Taylor said. “Not [being] able to do it is a loss for the whole community in Kansas City.”
To make up for losing “The Nutcracker,” KC Ballet decided to put on a new winter performance on a much smaller scale — “The Holiday Show.”
Running from Dec. 4-20, “The Holiday Show” will be KC Ballet’s first performance since the start of the pandemic. The show sold out during the first week of ticket sales.
It will run for one hour and contain several short, holiday-themed dances performed by the main company and the second company. The dancers have been divided into groups of 9-10 who will rehearse and perform together. The performance will be held in a studio at the Bolender Center that typically holds 180 spectators, but the audience will be limited to 50 and everyone must be masked.
“We wanted to be able to do something, even if it was small scale,” Taylor said.
The main focus of “The Holiday Show” is to still give people a festive performance for the season, but there are still some losses that won’t be made up. “The Nutcracker” brings in a large portion of KC Ballet’s funding for the year, and without the show, they have experienced cut-backs. According to Taylor, they’re in “austerity mode” — with money-saving efforts. They’ve had to lay off staff members and cut back the weeks that they have the professional company practice at the studio.
“The money that we will make off of the holiday performances will not even come close to the money that we will be missing from doing a full scale ‘Nutcracker,’” Taylor said. “For us, it wasn’t really a matter of, for the holiday performance, trying to make up money. It was more about trying to give the dancers performance opportunities, number one. And number two, to be able to give something to the community during this really difficult time.”
KC Ballet also puts on a gala called The Nutcracker Ball where their supporters and patrons buy tickets to the event with a gourmet dinner and performances by the main company.
This year, The Nutcracker Ball is going virtual with a private broadcast event on Nov. 21. There are some performances that will be recorded in advance for the event, and there will also be live-streamed presentations. Depending on the amount spent on the ticket, patrons can receive different perks like a pick-up dinner, wine and a floral centerpiece for the evening.
KC Rep’s “A Christmas Carol” is also working towards their virtual goal, with their plan to film and stream their production to their audience. The video recording of “A Christmas Carol” can be streamed from Nov. 23 to Dec. 31. It will cost $65 to access the streaming link, which allows you to watch the show once, and it can be viewed on any device.
There’s a smaller cast that doesn’t include kids, so this year, it won’t be like the traditional production because they’re having to make adjustments to the show.
Junior Estelle Gordon was an ensemble member in KC Rep’s “A Christmas Carol” for two years. Although she misses performing on a stage, Gordon thinks they made the right decision of not having a live audience this year.
“I think that it’s the smartest way they could, without canceling the show as a whole,” Gordon said. “I’m excited to see how it pans out.”
Although COVID-19 has posed a challenge for these productions, they’re still finding ways to bring Christmas cheer to this holiday season.
“We’re just trying to do what we can to keep some sort of spirit in the community,” Taylor said.
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