The folks at the Garage Door Theater are bringing radio back with “It’s a Wonderful Life” to celebrate the holiday season.
For a two-night run on Friday and Saturday, the show will see the cast turn radio personalities, musicians and foley artists.
“We’re doing a 45-minute radio show called “It’s a Wonderful Life” based on the famous film,” Director Justine Scott said. “We’ve created the stage as if it’s a studio. We have our studio players, or special effects guys, and everything you will hear is live.”
This goes beyond the music by Amy Lanier on the piano, Mark Lanier singing and Phyllis Wilson leading the community bells choir. It stretches to the foley work. Everything from closing doors to dropped pills and crunching snow will happen live onstage.
“It’s truly about bringing a story to life with sound,” Scott said. “Hopefully the foley stuff will also be a lot of fun and interesting for the audience to look at.”
Travis Hundley, who will be joined by Randy Killham and Ian Tate as the special effects team, mirrored Scott’s assessment and shared an appraisal of the work that goes into making sound effects happen live and in front of an audience.
“It’s one of the most stressful things I’ve done onstage,” Hundley said. “It’s been a task, it’s been fun, but a different kind of experience. Once it does come together, and it always does, we’ll be the actual visual for the play. Not only the sound but we’ll be running around like crazy trying to make everything happen.”
Set as a radio show being ‘broadcast’ in real time as the audience watches, performers will do all their acting at a mic, script in hand.
“One of the reasons we wanted to do a radio play is we wanted to see if we could get more people from the community involved onstage,” Scott said. “We have wonderful volunteers that help us in reception and backstage and give of their time and efforts in general, but in terms of getting people onstage, because it’s a radio show and we don’t have to learn our lines, it frees people up from that concern.”
Several fresh, recognizable faces from the community will grace the stage as a result, Don and Bonnie Ambrose and Kate Major among them.
“I love the movie and love the fact I get to read the script,” Major said. “I came and did not expect to get a part, so I’m shocked to get to play Mary, George’s wife. If we had something similar [in the future], where you have an opportunity to read the scripts, I’d be more willing to try out for more things.”
The scripts, commonly considered a restrictive element during live theater rehearsals, are instead liberating, Major and others explained, because actors are doing all their performing with their voice and body language at the mics. “You’re up at a mic and you’re reading the play, but it is a play,” Clyde Aly, playing Mr. Gower and Mr. Potter said. “People can see your body language, the props you might have. It’s been fun for me doing the reading but getting a feeling and body language and finding that character.”
The show, set in the 40s, will not only feature the snappy line delivery popular at the time, but, as a live radio show, will incorporate short commercial breaks in the form of 30 second jingles for local businesses.
Money from sponsors who purchased jingles will go directly toward hiring a musical director for the theater’s next musical in March.
“We will need to find a musical director for that, and there is simple no money,” Scott said. “The GDT runs on a shoestring budget, and it is a volunteerism, the people donating their time, money and things that gets us from nothing to something amazing. ‘Seussical’ is going to be big, and we want it to be amazing, and it’s going to take a little bit of a budget.”
Showtimes for “It’s a Wonderful Life” are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday with tickets available at pilotpointoperahouse. org.
“It’s a fabulous story that will get you in the Christmas spirit,” Scott said. “It makes you feel great about the season. It will truly be an evening where people will feel connected with the community.”
