November 28, 2024 • 28 mins
What if you could bring the charm of a 1940s radio play to the stage, all while presenting the venerable classic, It's A Wonderful Life? On "Steps to the Stage," we explore this intriguing blend with director Chris Diehl and actors Philip Kasinski, Lourie Deards Chase, and Danny Chase as they breathe new life into "It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play." Our guests share how this innovative format allows theater companies to capture the magic of the beloved film without the need for an extensive cast and elaborate settings. Listen in as we discuss the fascinating dual-layer narrative, where actors portray both their radio personas and the iconic characters of George Bailey and his circle.
Step into the small-town charm of Bedford Falls as we delve into the characters that make this story a timeless favorite. Our talented actors reveal the challenges and joys of bringing characters like George Bailey and Mary Hatch to life, capturing the heart of their journeys. Danny Chase offers an insider’s view into the art of voice work, portraying an impressive eleven characters within the radio play format. This multifaceted storytelling approach not only captures the essence of the original but also adds fresh layers of creativity, inviting audiences to experience the beloved tale anew.
Beyond the stage, our conversation opens up on the crafting of authentic soundscapes and engaging period-appropriate commercials that enhance this radio play experience. With the Chino Community Theater's upcoming season on the horizon, we shine a spotlight on exciting productions like "Steel Magnolias" and classics such as "A Raisin in the Sun." This episode promises a rich exploration of community theater's creativity and the passion that fuels it, setting the stage for a memorable season ahead.
It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play runs weekends Dec. 6-22nd
Purchase tickets at: https://chinocommunitytheatre.seatyourself.biz
or call 909-590-1149
$15 Student/Senior/Child
$18 General Admission
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's Bert, the cop , who is friends with Ernie, the
cab driver, so we occasionallysee Bert and Ernie together.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The lights are on, the curtains up.
This is Steps to the Stage.
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(00:27):
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Thank you so much.
Hello and welcome to Steps tothe Stage, the community theater
podcast where we interview thecommunity theater professionals
you know and love.
I am your host, marci, andtoday we are talking about it's
(00:49):
a Wonderful Life, a live radioplay.
I have four friends in front ofme to talk about this wonderful
show.
Let's start with the director,chris.
Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Hello Marci, I am Chris.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Diehl, and I am the director of this wonderful show
called it's a Wonderful Life.
A live radio play and then ourfriend Philip, if you would mind
introducing yourself.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Hi, I'm Philip Kaczynski.
I'm sorry, I'm playing JakeLawrence in the play, but then
he plays George Baileythroughout the play.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Our friend Lori.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Hi, my name is Lori Deards Chase.
I play Sally Applewhite, who isthe actress that portrays Mary
Hatch.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And Danny.
Hi, I'm Danny Chase and I playHarry Jasbo Haywood, a 1940s
character actor who playsClarence, and other roles.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Now you may have noticed a couple of different or
three total different names ineach of those introductions.
As I mentioned, this is a liveradio play version of it's a
Wonderful Life, which sort of isa play within a play type of
deal, and so our three actorshere have a lot of different
roles, but also like roleswithin roles, and so it becomes
very, I'm sure, very confusingin the rehearsal room sometimes
(01:58):
to keep track of who each of youare and what you're meant to do
.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well, I should say that the alter egos that they
have, that really only comesinto it during the pre-show,
okay, and maybe a little bitthroughout the production, but
it's mostly going to be themportraying the different
(02:23):
characters in it's a wonderfullife.
So that's their alter egos,their forties.
You know, movie star alter egosis just a kind of a little fun
gimmick.
That kind of starts the showoff and and it does kind of go
through the whole thing.
But I don't want to give thelisteners the impression that
they're going to be, you knowkind of going in and out.
(02:44):
Yeah, exactly, it's not reallythat.
It's really for people who wantto come and see.
It's a Wonderful Life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's pretty much what they're going to be getting
.
Is that story Wonderful?
But it is sort of in that radioplay format which.
I think is really cool andreally interesting to see and to
be able to do.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, there's a lot of.
I think it's kind of somethingthat a lot of theaters are doing
now.
It seems to be a popular way tobe telling these stories.
It really did start in atheater I believe it was in
Connecticut, where they tried todo a full-on production of it's
(03:20):
a Wonderful Life and theyrealize this is going to
completely break our budgetbecause there's so many
characters in the story and justso many different settings.
And so they realized that, yeah, we can't do it this way.
This is just impossible for us.
So they came up with this liveradio format which just imitates
(03:45):
the actual 1940s radio showsthat they used to do back in the
day, where the big stars wouldcome and they would recreate
their films.
Oftentimes they would use thepeople that were originally in
the movies, sometimes they wouldchange it out to other stars,
but yeah, they would recreatethese movies because back then.
(04:07):
It seems crazy to think of today, when everything is so
accessible forever, it seemstoday at our fingertips.
But when a movie you know wasin the theater, it was in the
theater for a period of time andthen it disappeared, it was
gone, and of course this isbefore television.
Even so, the movies would goaway and you might hope for the
(04:30):
studio to re-release it, butthat only happens with the
really big hits and it's aWonderful Life.
I don't think even made moneyOriginally.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
yeah, was not very popular.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Right.
And it kind of was liketelevision viewings that really
yeah, once it entered publicdomain.
And there's a lot of moviesthat are like that, Even the
Wizard of Oz and you know othermovies that today we think of as
just classics that everyone hasseen, and some of them really
weren't successful at thebeginning, and this is one of
them and of course, now it'sjust a beloved classic.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Would you mind talking us through the plot of
Wonderful Life for people whosomehow are not familiar with?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Sure, sure, yeah, and I know there's a lot of people
that aren't.
But it sounds like it's thiskind of sappy kind of feel-good
kind of story and it's notreally.
It gets very dark.
But it basically follows thischaracter, george Bailey, and we
(05:31):
kind of follow him throughoutthe main parts of his adult life
and I think it spans.
Does it span like 20 years,philip?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
maybe From when he's a child.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, we do have a little bit of a prologue with
them as children, but most of itis kind of like college through
adulthood.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I'd say 40s.
