Audience members can once again “tune in” to the fictional WETC for some seasonal cheer.
After presenting last year’s installment of its popular holiday radio show solely on local radio station WRMN, Elgin Theatre Company returns to performing classic radio scripts in front of a live audience.
“An Elgin Old Tyme Holiday Radio Show 5? runs Nov. 12-21 at Elgin Art Showcase in downtown Elgin. Performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Sunday performances will include sign language interpretation.
“All those old radio shows are fun and wholesome. They’re a laugh a minute,” Director Julie Price said. “The way they’re written, they’re really concise. The humor is simple and fun and can even relate to even current day.”
This year’s cast is smaller than in years past, with a cast of just six actors and a Foley artist performing three scripts.
“This time around I asked a specific group of actors to join me because with COVID and all the safety concerns, I’m only working with vaccinated people right now because I don’t want to deal with anybody getting sick or anybody exposing anybody else,” Price said.
Audience members must show proof of vaccination or a negative 72-hour COVID test to attend. Masks are required of all attendees.
Set in the 1950s radio station of WETC, the audience will watch a group of actors perform three half-hour scripts as if they were broadcasting live.
The shows presented include an episode of “Our Miss Brooks” titled ‘Thanksgiving with Bernice,” in which teacher Connie Brooks leaves Thanksgiving plans to the last minute. With only $5 to spend on turkey, her love interest Mr. Boynton suggests buying a live turkey to save money.
“They end up at her principal’s house with a live turkey, so there’s all kinds of craziness with a live turkey instead of a turkey for dinner,” Price said.
Miss Brooks is followed by an episode of “My Favorite Husband,” the radio show starring Lucille Ball that eventually evolved into “I Love Lucy” on television. The episode “Christmas Gift” finds Liz Cugat unable to stop herself from trying to find out what her husband, George got her for Christmas.
The final show presented is “A Visit from St. Nick,” in which a human mother and mouse mother are trying to get their children to sleep, but they are eager for Santa to arrive.
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“(It) is a really adorable show that I ran across a couple years ago. It’s basically Clement C. Moore’s poem ‘A Night Before Christmas,’ and they built a little story around it of a mother putting her children to bed and a mouse mother putting her children to bed …
“It’s really, really cute,” Price said. “And there’s a lot of fun Foley stuff in that show.”
Each show will include recordings of the original radio commercials that aired at the time for products like Colgate toothpaste and Jell-O pudding.
“We’re using the actual radio commercials of that era too,” Price said. “We kind of created our own before, but this time we’re actually using the recorded versions and doing some fun little skit things with them.”
In the past the Elgin Theatre Company actors would sing the jingles themselves, but that was when there was a larger cast.
“I had a big cast when I was doing that and I managed to find an accompanist, but I don’t have that this time,” Price said. “So we had to be creative and find a new, fun way to present the commercials.”
‘An Elgin Old Tyme Holiday Radio Show 5’
When: Nov. 12-21
Where: Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., Eighth Floor, Elgin
Tickets: $20 adults; $18 seniors and students
Information: 847-741-0532, elgin-theatre.org
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News.