  
Note: Asheville Citizen-Times no longer archives features and reviews for free on its website. Following
is the text of Tony Kiss's preview of immediate theatre project and North Carolina Stage Company's production of
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, printed on page 1 of the Arts section on 4 December 2006.
RADIO PLAY: N.C. Stage Company puts new twist on 'It's A Wonderful Life' by Tony Kiss, tkiss@citizen-times.com published December 4, 2006 12:15 am ASHEVILLE - It's a classic movie. It's a beloved TV tradition. And now, "It's A Wonderful Life" is a stage show about a radio play, which will be aired on local radio. "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" opens Wednesday for a two-week run at North Carolina Stage Company, at its small downtown space. It's a co-production with immediate theatre project of Asheville. This will get a little complicated, so here's what you need to know. A movie becomes theater, then radio It all starts with the famous 1946 film starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, and directed by Frank Capra, which was something of a dud in its day, but became a beloved bit of Americana through regular TV showings. Playwright Joe Landry has re-imagined the movie, and set it in 1946 at fictional radio station WBFR. A cast of radio actors has gathered on Christmas Eve to give a broadcast of "Wonderful Life." If this sounds familiar, it's the same basic format used in the popular stage play, "The 1940s Radio Hour." Many theater companies are doing holiday shows this time of year, but "we wanted to find something different," said N.C. Stage co-founder Angie Flynn-McIver. Remaking a classic "It's A Wonderful Life" is such an American classic, that it isn't easy to perform it in a different way, said director Hans Meyer, co-founder of immediate theatre project. "Anytime we had a question, we went to the script, not the movie. We are hoping to make this a new holiday tradition for Asheville," he said. He's also learned a lot about old-time radio. "There are a ton of podcasts out there of old-time radio shows, and there's an Internet station that also plays them," he said. Making waves Taking it to the next logical step, Asheville public radio station WCQS-FM will actually record several performances, and then air one of them at 8 p.m. Dec. 14. "It's something new for us," said veteran WCQS announcer Dick Kowal, who will be doing the recording. "We have recorded a lot of things - in particular performances of the Asheville Symphony - but I don't know if we have ever recorded a radio play." Live microphones will replace props for Tuesday's final dress rehearsal, and on Wednesday and Thursday nights, he said. Kowal will be backstage, recording the performance using a digital laptop. Three performances are being recorded to be sure one copy is useable. "We are going to use some modern microphones that are very old-fashioned looking," he said. On Friday, and throughout the rest of the production, the prop mics will return. The cast The performers will be playing multiple parts - often the case in old-time radio, and required here, where the show's "radio actors" are also playing characters in "Wonderful Life." Willie Repoley portrays despondent George Bailey, the average guy who learns how much his life actually means to those around him. Lauren Fortuna is wife Mary, Jonathan Frappier is Clarence, the angel who turns George's life around and George's brother Harry. David Novak is the radio show's announcer and nasty old banker Potter, who is out to destroy the Bailey family. Chris Holleman plays the sound effects guy - known here as the foley artist. |