Yeah, because he has four kidsby the end.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Right right.
So we're really looking kind ofat the story of this man's life
, how he has a lot of dreams,big dreams that don't seem to be
coming true for him, and hegets to a point in his life that
he kind of questions why is hehere?
That's kind of his story.
(06:18):
That's kind of the story is hisjourney.
I don't want to go into it toomuch because so much of the fun
of this story is kind of cominginto it.
I remember seeing it for thefirst time, completely knowing
nothing about it, and it's justreally wonderful to discover
this story and to meet all thesewonderful characters.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Would each of you mind introducing your characters
a little bit, if you would liketo start, sure.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So George Bailey is the protagonist of the story it
follows.
You know the show goes throughhis entire life and the choices
that he makes.
He has a dilemma, you know.
I don't know how much of theplot I should say, but for those
of you who are familiar, he haslots of choices and every step
(07:03):
of the way he makes a definitedecision along the way, and
sometimes that doesn't lead tothings that are actually good
for him, and so he getsfrustrated with that and begins
to question his role in theuniverse and in the town that he
lives in, bedford Falls.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He's wonderfully complex and just full of
contradictions and you canreally see a little bit of
everyone, or I should sayeveryone can see a little bit of
themselves in George Many times.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, I hate to use the term everyman because it's
so overused, but because George,there's some great little just
idiosyncrasies to George that Ithink make him a really great
and unique character.
But yeah, he's a fascinatingcharacter to watch.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah, I feel like he's a catalyst for, you know,
the audience as they watch hisjourney.
He's the type of character thatpeople wish they made the same
decisions that he does along theway, and they can also see the
frustration.
You know he has anger, he hasfrustration.
He has, you know, things don'tgo his way all the time, but
when it comes down to it it'sreally about the love that he
(08:17):
has for people in the town thathe grows up in.
He embraces the town andeveryone around him out in there
.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Okay, laurie, if you would like to.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, mary Hatch is a girl who grows up in the same
small town as George, bailey,bedford Falls.
She feels connected to him at areally young age.
She has a very clear idea ofhow she feels about George and
what she wants for her life fromthe very beginning, of how she
feels about George and what shewants for her life from the very
beginning and she takes somereally confident and definitive
(08:50):
actions to make sure that sheeventually gets the life that
she wants, which I think isreally cool to see in a story,
especially at that time, and ina female character.
There's a lot of strength inMary.
There's a lot of cleverness inMary.
There's a lot of determinationin Mary.
Lot of cleverness in Mary.
There's a lot of determinationin Mary and that dimension, I
(09:12):
think, sort of gives some roomfor George to show more parts of
his personality and do a littlebit more of his decision-making
out loud, because he has herthere to help support him
Wonderful yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Danny.
So my primary character isClarence the Angel and so I
particularly enjoy thatcharacter because he and all of
I play 11 different charactersin this show, some of which only
have one line.
But we we try to work reallyhard, each of the supporting
actors who are supporting thesetwo very real and authentic
(09:39):
characters.
Chris has given them, given ussome license to be a little more
like creative and caricature-y,and so we try to make them very
distinct.
But Clarence in particular is alot of fun because he starts in
this place of kind of justblissful ignorance and he's
learning about George Baileythroughout.
He's watching with Joseph thearchangel from above and kind of
(10:00):
understanding more about GeorgeBailey as we go along with the
audience.
So it's fun to react, alongwith the audience, to what he's
seeing and introduce theaudience to these different
elements along the way, sort ofa surrogate, yeah.
And then eventually he gets todo something the audience
doesn't, which is dive rightinto the story, meet George
Bailey, talk to him and help himalong the way and help him make
(10:24):
the right decision.
We hope.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We know he does.
Would you mind talking aboutsome of the other characters
that you play?
Just a few.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, besides Clarence there's Sam Wainwright
is a childhood friend of Georgeand Mary's and so Sam Wainwright
is like longtime family friend.
There's Bert the cop, who isfriends with Ernie the cab
driver, so we occasionally seeBert and Ernie together.
We also have Martini who ownsthe local bar.
(10:53):
Martini is a beneficiary ofGeorge and Mary's efforts
because he is able to buy a homeat one point in the show able
to buy a home at one point inthe show.
And there's also some reallyfun characters like Mr Welch,
who is just like the husband ofthe wife of someone who George
was rude to, and so we see liketwice in the show.
(11:13):
But yeah, and others, there's alot.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, 11.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's so you said that I was like.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Whoa, that's just so many.
I mean, even you said they'resmaller roles, but still that's
you do sometimes find yourselftalking to yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yes, that's actually, I guess you could say, a
feature, not a bug, because Ithink the playwright
specifically wanted thosemoments where the audience was
watching somebody having aconversation.
Sometimes it's three characters, somebody playing three
characters in the same scene,and so, yeah, it's very
(11:51):
important that they have verydistinct voices because,
especially in those momentsbecause, you have to remember,
this is intended for a radioaudience, even though they did
have live audiences that theydid it for, you know, at the
time it was mostly radioaudiences that were going to be
listening to it.
So it's really important thatthe voices be distinct, or else
(12:14):
they're going to think it's thesame person talking.
So, yeah, and it gives you alsoa license to be a bit more,
yeah, caricature.
Exactly.
It's kind of essential reallyto give the audience, because
they don't have the visual to gowith it.
So it's all from the voice andit's really I think it, I would
say, probably makes you kind ofstretch different muscles in
(12:40):
your arsenal, if that makessense.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, I was going to say it sounds like a fun
challenge.
If anything else, yeah, well,this way definitely this way we
can get um.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, seven actors to portray 30 different
people on a stage so it'ssometimes it's funny because
they they have to get used toreally just they don't have to
do as much as as you would in anormal play.
So just in the case of talkingon the phone, it feels weird to
them to just stand there andtalk into a microphone and not
(13:14):
holding a phone up to their ear?
Yeah, very little.
