Staci Skoog, Kathy Hanneman and Erika Durheim harmonize during a commercial for Bremel Hair Tonic.
David Elling played radio star Harry “Jazzbo” Haywood in Hutchinson Theatre Company's production of "It's a Wonderful Life: Live Radio Play."
Fan favorite Jake Laurents is played by Alex Mowlem.
WBFR Radio sweetheart Sally Applewhite is played by Kathy Hanneman.
Radio actress Lana Sherwood is played by Erika Durheim.
George Smith is playing radio actor Freddie Filmore.
Director Bill Haas, right, works with Dakota Miller and Alex Mowlem in a scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live Radio Play.”
Playwright Joe Landry has taken Frank Capra’s classic holiday film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and reimagined it into a 1940s radio broadcast complete with commercials, sound effects and a talented cast.
Hutchinson Theatre Company will salute the yuletide season with Landry’s radio play with three performances — 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Hutchinson Center for the Arts.
When “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed was released in 1946, it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Since then, the holiday classic has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made.
With this pedigree, it’s not surprising Landry’s effort was named one of the Top 10 Most-Produced Plays by American Theatre magazine.
So what sets this production apart from its namesake movie? The approach — a 1940s radio play. There was a time when families gathered around the radio to listen to their favorite shows such as “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” “The Jack Benny Program” or “The Bell Telephone Hour.” There was no screen to watch, so the story was told through a variety of voices and sound effects.
Five radio stars headline the cast: “Harry “Jazzbo” Haywood (David Elling), Jake Laurents (Alex Mowlem), Sally Applewhite (Kathy Hanneman), Lana Sherwood (Erika Durheim) and Freddie Filmore (George Smith). It also features additional actors: Dakota Miller, Amber Duncan, Staci Skoog and Valandra Johnson.
While this weekend’s stage production features all the familiar characters including George Bailey, Mary Hatch Bailey, Clarence Odbody, Mr. Potter, Uncle Billy and more. The difference is that it takes place in one location — the WBFR Radio studio with the cast performing in front of two microphones.
Bill Haas, a familiar name to Hutchinson theatergoers, is directing. He described himself as a storyteller at heart.
“Directing is essentially making sure the story the playwright wanted to tell gets told,” he said. “It is a very creative endeavor with lots of moving parts and I really, truly enjoy the whole process.”
Haas finds it “enjoyable and gratifying” to start out with a script, a bunch of people of varying levels of experience, different ages and life experiences who may or may not know each other and in a few weeks end up with a family of people who perform with a set, sound, lights, costumes and props to an appreciative audience.
“I really enjoy watching people grow in their acting skills,” he said. “Also, I am a visual artist, which means I spend a lot of time by myself drawing and painting, participating in community theater forces me out of my studio and allows me the opportunity to interact with other human beings.”
Haas described the radio play as “more challenging” than a traditional play. The reasons stem from the way its presented.
“There is very limited movement on stage and we are more dependent on facial expressions, gestures and vocal qualities to convey — convincingly — the idea that individual actors are playing multiple characters,” he said. “Secondly, the sound effects and incidental music are so much more important than they might be otherwise. These elements make up a large percentage of the entertainment value for the audience, a slightly different sort of entertainment, and require a different approach than a more traditional play.”
The key to a successful production, the director said, is that the actors are believable in the roles they play. To do that, Haas stresses the importance of knowing and understanding the character — or in this case characters — a cast member plays and developing those characters as deeply and completely as possible. This involves creating a back story for each character using clues from the script and the historical context of the story among other things. It also involves a good deal of creative thinking and can be a lot of fun. It is difficult to make an audience believe you are one character or another if you haven’t made yourself believe it first.
FROM THE ACTORS
Kathy Hanneman returns to the community stage after a 10-year hiatus. Her last play with the Hutchinson Theatre Company was “Hot Property” in 2013.
She stepped up to audition for “It’s a Wonderful Life” because the presentation intrigued her.
“The story is very familiar, being a Christmas holiday classic,” she said. “I thought at first that this would indeed be done as a live radio broadcast, which sounded so fun! I was encouraged by a friend to audition and thought, why not?”
