ROCKINGHAM — The time is coming soon for the 40th season of the Richmond Community Theatre to get underway, and first up in the lineup will be “It’s A Wonderful Life.”

“The play is very much like the movie ‘It’s A Wonderful Life,’ but it is done in a live radio broadcast style, much like they did in the 1940s,” said Director Shelley Walker.

The play will have a large ensemble with 18 actors participating — some playing multiple parts and some only playing one.

“They’ll come up to the microphone and act out their scene, mostly with their voices, but we’re also incorporating some movement,” Walker said. “Visually I think it will still be appealing to people even though it’s done in a live radio style.”

Lauren Lutz will play live piano on stage during the show as the studio musician, and a large majority of the sound effects will be live, provided by Angie Rush.

Playing the main character of George Bailey will be Charles Turner, and this is Turner’s first foray into theater.

“Charles Turner said it was always on his bucket list to come and be part of one of the community plays, and he’s doing an amazing job,” said Walker.

The story of “It’s A Wonderful Life” follows George Bailey, who lives in the small town of Bedford Falls, but has wanted to leave his whole life. Helping his father with the business he started called the Building and Loan Association, George Bailey will see it dissolve after his father’s death unless he sticks around to run it.

Henry F. Potter is the antagonist in town and owns everything except the Building and Loan Association, which helps people buy houses.

On this particular Christmas Eve, George Bailey’s uncle Billy, a lovable but forgetful man, puts $8,000 in a newspaper and has forgotten that. Harry Bailey, George Bailey’s younger brother, is a war hero and is coming home to a big parade.

Billy Bailey sees Potter at the bank and ends up inadvertently giving the money to him. It seems as if he’s lost this $8,000, and the bank examiner is coming that day, so George Bailey is at the end of his wits as far as what to do once he realizes this money is lost, because he could be put in jail.

He realizes that the only way to potentially get the money is to consider whether or not he is worth more dead or alive. That’s where Clarence, his guardian angel, comes in and helps him to see that he’s really had a wonderful life.

“There are not many stage versions that actually follow the movie the way that this particular play does,” Walker said about the decision to do a live radio broadcast. “This is a story that is known by so many people. It’s really difficult to not do the play the way that everybody knows it. Actually this play, it’s pretty incredible, we go through George’s life from the time that he’s a little boy all the way up to the current day that brings him to the point when he’s wondering if he’s more valuable dead or alive.

“Clarence grants him a wish, and we go back and see his life again, and then we come to the present day in the moment of the decision. We go all over the place. We go to the library, we go to the Building and Loan, to his house, to on the street, the way that movies normally can. Because this is done as a radio play, we don’t have to worry about trying to set the setting for each one of those sets.”

With a mixture of theater rookies and veterans, Walker said that’s as big a reason as any to go see the play.

“They should come and see this play to, first of all, support all of the wonderful actors who are in the play, because we’ve got a lot of people who it’s their first time out,” she said. “We have a number of first-time people who are out doing this play and a number of faces that people are gonna recognize, too. I think that this is one of those plays, during Christmas time we can get caught up in the materialism of Christmas and the message is beyond that.”

“It’s A Wonderful Life” will be performed at 8 p.m. Dec. 1-3 and Dec. 8-9 and at 2 and 8 p.m. on Dec. 10. Tickets can be purchased online at Brown Paper Tickets by visiting www.brownpapertickets.com and searching Richmond Communtiy Theatre.

Tickets will also be available for purchase in person at the box office starting from noon to 6 p.m. on Monday.

Reach reporter Matt Harrelson at 910-817-2674 and follow him on Twitter @mattyharrelson.

Matt Harrelson | Daily Journal The cast of “It’s A Wonderful Life” practice in preparation for their play beginning Dec. 1 at the Richmond Community Theatre.
https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_Theater.jpgMatt Harrelson | Daily Journal The cast of “It’s A Wonderful Life” practice in preparation for their play beginning Dec. 1 at the Richmond Community Theatre.

By Matt Harrelson

[email protected]