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.”