While it’s a stage performance, Hanneman described the radio play as “quite different.”
“You are really acting with only your voice,” she said. “The actor paints the sets and the costumes and the characters for you. The magic part for the audience will be in watching the art of storytelling come to life.”
Dakota Miller plays nine roles in the live radio play. The challenge is making each character unique.
“It honestly is super hard and the way I change my voice is simply my tone, like for adults I go deeper in my voice and (for) kids or younger people I go higher in my voice,” he said.
The teenager best relates to Harry Bailey because like the character, Miller wants to go all the time.
Alex Mowlem was cast as George Bailey, as well as Jake Laurents and Joseph. In case you recognized his last name, acting runs in the Mowlem family. His mom, Lena, just finished a two-week run as Clairee in the Hutchinson Theatre Company production of “Steel Magnolias.”
Mowlem said he auditioned because he knew director Bill Haas.
“I have not been involved in theater since I was in school, but was excited about the opportunity,” he said. “I had read the script and was eager to get involved. I have seen so many of the HTC productions throughout my life, but moving from the crowd to the stage has always been met with trepidation. This has been such an enriching experience in growth and confidence. Being able to act with such a competent and knowledgeable director and an incredibly talented cast has been such a rewarding endeavor. It definitely gets one excited thinking about future opportunities to get involved.”
Mowlem plays the iconic character of George Bailey — the role made famous by Jimmy Stewart.
“George is an easy character to identify with,” Mowlem said. “He views the world with these big, bright eyes — always dreaming about what lies over the horizon. However hard we may dream, or how clearly we envision the path forward, life has plans of its own. As George’s path veers farther away from what he planned, he becomes distraught. Life becomes difficult, and duty and responsibility outweigh dreams and ambition. George walks a path that feels out of his control, but does so with honor and dignity. He understands what it takes to be a good man to those around you, and for your community. Even when it can become difficult to see the beauty of our own actions, it can be felt and appreciated by others. It is an inspiring story that I feel fortunate to be a part of, and to try bringing the character to life.”
Valandra Johnson voices character Zuzu Bailey and is the on-stage sound effects person. This is her first appearance in a HTC production.
“I was in the New Discoveries Montessori Academy plays: ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ where I played one of three little pigs and ‘A Little Bit of Magic’ where I played a country music star,” she recalled. “I auditioned for this play because my sister is on the theater board and asked me if I wanted to audition. I didn’t know there were plays outside of my school until she told me about it. I wanted to do sound effects because I had never done that before and it sounded like fun.”
Unlike the other actors who switch between characters, Johnson switches from character to tech person.
“... It involves a lot of attention to detail as well as movement that isn’t in the play,” she said. “I have to be seen and not seen almost at the same time.”
She describes her role with sound effects as “creative.”
“This play lets me use both the computer and household items,” Johnson said. “Some sounds are harder to make because they require more than one object. Also, there are some instances where I have to switch quickly between objects and they keep making noise when they are not supposed too. My favorite sound to make is the trash can scene when Uncle Billy crashes into the cans when he’s drunk.”
Although David Elling is a new name to Hutchinson theatergoers, he isn’t new to community theater as he has performed with the Center Stage Theatre Company in Norwood Young America where he also lives. Most of his previous experiences have been in musicals and comedies.
“In ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ my main parts are as Clarence (the guardian angel of George Bailey) and also as Henry Potter, the play’s mean and greedy antagonist,” Elling said. “But I also voice seven other smaller characters and there are a couple times in the play where I perform six of these parts simultaneously with six different voices. This is the most difficult challenge I’ve ever attempted in any previous play. I am having incredible fun doing this but I’ll be sweating it out until it’s over.”
It’s not surprising his favorite character is Clarence, the angel hoping to earn his wings.
“Clarence is a lovable, simple-minded guardian angel for George,” he said. “Clarence gets to explain the main theme of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ that each life is a most wonderful gift.”
Director of Business and Finance Rebecca Boll
Director of Buildings and Grounds Justin TenEyck
Designs and bids for the Transitional Assistance Program rooms and the Hutchinson School District main office are on schedule, but the estimated cost for the renovations has increased.
