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player ready...Just three years after its 2014 founding as a program of the Gaylord Building in Lockport, Limestone Stage presents its inaugural production at a new facility.
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” a full-length play based on the classic 1946 film of the same name, runs from Dec. 7-10 at the Lockport Township Building in Lockport.
“All of our major productions are planned at this place. This is really going to be one of the first things happening in this building. This is going to show people what this place can do,” said Luke Janchenko, who co-founded Limestone Stage with his wife, Alissa Raschke-Janchenko.
“We want people to come and contact the township and say, ‘We would love to have our show there. We would love a wedding there. We’d love to run our meetings or bring our Girl Scouts there. This building is fantastic. It’s for the community,'” Janchenko said.
“Half of this building is being used as the Lockport FISH Food Pantry so people that are underserved in holiday times are coming not only to a facility to get whatever kind of benefit they can get from the township but they can come here, be fed and bring something home to their family.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” marks the 10th production for Limestone Stage, which became a nonprofit corporation earlier this year and is now its own stand-alone community theater.
“Every year Limestone tries to do what you would consider to be a holiday classic,” said Janchenko about the run that started with 2014’s “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens and adapted by Romulus Linney, and continued with 2015’s “A Carol for Tiny Tim” by John Carroll.
“Last year we did ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ I know a lot of people had seen it on stage but I had never seen it on stage. It was really successful but we had a really small venue. We had a 16-foot stage and it was in front of 50 people.
“This year we had the opportunity to partner with Lockport Township and unveil that brand-new building, which has a performance venue we want. It has a 40-foot stage. It’s got all these wonderful lights and sound.”
Limestone Stage’s more spacious stage provided the opportunity to produce “It’s a Wonderful Life” with a cast of more than 60 actors including residents of Frankfort, Lockport, Mokena, Orland Park and Plainfield.
“We get to do something really big and really large on cast and something people really know,” said Janchenko, who also directs “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
“We want to use the stage differently than it was intended. We’ve got the big main stage. Then we also have an elevated staircase and runway that runs directly out into the audience where another 10-by-10 stage is right is the middle of everything,” said the Lockport resident.
“Instead of having them be 20 feet away, let’s put them 5 feet away. We can do those main things up on the big stage. Then we can bring the action right out there.”
Set in Bedford Falls, New York, the show focuses on George Bailey who wishes he had never been born and encounters an angel who helps him realize how many lives he has changed and impacted and how they would be different if he had never been there.
Janchenko said the aim of a Christmas show is to “trigger that Christmas spirit.”
Jessi Virtusio is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 7-9; 2 p.m. Dec. 10
Where: Lockport Township Building, 1463 S. Farrell Road, Lockport
Tickets: $18; limited tickets available via www.eventbrite.com
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