It's really just kind ofchoreographing the use of the
mics, because we only have twomics, so they have to share a
mic sometimes and we have todetermine, you know, are they
going to be on the same mic forthis scene, or sometimes we like
to have George and Mary onopposite mics and sometimes we
like to have them together, andso it you all.
(13:37):
You also kind of give theaudience in the room a a little
bit of a taste of of of, youknow, actual blocking.
Yeah, little bit.
You know there's some timeswhere George will wander off and
you know, because he's oftenalways, you know, fuming about
something.
So you know we have him kind ofwandering around the stage
(13:57):
sometimes and you know.
So a little little bit of that.
But mostly you know they're.
The rest of the cast is on stage, the whole show, you know.
So they have to.
A lot of times, when they'resitting in their seats waiting
to go on, they're also doing, uh, sound effects of their own,
and of course we have peopledoing our actual sound effects
(14:18):
during the show, the Foley.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So I'm sure you were going to come to that I was so
excited to talk about about what.
What are you doing for thesound effects and for the Foley
for the show?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, and in fact, our Foley, our Foley person,
actually the guy who'scollecting all of our props and
stuff for the Foley, JackFriedman, we're so lucky to have
him.
He's going to be coming todayto bring it, so we're going to
kind of see what we're going tobe working with today.
Very exciting, yeah.
(14:47):
So we have two people, TeddySetlak and Rain Riaza, who are
going to be our stage managers.
Very exciting.
And I'm very excited to see allthe little things, because I
(15:09):
know one thing he said he wasmaking was a wind machine, so
because, you know, it'sChristmas time and winter and
stuff like that.
So we'll put a lot of use tothat, I'm sure.
And so a lot of just little funpractical effects that just
give it more of an old-fashioned, you know, feel to the show
which we're really trying topush fashion you know, feel to
(15:30):
the show which we're reallytrying to push, because I feel
like that is sort of thetrademark of like.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
when you say radio play, the first thing that comes
to my mind is the guy in thecorner with a xylophone doing
all the effects.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Lots of opening and closing of doors.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yes, footsteps yes.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I was going to say the little coconuts too.
Footsteps.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And something we did for the season reveal, which was
when Mary and George arewalking along and they take a
rock and they break a window ofan old house and we had them
stand there on the stage with aglass and a stocking, christmas
stocking and hammer it and justlittle things like that, and the
audience always gets a big kickout of watching those things,
(16:10):
when they're not, of course,paying attention to the riveting
performances of theseindividuals here.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I want to add to that that it is really fun and it
definitely adds to the overallambiance of the radio play
format.
It's also really interesting tome how all of those sound
effects as they're written intothe script are very purposeful.
Sound effects as they'rewritten into the script are very
purposeful.
So they're all intentionallybuilt in to help fill in a part
of the story that otherwisemight have been really
illustrative if you could see itin a visual format.
But because we don'tnecessarily have that over the
(16:38):
radio, they have been includedin this particular script, not
only because it's fun, but alsobecause it helps you understand
a moment better, and I thinkthat's just another really
interesting take on how a radioplay format lets you tell a
story.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I was going to say again about that radio play
format, and it must be weird foryou as actors to have to stand
in front of a microphone, andnot really because it's closer
to voice acting, I would assumeat certain points, more than
onstage acting.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
A bit.
There's moments where Idefinitely want to emote more or
I want to move or interact withother actors in a way that I
really can't if I'm stuck on amic.
So we're going to be working onthat more, as we have live mics
throughout the rehearsalprocess.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
It's definitely an interesting balance because you
do have an audience in the roomwith you.
And you need to make sure thatwhat you're doing is engaging
enough for the people in theroom to come along with you.
But it's a differentimaginative exercise than a lot
of other plays are, and so, atleast for me, it's been very
much a matter of remindingmyself okay, so in this story,
within the story, this is howwe're telling it, and if we do
(17:50):
it this way and if we all fillin our parts and pieces wherever
we can whether you're doing 11voices or three, or you're
someone in the crowdunderscoring a scene with all of
our efforts combined, we canconvince the audience to come
along with us and then maybehelp them imagine all the things
that they can't see.
But, at the same time, thereare moments where it's just real
hard to stand still, because ifyou're telling the story from a
(18:12):
really genuine and authenticplace, if you're being really
sincere, you get so engaged inwhat you're talking about that
it's hard not to express thatphysically in some form.
Yeah, so it's very much abalance of the two.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And I do want them to be sincere, you know, because
we aren't doing a spoof.
We're doing the story of it's aWonderful Life and even though
there are elements that peoplewill laugh at, like the
commercials for instance, whenyou know we do the live
commercials and they singjingles to Hair Tonic and stuff
(18:45):
like that the audience alwaysgets a big kick out of that as
well, and those are supposed tobe funny.
And in fact, if you go back andyou listen to some of the
original, the actual commercials, they trying to do this kind of
as a legit radio play and we'retelling the story sincerely.
(19:15):
So if you want to see it's aWonderful Life for reels, you
will see it, at least in thisdifferent format.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yes, yeah, that's good to know.
And, for those of youinterested, the show opens on
December 6th, I believe, at 8 pm.
Yeah, that's good to know.
And, for those of youinterested, the show opens on
December 6th, I believe, at 8 pm.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yes, yes, and everyone should be interested.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, you are all interested right now
.
You can buy tickets on cctcom.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, genocommunitytheaterorg.
And yes, you can buy ticketsonline or you can just call the
box office.
Box office number you shouldknow offhand 909-590-1149.
Yeah, exactly there you go.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Well, thank you, the four of you, for talking about.
It's a Wonderful Life.
This has been very fun and veryinteresting.
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If we would shift gears alittle bit, especially with
(20:22):
Chris to talk about the season,reveal that you know community
theater just did, which is veryexciting.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, it was really exciting.
We have, I think, a reallygreat season coming up for 2025.
And these three people hereactually participated in the
reveal, because we always do apreview of the upcoming holiday
show along with the new season.
Yeah, we're already cast forour first show of 2025, which is
(20:49):
going to be Steel Magnolias,and lots of people love that
show.
It's an iconic classic and we'vedone it before.
