Northern Stage Presents IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A RADIO PLAY

As a special gift to Vermonters this holiday season, Northern Stage has partnered with Vermont Public Radio to present a free one-time-only broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play on Saturday, December 12, at 3 p.m. This beloved American classic comes to life as a radio broadcast starring an ensemble cast of Northern Stage favorites as "Radio Actors" playing multiple roles (sound effects included). It's a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play is also available to stream on demand (audio only) December 8-January 3 as part of Northern Stage's 2020/21 Season. For tickets and information, call (802) 296-7000 or visit northernstage.org. Tickets are $15 for individuals and $25 for families and household listening.

Based on the 1946 film starring Jimmy Stewart, It's a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play is adapted by Joe Landry, with special permission for adaptation for Northern Stage audiences, and recorded at the Barrette Center for the Arts in downtown White River Junction, Vermont. In the age of social distancing, Northern Stage is thrilled to offer a message of hope and love that can reach the homes of every family in the Upper Valley and beyond this holiday season.

This is the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been squashed by family obligations and civic duty, and whose guardian angel has to descend on Christmas Eve to save him from despair, and to remind him - by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born - that he has had, after all, a wonderful life.

Northern Stage Producing Artistic Director Carol Dunne directs. According to Dunne, "A radio play felt like the perfect opportunity to let people turn off their screens and experience a beloved classic in a new/old way! It was a privilege to record with socially distanced actors in our empty theater. We all had a sense of hope that live theater will survive and thrive after the pandemic. We hope that our production brings as much joy to our audiences as it did to us."

Northern Stage favorite Max Samuels (Oslo; A Christmas Carol) returns to play the hero, George Bailey; with Brittany Bellizeare (Camae in The Mountaintop) as George's love interest Mary Hatch; Tom Ford (Mrs. Trunchbull in Matilda) as the dastardly Mr. Potter and the angelic Joseph; Damian Thompson (Edmund in last season's King Lear) as Clarence, George's guardian angel; Northern Stage's Producing Artistic Director Carol Dunne as Rose Bailey, George's mother; Jacob Tischler (Hound of the Baskervilles; Mary Poppins) as Stage Manager; and Dartmouth College/Northern Stage Experiential Learning Term students Jacqueline Byrne, Caitlin Deerin, and Jelinda Metelus.

The creative team includes Jane Shaw and Alek Deva (Sound Design), Brian Sekinger (Line Producer), Helen Rooker (Assistant Director), Clif Rogers (Audio Engineer), Foley Props Consultant (James Roeder), Ross Patten (Assistant Line Producer), Ali Durso (SAG AFTRA Health Safety Supervisor), with commercial music arrangement and instrumentation by Seth Eliser, with lyrics and additional text by Carol Dunne and Jacob Tischler

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