Construction and move are planned for next summer to provide more space for TAP students and to better connect the district office to the schools. TAP rooms will take over the current district office space, while the district office moves to Hutchinson Middle School.
Director of Building and Grounds Justin TenEyck received approval from the Hutchinson School Board to contract with ICS earlier this year for the design phase for the move. During the board’s Nov. 16 meeting, he and Director of Business and Finance Rebecca Boll gave an update on the project.
The original cost estimate of $3.74 million — which will be funded by long-term facilities money and bonds — has increased by nearly half a million dollars due to design changes.
Initially the district office was to take over three classrooms and a hallway at Hutchinson Middle School. This design was scrapped because it didn’t meet the needs of the district. Instead the office will move into the better-suited but more expensive auditorium at the middle school, TenEyck said.
Moving to the auditorium has an estimated cost of $130,000, but it is not the only cost driving up the initial project estimate.
The district office building is recoded due to the changes in occupancy. With the new code came new fire safety regulations with an estimated cost of $100,000 for a sprinkler system and some updates to the emergency egress in the basement adding a bit more.
In addition to those changes, the design team thought it best to include another bathroom in the basement to suit the program’s needs, TenEyck said. Together, the changes raised estimated costs to $4.2 million.
TenEyck told the board this was just an estimate and that when designs and bids are finalized the actual amount could differ.
“We are still very early in the design process,” TenEyck said in a follow up meeting. “At the time these numbers came out, not all items had a cost estimate directly assigned to it. They are broken down in the total project estimate.”
Even though TenEyck said the numbers were just estimates, he and Boll looked into other ways to finance the changes, finding an old unused source.
“The district’s assigned fund balance for new building operations holds a balance of $600,000,” Boll said. “It was built between 2002-2005 in effort to set aside funds to supplement referendum funding for renovated or new school buildings established between 2002 and 2022. If bids were to come in higher for some reason in early 2024, a portion of these funds may be used for the TAP/DO project.”
Board members expressed frustration with the additional costs.
“I’m pretty upset about the whole process,” Michael Massmann said. “I think in the future for projects and planning, we need to develop a way as a district to brainstorm some of those unseen expenses out before we present a project, and that’s not a failure of anyone in this room. It’s just a lesson to be learned.”
Should the board decide to halt or pause the project it has time to do so. But board member Danny Olmstead said before any decisions are made, the board needs more information.
A public hearing for the South Fork Crow River One Watershed, One Plan held a public hearing drew a contentious crowd Nov. 27.
The meeting’s intent was to present and discuss a draft for a comprehensive watershed management plan for the South Fork Crow River, which covers portions of McLeod, Renville, Meeker, Kandiyohi, Wright, Carver, Sibley and Hennepin counties. However, it turned into an argument with officials about land rights, ditches, freedom and constitutional rights.
Rachel Olm, scientist at Huston Engineering, presented an overview of the plan.
“One watershed, one plan is not a new layer of government,” Olm said. “It’s instead focusing on existing local partnerships and existing collaborations. It is not a regulatory program. It’s instead focusing on voluntary actions. And it is not a technical report generating new content and materials. It instead is a comprehensive plan that builds off the framework of existing data. It’s intended to be a public facing plan.”
If approved by the state, the plan would give the South Fork Crow River One Watershed, One Plan $1.2 million of non-competitive money to disperse to area farmers who want to improve their land.
“Since water is blind to political boundaries, the state and local governments as well as watershed districts came together and created a recommendation that watershed planning should transition to something that functions over a watershed boundary,” Olm said. “So the One Watershed One Plan is the planning program in which state money is given to the local government partnership groups in order to develop a plan that manages resources for the next 10 years.”
Prior to receiving public comment, McLeod County Board Chairman Paul Wright reminded the attendees that, “This is all based on a voluntary program for landowners to come forward and look for some of the funding that is available. There is nothing here to control or restrict. This is not an extra layer to government. This (program) is for anyone who wishes to voluntarily come forward and ask for funds to do some improvements on their land.”
There seemed to be confusion among the attendees about the intent of the meeting.
“Where’s the flag,” a resident of Cedar Mills said. “Did we start the meeting with a prayer at all? No. I’ve never heard about this stuff since yesterday. How come the farmers were not sent a separate letter about this paper? Can somebody say in laymen’s terms what was going on? What is wrong with the way it was before? Is there something wrong going on now? Who’s benefiting from this?”