We did it in the 90s.
I think it was the late 90s wasthe last time we did it, but we
thought it was time to bring itback.
It's a very popular show andwe're excited to do it, and
(21:12):
Donna Rice is directing that,and anyone who is familiar with
the children's theater side ofour theater certainly knows
Donna.
So we're excited to have herdirecting for the adults for a
change, and so she's got a greatcast and she's going to get
started on that, and she's soshe's got a great cast and she's
gonna get started on that, andthat opens in January and then
(21:35):
we're bringing back which we gotcut from I'm very excited for
this.
Yes, for our musical Back byPopular Demand is a little shop
of horrors which was on our 2020, you know the dreaded 2020
season.
Uh, it got cast and theystarted rehearsal and it was
happening and then boom, covidand no more.
(21:59):
But luckily, we're bringingback, uh, juan Torres, uh to
direct it, so he was theoriginal director for it.
But we are having it's going tobe completely new production,
so we're having, you know, wewill be having auditions again
for it, but we are having it'sgoing to be completely new
production, so we're having, youknow, we will be having
auditions again for it, and sowe're really excited to bring
that back to our stage.
And that was another one wealso did in the in the in the
(22:20):
90s.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I believe Another one that the poster was here.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, that.
Yeah, that might've been thechildren's theater production
too, because they've they'vedone it as well, but, yeah, I
believe we also we did it too.
Yeah, yeah, I think maybe thecommunity building or something.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Yeah, I think it might've been one of the earlier
productions that took placehere, which I can only speak to
because my dad was in it and hewas the dentist, and I remember
him making the mask for thedentist's office using pieces of
our toys at home.
I could see your dad being thedentist for the dentist's office
using like pieces of our toysat home.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I could see your dad being the dentist for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Dentist is a very dad role, I feel like.
Just in general.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It can be.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And then, of course, we're bringing back three on the
edge this year we're doing lastyear we kind of had a theme
with Hitchcock.
This time we're we're we'redoing three very, very different
shows.
One is called Breathing Corpsesby Laura Wade, and I doubt most
people are going to be familiarwith that, and it's one that's
really hard to describe.
But I can tell you it's one ofthe most original shows that
(23:24):
we're going to be doing on ourstage next year.
It kind of travels in timebackwards and forwards and it
kind of starts with somebodydiscovering a corpse and then it
goes backwards and it's areally interesting play and
gives us a little bit of thethriller aspect that we had in
(23:45):
last year's Hitchcock Festival.
And then we have Savage in Limboby John Patrick Shanley, who is
a Pulitzer Prize winningplaywright for Doubt.
He also wrote the screenplay toMoonstruck, so he's a really
great playwright.
And this is, I believe it's setin Boston.
Michelle Knight Reinhart isdirecting it.
(24:06):
Oh, I should say BreathingCorpses is being directed by
Lauren Bell.
Michelle Knight Reinhart isdirecting Savage in Limbo, which
is about a bunch of people overin their 30s gathering at a bar
and hilarity ensues.
I don't know if it's allhilarity, but yeah, you have to
come to see that.
And then Bending the Spoonwhich we're really excited about
.
Yes, I forgot about this, yeah,bending the Spoon, which we kind
(24:27):
of gave our audiences a tasteof, I think, a couple years ago
with a reading, but we're havinga full-on production now, part
3, on the Edge.
It's written by Ken Lay, who isa longtime CCT veteran actor
director.
Here he directed Dial-In forMurder last year.
So he's going to be he'salready written the play and
(24:51):
he's going to be directing it asit's.
I'm sure it's going to be areal labor of love for Ken and
we're really excited to be ableto.
We always love to do new,something new.
We don't always get thatopportunity, but we have in the
past have premiered some playsand so this isn't a premiere
actually, but it is, but it isan original.
It is an original work by by alocal playwright, which we love
(25:15):
to do.
And then in the fall we have ARaisin in the Sun, which I'm
just thrilled about becausethat's one show that I love and
I've been wanting us to do itfor a long time and we actually
kind of got through our playselection last year and we tried
to do it and we couldn't getthe rights to it and then this
(25:37):
year we did.
So we're doing A Raisin the Sun.
Tony Lind is directing it andTony, of course she kind of pops
up and does all our majorclassics.
You know she did Children'sHour this year and she's done
Tennessee Williams and ArthurMiller and you know.
So I'm sure she's gonna do anamazing job with A Raisin in the
Sun and that's going to be ourfall show.
(25:58):
And then I'm directing Miracleon 34th Street.
So I'm doing two Christmasshows in a row and and so I'm
excited to do that and that'sgoing to be just a regular old
play.
So we're not doing the radioversion of that.
That's going to be actual setsand blocking and stuff like that
and people memorizing theirlines Whoa, that's one of the
(26:21):
nice things about this show isthat they don't have to memorize
their lines.
That is good.
Yeah, that's a selling point.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Well, again, that's a fantastic season actually.
Yeah, we got some real bona fpoint.
Sure, well, again, that soundsit's a fantastic season.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
actually, I'm very yeah we got.
We got some real bonafide, youknow, tried and true audience
pleasers for sure, and also forThree on the Edge, a few things
that they probably haven't seenyet.
So I think we got something foreverybody.
That just you know what we'realways trying to go for.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It sounds fantastic, and that's again throughout the
course of the next year.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yes, 2025.
And oh, I should mention bigchange we are starting our shows
earlier next year, so they arenot going to be starting 8
o'clock, they're going to bestarting at 7.30.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Okay.
So, yes, keep that in mind,keep that in mind, get here
early, 7.30.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
People seem to want to go out earlier now and get
home earlier, so we are kind ofjust shifting with the times,
and so 7.30 is going to be ournew show time for 2025.
All right, but not for thisshow, not for this show.
We're still in 2024.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
As Phil starts reconsidering.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
That half hour out of my day.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Well again.
Thank you again to all four ofyou for joining me to talk about
this.
It's been wonderful With all ofyou.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
I was going to say it's been a wonderful podcast.
It really has.
Thank you, Marcy, Of course,Thank you to each of you.
