In some instances during the performance, an actor might hold a whole conversation on his or her own.
With just six adults and three children in the cast of Steel Beam Theatre’s “It’s a Wonderful Life Radio Show,” most are juggling multiple roles. Some play as many as 20 parts.
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“Sometimes they’re talking to themselves, so that’s kind of tricky,” Director Marge Uhlarik-Boller said. “It’s all about voice, and making a connection between the characters as well.”
Only the actors cast as George and Mary Bailey play a single role. The rest of the cast portrays the many residents of Bedford Falls.
“They’re having a lot of fun. We’re having a lot of fun doing it. And the audience is just going to love it. Anyone who’s really familiar with it will, I think, eat it up,” Uhlarik-Boller said. “But even people who are brand new to it will find it just so charming too. It’s a wonderful story, too. It’s not just a wonderful life, it’s a wonderful story.”
The Christmas classic runs Nov. 24-26, as well as Dec. 8-10, 22-24, and 30 at Steel Beam Theatre in St. Charles. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.
Set inside a 1946 radio station, the audience watches as a broadcast of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is performed. Just like the movie, a guardian angel pays a Christmas Eve visit to George, who thinks the world would be better off without him. There is one difference though.
“In our case, our angel is played by a lady, so her name is Clara,” Uhlarik-Boller said. “(She) travels from Heaven to teach our hero, George Bailey, that his life has made a difference.”
Wearing vintage clothing from the ’40s, the cast performs with script in hand — just as it was done back then. True to the era, sound effects are created live in studio, along with commercials.
It was a time when families gathered around the radio for their entertainment — something that no longer exists today, Uhlarik-Boller said.
“To anybody in their 20s, they don’t even listen to radio. They listen to their playlists. Everybody is in their own little world nowadays,” she said. “And radio was a way — just as television was in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s — a way of connecting people.
“What radio did is it brought people together. And it went across class. And that doesn’t really happen, not the same way … You could be a really rich person, and you could be a really poor person, and you could still listen to a radio program,” Uhlarik-Boller said.
“Nowadays, if you have wealth you don’t even have to watch television, do you? You can download whatever you want. I think it’s a bygone era. And although I think at times we idealize those bygone eras, there’s something to be said about those eras and how simple, and maybe human, we were all were at that time.
“It’s a good thing for people to remember there was a time when not everything was available with the touch of a computer screen or on a phone,” she said.
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter with The Beacon-News.
‘It’s a Wonderful Life Radio Show’
When: Nov. 24-26; Dec. 8-10, 22-24, 30
Where: Steel Beam Theatre, 111 W. Main St., St. Charles
Tickets: $23-$28