Another speaker, McLeod County resident, criticized the county for permitting the installation of larger tiles than infrastructure can handle. The complaint centered around the county’s allowance of 24-inch tiles into 12-inch tiles, contributing to the problems at hand. He argued that the county, while unable to address this tile issue, now seeks to advise and regulate farming practices, including cover crops. He criticized the county for allowing organizations like Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited to purchase adjacent land without paying taxes, affording them the freedom to impact tile and land as they please.
“McLeod County, you’ve created this problem all by yourself,” he said.
Doug Benson’s main complaint was the lack of transparency and losing trust in the board’s intentions.
“You wonder why people don’t trust you anymore,” he said. “I don’t trust because this is what’s happening. This is what happened. This is why you put a limit on it (speaking) so that if the people had something to say they couldn’t say it.”
People had three minutes each to speak at the public hearing.
Benson went on to say anyone who voted on the One Watershed program is an “American traitor.”
“Government is now our enemy in most cases. We cannot trust them anymore,” Benson said. “You want to be a communist dictator, right.”
A Cosmos resident voiced skepticism that most of the funds will be used on paperwork, commissioners meetings, outings and junkets, rather than addressing tangible issues like soil removal to allow the river to handle more water.
“I mean, they focus more on bureaucracy, keeping the bureaucracy going,” he said. “That’s how Washington and state governments and school boards and all this stuff work. They spend a lot of their money on their plan, their paperwork, their thick report, but yet nothing gets done. There’s no soil removed, there’s no dams replaced.”
One resident brought up the 1992 United States vs. Williams a Supreme Court case in which Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion on the case that had to do with the presentation of exculpatory evidence to a grand jury.
“The people are the fourth branch of the government,” the resident said. “Everybody understand what I’m saying. The people are the fourth branch of government. The common law grand jury belongs to us. The Supreme Court cannot override the common law.”
After public comment ended, board members responded, which continued to yell questions.
One person asked if they would get responses to the questions asked.
“The comments that are received during the public hearing are filed as part of the public record of the plan,” Olm said.
Renville County Commissioner Randy Kramer emphasized challenges and complexities faced by the board group. He acknowledged the difficulty of satisfying everyone’s concerns.
“We’re trying to do this in the best interest of everybody here,” Kramer said. “This isn’t us against you or us against the state. We’re trying to have a plan that we can all work with. We all know where this is going. If we didn’t do this, there might not be any drainage. I mean that’s kind of the direction it’s taking in St. Paul at this time, is that there shouldn’t be any drainage. Well, if we don’t have agriculture, we don’t have anything. That’s my opinion.”
“We’re here to put practices in place that satisfies all or tries to satisfy,” Kramer continued. “We’re not going to satisfy everybody. There’s no question about that. But our duty here was to adopt a plan and it’s our plan … What we’re trying to do is make this best for everybody.”
Coleton Draeger, McLeod SWCD resource conservationist, asked the crowd if they had read the document prior to meeting. No one raised their hand. He explained that if he knew everyone’s knowledge of the program, responses could be tailored to better explain the plan.
Wright explained why the board needs to adopt a plan.
“We can’t get any of that money unless we have a plan for those that voluntarily want to participate in a project,” he said. “This is all about the voluntary landowner, who is looking at a project. We can assist them, even if they are in a township. We can get that money the landowner needs to do improvements on their land. I think this has been framed completely wrong for individuals to a degree, but we really need to bring it back to what this is actually about. This is a benefit of those individuals that voluntarily have a project. Without this plan, we have zero ability to bring that money home.”
Mark Zabel, Carver County Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor, told the crowd he wants the best for his county and the neighboring areas.
“This is the ‘small d’ of democracy form of government, and what we get to do about it,” he said. “We get to do it ourselves. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. This is a voluntary program that you get to work with us to get stuff that you want done. Cleaner water, water that flows the way that we hope it will downhill.”
The board gave unanimous support for the adoption of the plan. The next step is a 90-day review, then the plan will be forwarded to Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources for approval.