Thank you, I was going to sayit's been a wonderful podcast.
It really has.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Marcy, of course.
Thank you to each of you, thankyou.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to Stepsto the Stage, and now it's time
for the curtain call.
You can follow us on Spotify,Apple, Google or any podcasting
platform.
We have videos up on YouTubeand you can visit our website at
stepstothestagebuzzsproutcom.
(28:16):
And, as always, a special thankyou to our audio engineer, Joey
Rice, and our producer, KirkLane.
Without the two of you, thisshow would not be possible.
There's Bert, the cop , who is friends with Ernie, the
cab driver, so we occasionallysee Bert and Ernie together.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The lights are on, the curtains up.
This is Steps to the Stage.
Folks at home, do you have abusiness, small or otherwise,
that isn't pulling in trafficthe way you want it to?
Well, it might be, because theydon't have something to
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They will print out yourbanners, they'll cut vinyl,
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(00:27):
We're talking business cards,banner stands, lcd displays,
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Again, that is Graphic DetailsInc here in Chino, california.
Thank you so much.
Hello and welcome to Steps tothe Stage, the community theater
podcast where we interview thecommunity theater professionals
you know and love.
I am your host, marci, andtoday we are talking about it's
(00:49):
a Wonderful Life, a live radioplay.
I have four friends in front ofme to talk about this wonderful
show.
Let's start with the director,chris.
Hello.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Hello Marci, I am Chris.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Diehl, and I am the director of this wonderful show
called it's a Wonderful Life.
A live radio play and then ourfriend Philip, if you would mind
introducing yourself.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Hi, I'm Philip Kaczynski.
I'm sorry, I'm playing JakeLawrence in the play, but then
he plays George Baileythroughout the play.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Our friend Lori.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
Hi, my name is Lori Deards Chase.
I play Sally Applewhite, who isthe actress that portrays Mary
Hatch.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
And Danny.
Hi, I'm Danny Chase and I playHarry Jasbo Haywood, a 1940s
character actor who playsClarence, and other roles.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Now you may have noticed a couple of different or
three total different names ineach of those introductions.
As I mentioned, this is a liveradio play version of it's a
Wonderful Life, which sort of isa play within a play type of
deal, and so our three actorshere have a lot of different
roles, but also like roleswithin roles, and so it becomes
very, I'm sure, very confusingin the rehearsal room sometimes
(01:58):
to keep track of who each of youare and what you're meant to do
.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Well, I should say that the alter egos that they
have, that really only comesinto it during the pre-show,
okay, and maybe a little bitthroughout the production, but
it's mostly going to be themportraying the different
(02:23):
characters in it's a wonderfullife.
So that's their alter egos,their forties.
You know, movie star alter egosis just a kind of a little fun
gimmick.
That kind of starts the showoff and and it does kind of go
through the whole thing.
But I don't want to give thelisteners the impression that
they're going to be, you knowkind of going in and out.
(02:44):
Yeah, exactly, it's not reallythat.
It's really for people who wantto come and see.
It's a Wonderful Life.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That's pretty much what they're going to be getting
.
Is that story Wonderful?
But it is sort of in that radioplay format which.
I think is really cool andreally interesting to see and to
be able to do.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Yeah, there's a lot of.
I think it's kind of somethingthat a lot of theaters are doing
now.
It seems to be a popular way tobe telling these stories.
It really did start in atheater I believe it was in
Connecticut, where they tried todo a full-on production of it's
(03:20):
a Wonderful Life and theyrealize this is going to
completely break our budgetbecause there's so many
characters in the story and justso many different settings.
And so they realized that, yeah, we can't do it this way.
This is just impossible for us.
So they came up with this liveradio format which just imitates
(03:45):
the actual 1940s radio showsthat they used to do back in the
day, where the big stars wouldcome and they would recreate
their films.
Oftentimes they would use thepeople that were originally in
the movies, sometimes they wouldchange it out to other stars,
but yeah, they would recreatethese movies because back then.
(04:07):
It seems crazy to think of today, when everything is so
accessible forever, it seemstoday at our fingertips.
But when a movie you know wasin the theater, it was in the
theater for a period of time andthen it disappeared, it was
gone, and of course this isbefore television.
Even so, the movies would goaway and you might hope for the
(04:30):
studio to re-release it, butthat only happens with the
really big hits and it's aWonderful Life.
I don't think even made moneyOriginally.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
yeah, was not very popular.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Right.
And it kind of was liketelevision viewings that really
yeah, once it entered publicdomain.
And there's a lot of moviesthat are like that, Even the
Wizard of Oz and you know othermovies that today we think of as
just classics that everyone hasseen, and some of them really
weren't successful at thebeginning, and this is one of
them and of course, now it'sjust a beloved classic.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Would you mind talking us through the plot of
Wonderful Life for people whosomehow are not familiar with?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Sure, sure, yeah, and I know there's a lot of people
that aren't.
But it sounds like it's thiskind of sappy kind of feel-good
kind of story and it's notreally.
It gets very dark.
But it basically follows thischaracter, george Bailey, and we
(05:31):
kind of follow him throughoutthe main parts of his adult life
and I think it spans.
Does it span like 20 years,philip?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
maybe From when he's a child.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, we do have a little bit of a prologue with
them as children, but most of itis kind of like college through
adulthood.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
I'd say 40s.
Yeah, because he has four kidsby the end.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Right right.
So we're really looking kind ofat the story of this man's life
, how he has a lot of dreams,big dreams that don't seem to be
coming true for him, and hegets to a point in his life that
he kind of questions why is hehere?
That's kind of his story.
(06:18):
That's kind of the story is hisjourney.
I don't want to go into it toomuch because so much of the fun
of this story is kind of cominginto it.
I remember seeing it for thefirst time, completely knowing
nothing about it, and it's justreally wonderful to discover
this story and to meet all thesewonderful characters.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Would each of you mind introducing your characters
a little bit, if you would liketo start, sure.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So George Bailey is the protagonist of the story it
follows.
You know the show goes throughhis entire life and the choices
that he makes.
