Just in time for the holiday season, No President by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma scores this performance to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Onstage, the actors construct a complex storyline of security guard dramatics, miming a tale of rival companies, best friends, and love triangles. When conflicts arise, they are only intensified by the narrator’s commentary and cannibalism. Behind all this drama lies the mysterious red curtain, which the guards must protect at all costs.

Office Hours: Coming Soon

Get Into It

Get Thee to the LIbrary

Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.

Campbell Robertson, Theater Team Makes an Ally of Random Circumstance (2008)

Donald Crafton, Pie and Chase: Gag, Spectacle and Narrative in Slapstick Comedy (2006)

Edward Nye, Review: Beyond Ballet in the Ballet d’Action
(2012)

Marion Kant, Ivor Guest, The establishment of the ballet d’action (2024)

Racher Anderson-Raburn, The Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Aesthetics of Fun (2010)

Read All About It

Pieter T’Jonck for Hebbel am Uffer

Made Up of Time and Energy

Notes on choreographic aspects in the work of Nature Theater of Oklahoma

The Herb Alpert Awards in the Arts | 2024

ABOUT PAVOL & KELLY

“Our work has evolved from a preoccupation with the most basic form and function of theater.”

Young Jean Lee for BOMB Magazine | July 1, 2009

INTERVIEW Nature Theater of Oklahoma

“Will it be a show if there is no script? If we just stand there in front of a curtain? If we open the curtain, is it then a show?”

Extra Credit

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: a company of professional ballerinas who ace the use of ballet d’action and slapstick, along with a bit of drag.

La Jolla Music Society | February 2, 2024

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

“As pioneers of diversity and acceptance, the Trocks’ mission continues: to bring the pleasure of dance to the widest possible audience.”