Most of the clips are from Scene 5, the big battle sequence set across multiple locations. Ideally, this moment in the story would rely on more advanced choreography. With limited space and the nature of an educational production, we needed other ways to tell the story, especially for younger audience members who stay engaged when multiple senses are activated. Sound became the key storytelling tool, allowing us to fill in visual gaps while giving me the greatest creative freedom to shape the audience’s experience.

The composer and orchestrator used the original Nutcracker score as the foundation for the production’s songs, and I carried that motif into the sound design. I crafted soundscapes by editing movements from the original music—such as “Fir in a Forest,” “Drosselmeyer’s Entrance,” and “The Sugarplum Fairy”—and by shaping their timing so each began or ended with intentional storytelling purpose. One example is the battle music: although the script places it elsewhere, we chose a dramatic version of the piece to underscore the moment the Nutcracker comes to life. It becomes the first theme he hears, a musical signal that trouble is near.