He has a dilemma, you know.
I don't know how much of theplot I should say, but for those
of you who are familiar, he haslots of choices and every step
(07:03):
of the way he makes a definitedecision along the way, and
sometimes that doesn't lead tothings that are actually good
for him, and so he getsfrustrated with that and begins
to question his role in theuniverse and in the town that he
lives in, bedford Falls.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
He's wonderfully complex and just full of
contradictions and you canreally see a little bit of
everyone, or I should sayeveryone can see a little bit of
themselves in George Many times.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, I hate to use the term everyman because it's
so overused, but because George,there's some great little just
idiosyncrasies to George that Ithink make him a really great
and unique character.
But yeah, he's a fascinatingcharacter to watch.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Yeah, I feel like he's a catalyst for, you know,
the audience as they watch hisjourney.
He's the type of character thatpeople wish they made the same
decisions that he does along theway, and they can also see the
frustration.
You know he has anger, he hasfrustration.
He has, you know, things don'tgo his way all the time, but
when it comes down to it it'sreally about the love that he
(08:17):
has for people in the town thathe grows up in.
He embraces the town andeveryone around him out in there
.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Okay, laurie, if you would like to.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
Yeah, mary Hatch is a girl who grows up in the same
small town as George, bailey,bedford Falls.
She feels connected to him at areally young age.
She has a very clear idea ofhow she feels about George and
what she wants for her life fromthe very beginning, of how she
feels about George and what shewants for her life from the very
beginning and she takes somereally confident and definitive
(08:50):
actions to make sure that sheeventually gets the life that
she wants, which I think isreally cool to see in a story,
especially at that time, and ina female character.
There's a lot of strength inMary.
There's a lot of cleverness inMary.
There's a lot of determinationin Mary.
Lot of cleverness in Mary.
There's a lot of determinationin Mary and that dimension, I
(09:12):
think, sort of gives some roomfor George to show more parts of
his personality and do a littlebit more of his decision-making
out loud, because he has herthere to help support him
Wonderful yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Danny.
So my primary character isClarence the Angel and so I
particularly enjoy thatcharacter because he and all of
I play 11 different charactersin this show, some of which only
have one line.
But we we try to work reallyhard, each of the supporting
actors who are supporting thesetwo very real and authentic
(09:39):
characters.
Chris has given them, given ussome license to be a little more
like creative and caricature-y,and so we try to make them very
distinct.
But Clarence in particular is alot of fun because he starts in
this place of kind of justblissful ignorance and he's
learning about George Baileythroughout.
He's watching with Joseph thearchangel from above and kind of
(10:00):
understanding more about GeorgeBailey as we go along with the
audience.
So it's fun to react, alongwith the audience, to what he's
seeing and introduce theaudience to these different
elements along the way, sort ofa surrogate, yeah.
And then eventually he gets todo something the audience
doesn't, which is dive rightinto the story, meet George
Bailey, talk to him and help himalong the way and help him make
(10:24):
the right decision.
We hope.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
We know he does.
Would you mind talking aboutsome of the other characters
that you play?
Just a few.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, besides Clarence there's Sam Wainwright
is a childhood friend of Georgeand Mary's and so Sam Wainwright
is like longtime family friend.
There's Bert the cop, who isfriends with Ernie the cab
driver, so we occasionally seeBert and Ernie together.
We also have Martini who ownsthe local bar.
(10:53):
Martini is a beneficiary ofGeorge and Mary's efforts
because he is able to buy a homeat one point in the show able
to buy a home at one point inthe show.
And there's also some reallyfun characters like Mr Welch,
who is just like the husband ofthe wife of someone who George
was rude to, and so we see liketwice in the show.
(11:13):
But yeah, and others, there's alot.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, 11.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That's so you said that I was like.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Whoa, that's just so many.
I mean, even you said they'resmaller roles, but still that's
you do sometimes find yourselftalking to yourself.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yes, that's actually, I guess you could say, a
feature, not a bug, because Ithink the playwright
specifically wanted thosemoments where the audience was
watching somebody having aconversation.
Sometimes it's three characters, somebody playing three
characters in the same scene,and so, yeah, it's very
(11:51):
important that they have verydistinct voices because,
especially in those momentsbecause, you have to remember,
this is intended for a radioaudience, even though they did
have live audiences that theydid it for, you know, at the
time it was mostly radioaudiences that were going to be
listening to it.
So it's really important thatthe voices be distinct, or else
(12:14):
they're going to think it's thesame person talking.
So, yeah, and it gives you alsoa license to be a bit more,
yeah, caricature.
Exactly.
It's kind of essential reallyto give the audience, because
they don't have the visual to gowith it.
So it's all from the voice andit's really I think it, I would
say, probably makes you kind ofstretch different muscles in
(12:40):
your arsenal, if that makessense.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, I was going to say it sounds like a fun
challenge.
If anything else, yeah, well,this way definitely this way we
can get um.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
You know, seven actors to portray 30 different
people on a stage so it'ssometimes it's funny because
they they have to get used toreally just they don't have to
do as much as as you would in anormal play.
So just in the case of talkingon the phone, it feels weird to
them to just stand there andtalk into a microphone and not
(13:14):
holding a phone up to their ear?
Yeah, very little.
It's really just kind ofchoreographing the use of the
mics, because we only have twomics, so they have to share a
mic sometimes and we have todetermine, you know, are they
going to be on the same mic forthis scene, or sometimes we like
to have George and Mary onopposite mics and sometimes we
like to have them together, andso it you all.
(13:37):
You also kind of give theaudience in the room a a little
bit of a taste of of of, youknow, actual blocking.
Yeah, little bit.
You know there's some timeswhere George will wander off and
you know, because he's oftenalways, you know, fuming about
something.
So you know we have him kind ofwandering around the stage
(13:57):
sometimes and you know.
So a little little bit of that.
But mostly you know they're.
The rest of the cast is on stage, the whole show, you know.
So they have to.
A lot of times, when they'resitting in their seats waiting
to go on, they're also doing, uh, sound effects of their own,
and of course we have peopledoing our actual sound effects
(14:18):
during the show, the Foley.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
So I'm sure you were going to come to that I was so
excited to talk about about what.
