LF_112719

LakeForestLeaderDaily.com LIFE & ARTS
the lake forest leader | November 27, 2019 | 21
Radio show adaptation of ‘It’s a
Wonderful Life’ coming to Gorton
Peter Kaspari, Editor
Actors Geoff Isaac (center) and Hope Rosiak (right) appear
in a photo from “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio
Play.” The show will be performed in December. Photo
Submitted
The stage adaptation of
a holiday classic that has
been enjoyed by audiences
for more than 70 years
is coming to the Gorton
Community Center.
The season-opener for
CenterStage in Lake Forest,
“It’s a Wonderful Life:
A Live Radio Play,” stars
22 actors from across the
North Shore, including
multiple from Lake Forest
and Lake Bluff.
It debuts Thursday, Dec.
12 at 7:30 p.m. and continues
Friday, Dec. 13 and
Saturday, Dec. 14. There
is also a matinee performance
at 3 p.m. Dec. 14.
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
tells the story of George
Bailey, a man who thinks
he has nothing to live for
until his guardian angel,
Clarence, shows him what
life would have been like
if he had never been born.
For the Gorton Center’s
performance, director Tom
Baker decided to try something
different; he is staging
the play as a live radio
performance.
Baker said this has led
to some creativity when it
comes to direction.
“We’re staging it as a radio
show, but I’ve been advising
the actors, as we’re
going through rehearsals,
that it has to be more than
just what audiences are
hearing,” he said. “The
audience has to see what
you’re doing with it too.
So we’ve been working
on, even though they have
their script in their hands,
and they’re reading it towards
the microphone,
that they also need to be
sharing looks with each
other and reacting to what
the other person is saying
so that it becomes interesting
to the person sitting in
the audience.”
While this is the first
time Baker has staged “It’s
a Wonderful Life” in this
way, it’s not his first experience
with the radio adaptation.
“Actually, I was in a radio
play production of ‘It’s
a Wonderful Life’ about
12 years ago as an actor,”
Baker said. “I had the privilege
of playing Clarence
the guardian angel.”
He was curious to see
what it would be like to
direct that version of the
show.
“I’ve directed a lot of
plays,” he said. “I’ve done
a lot of children’s theater.
But I’ve never done a radio
show before.”
He’s also encouraged his
actors to help distinguish
their parts, as many actors
play multiple roles within
the show. Some actors will
use different voices for
different characters, while
others might be wearing
a different clothing item,
such as a scarf or a hat.
“When they (the audience)
see the same person
come up there and the person’s
playing three or four
different characters, they
might think it’s a character
they’ve seen before,”
Baker said.
One of the biggest challenges
Baker and the actors
have had to deal with
is moving around the
stage. Baker said there are
only three microphones on
stage, so one of the first
tasks he had to do was figure
out where each actor
should be and how they
should move about without
creating too much of a
distraction.
“It’s almost like drawing
up a football play,” he said.
“You have to get the people
to move to the different
microphones at different
points in the scene and not
create a traffic jam and try
to do it smoothly.”
But once everyone figured
out their movements,
Baker said the actors were
able to begin their rehearsals
and focus on that.
Something else Baker
said was a bit of a challenge
was incorporating
parts of the movie into the
play.
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ForestLeaderDaily.com.