Friday, November 17, through Sunday, November 19
The Black Box Theatre, 1623 Fifth Avenue, Moline IL
A well-known seasonal tale gets an inventive stage makeover when Moline's Black Box Theatre presents It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which finds Frank Capra's holiday classic – and the entire town of Bedford Falls – re-enacted by a cast of seven.
Most everyone is familiar with Capra's Christmas-viewing staple, in which beloved small-town banker George Bailey, through the aid of an angel named Clarence, discovers what life would have been like had he never been born. Adapted by Joe Landry, It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play takes Capra's movie and re-imagines it as a broadcast during the golden age of radio, with actors portraying numerous characters with scripts in hand, the sound effects achieved through hand-help props and foley artists, and the story occasionally interrupted by live commercial breaks. According to the New York Times, what results is “a lovable, evocative piece” in which “it's easy for the audience to get caught up in the fun of creating reality from obvious artifice.”
The Black Box Theatre's production is helmed by company co-founder and artistic director Lora Adams, whose recent directing credits have included her venue's Murderers, New Ground Theatre's 'night, Mother, and the Circa '21 Speakeasy's Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story. The play's dozens of Bedford Falls residents, plus more Heaven-ly figures, are enacted by familiar area talents Corinne Johnson, Michael Kennedy, Tom Vaccaro, Jenny Winn, married performers Jason and Erin Platt, and Reader theatre reviewer Brent Tubbs. And live music is provided by pianist Jonathan Turner, a frequent Bucktown Revue guest and author of the recent A Brief History of Bucktown: Davenport's Infamous District Transformed.
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play will be performed Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., tickets are $16, and more information and reservations are available by calling (563)284-2350 or visiting TheBlackBoxTheatre.com.