What are you doing for thesound effects and for the Foley
for the show?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, and in fact, our Foley, our Foley person,
actually the guy who'scollecting all of our props and
stuff for the Foley, JackFriedman, we're so lucky to have
him.
He's going to be coming todayto bring it, so we're going to
kind of see what we're going tobe working with today.
Very exciting, yeah.
(14:47):
So we have two people, TeddySetlak and Rain Riaza, who are
going to be our stage managers.
Very exciting.
And I'm very excited to see allthe little things, because I
(15:09):
know one thing he said he wasmaking was a wind machine, so
because, you know, it'sChristmas time and winter and
stuff like that.
So we'll put a lot of use tothat, I'm sure.
And so a lot of just little funpractical effects that just
give it more of an old-fashioned, you know, feel to the show
which we're really trying topush fashion you know, feel to
(15:30):
the show which we're reallytrying to push, because I feel
like that is sort of thetrademark of like.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
when you say radio play, the first thing that comes
to my mind is the guy in thecorner with a xylophone doing
all the effects.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Lots of opening and closing of doors.
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Yes, footsteps yes.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I was going to say the little coconuts too.
Footsteps.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And something we did for the season reveal, which was
when Mary and George arewalking along and they take a
rock and they break a window ofan old house and we had them
stand there on the stage with aglass and a stocking, christmas
stocking and hammer it and justlittle things like that, and the
audience always gets a big kickout of watching those things,
(16:10):
when they're not, of course,paying attention to the riveting
performances of theseindividuals here.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
I want to add to that that it is really fun and it
definitely adds to the overallambiance of the radio play
format.
It's also really interesting tome how all of those sound
effects as they're written intothe script are very purposeful.
Sound effects as they'rewritten into the script are very
purposeful.
So they're all intentionallybuilt in to help fill in a part
of the story that otherwisemight have been really
illustrative if you could see itin a visual format.
But because we don'tnecessarily have that over the
(16:38):
radio, they have been includedin this particular script, not
only because it's fun, but alsobecause it helps you understand
a moment better, and I thinkthat's just another really
interesting take on how a radioplay format lets you tell a
story.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I was going to say again about that radio play
format, and it must be weird foryou as actors to have to stand
in front of a microphone, andnot really because it's closer
to voice acting, I would assumeat certain points, more than
onstage acting.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
A bit.
There's moments where Idefinitely want to emote more or
I want to move or interact withother actors in a way that I
really can't if I'm stuck on amic.
So we're going to be working onthat more, as we have live mics
throughout the rehearsalprocess.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
It's definitely an interesting balance because you
do have an audience in the roomwith you.
And you need to make sure thatwhat you're doing is engaging
enough for the people in theroom to come along with you.
But it's a differentimaginative exercise than a lot
of other plays are, and so, atleast for me, it's been very
much a matter of remindingmyself okay, so in this story,
within the story, this is howwe're telling it, and if we do
(17:50):
it this way and if we all fillin our parts and pieces wherever
we can whether you're doing 11voices or three, or you're
someone in the crowdunderscoring a scene with all of
our efforts combined, we canconvince the audience to come
along with us and then maybehelp them imagine all the things
that they can't see.
But, at the same time, thereare moments where it's just real
hard to stand still, because ifyou're telling the story from a
(18:12):
really genuine and authenticplace, if you're being really
sincere, you get so engaged inwhat you're talking about that
it's hard not to express thatphysically in some form.
Yeah, so it's very much abalance of the two.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
And I do want them to be sincere, you know, because
we aren't doing a spoof.
We're doing the story of it's aWonderful Life and even though
there are elements that peoplewill laugh at, like the
commercials for instance, whenyou know we do the live
commercials and they singjingles to Hair Tonic and stuff
(18:45):
like that the audience alwaysgets a big kick out of that as
well, and those are supposed tobe funny.
And in fact, if you go back andyou listen to some of the
original, the actual commercials, they trying to do this kind of
as a legit radio play and we'retelling the story sincerely.
(19:15):
So if you want to see it's aWonderful Life for reels, you
will see it, at least in thisdifferent format.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yes, yeah, that's good to know.
And, for those of youinterested, the show opens on
December 6th, I believe, at 8 pm.
Yeah, that's good to know.
And, for those of youinterested, the show opens on
December 6th, I believe, at 8 pm.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Yes, yes, and everyone should be interested.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, you are all interested right now
.
You can buy tickets on cctcom.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Yeah, genocommunitytheaterorg.
And yes, you can buy ticketsonline or you can just call the
box office.
Box office number you shouldknow offhand 909-590-1149.
Yeah, exactly there you go.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Well, thank you, the four of you, for talking about.
It's a Wonderful Life.
This has been very fun and veryinteresting.
If you need high-qualityheadshots or other professional
photo work done, visit ZochiNeri Photography at fbme.
Slash xneri photos.
If we would shift gears alittle bit, especially with
(20:22):
Chris to talk about the season,reveal that you know community
theater just did, which is veryexciting.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yeah, it was really exciting.
We have, I think, a reallygreat season coming up for 2025.
And these three people hereactually participated in the
reveal, because we always do apreview of the upcoming holiday
show along with the new season.
Yeah, we're already cast forour first show of 2025, which is
(20:49):
going to be Steel Magnolias,and lots of people love that
show.
It's an iconic classic and we'vedone it before.
We did it in the 90s.
I think it was the late 90s wasthe last time we did it, but we
thought it was time to bring itback.
It's a very popular show andwe're excited to do it, and
(21:12):
Donna Rice is directing that,and anyone who is familiar with
the children's theater side ofour theater certainly knows
Donna.
So we're excited to have herdirecting for the adults for a
change, and so she's got a greatcast and she's going to get
started on that, and she's soshe's got a great cast and she's
gonna get started on that, andthat opens in January and then
(21:35):
we're bringing back which we gotcut from I'm very excited for
this.
Yes, for our musical Back byPopular Demand is a little shop
of horrors which was on our 2020, you know the dreaded 2020
season.
Uh, it got cast and theystarted rehearsal and it was
happening and then boom, covidand no more.
(21:59):
But luckily, we're bringingback, uh, juan Torres, uh to
direct it, so he was theoriginal director for it.
But we are having it's going tobe completely new production,
so we're having, you know, wewill be having auditions again
for it, but we are having it'sgoing to be completely new
production, so we're having, youknow, we will be having
auditions again for it, and sowe're really excited to bring
that back to our stage.
And that was another one wealso did in the in the in the
(22:20):
90s.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I believe Another one that the poster was here.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Yeah, that.
Yeah, that might've been thechildren's theater production
too, because they've they'vedone it as well, but, yeah, I
believe we also we did it too.
Yeah, yeah, I think maybe thecommunity building or something.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
Yeah, I think it might've been one of the earlier
productions that took placehere, which I can only speak to
because my dad was in it and hewas the dentist, and I remember
him making the mask for thedentist's office using pieces of
our toys at home.
I could see your dad being thedentist for the dentist's office
using like pieces of our toysat home.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
I could see your dad being the dentist for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Dentist is a very dad role, I feel like.
Just in general.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
It can be.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And then, of course, we're bringing back three on the
edge this year we're doing lastyear we kind of had a theme
with Hitchcock.
This time we're we're we'redoing three very, very different
shows.
One is called Breathing Corpsesby Laura Wade, and I doubt most
people are going to be familiarwith that, and it's one that's
really hard to describe.
But I can tell you it's one ofthe most original shows that
(23:24):
we're going to be doing on ourstage next year.
It kind of travels in timebackwards and forwards and it
kind of starts with somebodydiscovering a corpse and then it
goes backwards and it's areally interesting play and
gives us a little bit of thethriller aspect that we had in
(23:45):
last year's Hitchcock Festival.
And then we have Savage in Limboby John Patrick Shanley, who is
a Pulitzer Prize winningplaywright for Doubt.
He also wrote the screenplay toMoonstruck, so he's a really
great playwright.
And this is, I believe it's setin Boston.
Michelle Knight Reinhart isdirecting it.
(24:06):
Oh, I should say BreathingCorpses is being directed by
Lauren Bell.
Michelle Knight Reinhart isdirecting Savage in Limbo, which
is about a bunch of people overin their 30s gathering at a bar
and hilarity ensues.
I don't know if it's allhilarity, but yeah, you have to
come to see that.
And then Bending the Spoonwhich we're really excited about
.
Yes, I forgot about this, yeah,bending the Spoon, which we kind
(24:27):
of gave our audiences a tasteof, I think, a couple years ago
with a reading, but we're havinga full-on production now, part
3, on the Edge.
It's written by Ken Lay, who isa longtime CCT veteran actor
director.
Here he directed Dial-In forMurder last year.
So he's going to be he'salready written the play and
(24:51):
he's going to be directing it asit's.
I'm sure it's going to be areal labor of love for Ken and
we're really excited to be ableto.
We always love to do new,something new.
We don't always get thatopportunity, but we have in the
past have premiered some playsand so this isn't a premiere
actually, but it is, but it isan original.
It is an original work by by alocal playwright, which we love
(25:15):
to do.
And then in the fall we have ARaisin in the Sun, which I'm
just thrilled about becausethat's one show that I love and
I've been wanting us to do itfor a long time and we actually
kind of got through our playselection last year and we tried
to do it and we couldn't getthe rights to it and then this
(25:37):
year we did.
So we're doing A Raisin the Sun.
Tony Lind is directing it andTony, of course she kind of pops
up and does all our majorclassics.
You know she did Children'sHour this year and she's done
Tennessee Williams and ArthurMiller and you know.
So I'm sure she's gonna do anamazing job with A Raisin in the
Sun and that's going to be ourfall show.
(25:58):
And then I'm directing Miracleon 34th Street.
So I'm doing two Christmasshows in a row and and so I'm
excited to do that and that'sgoing to be just a regular old
play.
So we're not doing the radioversion of that.
That's going to be actual setsand blocking and stuff like that
and people memorizing theirlines Whoa, that's one of the
(26:21):
nice things about this show isthat they don't have to memorize
their lines.
That is good.
Yeah, that's a selling point.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Well, again, that's a fantastic season actually.
Yeah, we got some real bona fpoint.
Sure, well, again, that soundsit's a fantastic season.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
actually, I'm very yeah we got.
We got some real bonafide, youknow, tried and true audience
pleasers for sure, and also forThree on the Edge, a few things
that they probably haven't seenyet.
So I think we got something foreverybody.
That just you know what we'realways trying to go for.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It sounds fantastic, and that's again throughout the
course of the next year.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yes, 2025.
And oh, I should mention bigchange we are starting our shows
earlier next year, so they arenot going to be starting 8
o'clock, they're going to bestarting at 7.30.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Okay.
So, yes, keep that in mind,keep that in mind, get here
early, 7.30.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
People seem to want to go out earlier now and get
home earlier, so we are kind ofjust shifting with the times,
and so 7.30 is going to be ournew show time for 2025.
All right, but not for thisshow, not for this show.
We're still in 2024.
Speaker 5 (27:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
As Phil starts reconsidering.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
That half hour out of my day.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Well again.
Thank you again to all four ofyou for joining me to talk about
this.
It's been wonderful With all ofyou.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
I was going to say it's been a wonderful podcast.
It really has.
Thank you, Marcy, Of course,Thank you to each of you.
Thank you, I was going to sayit's been a wonderful podcast.
It really has.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Marcy, of course.
Thank you to each of you, thankyou.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Thank you.
Thanks for listening to Stepsto the Stage, and now it's time
for the curtain call.
You can follow us on Spotify,Apple, Google or any podcasting
platform.
We have videos up on YouTubeand you can visit our website at
stepstothestagebuzzsproutcom.
(28:16):
And, as always, a special thankyou to our audio engineer, Joey
Rice, and our producer, KirkLane.
Without the two of you, thisshow would not be possible.
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