October 24, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The holiday season kicks off at the Ogle Center on November 21 with “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live from WVL Radio Theatre”
The Ogle Center — Southern Indiana’s center for the performing and visual arts — will present “It’s a Wonderful Life: Live from WVL Radio Theatre” on Tuesday, November 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ogle Center on the IU Southeast campus, 4201 Grant Line Road in New Albany. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and $10 for all students at all times. Parking is free for vehicles parked in the Dogwood lot directly in front of the Ogle Center and the Hickory lot directly behing the Ogle Center. Tickets are available at the Ogle Center ticket office, by calling (812) 941-2525, or online at oglecenter.com.
It’s Christmas Eve in 1945, and only a handful of WVL Radio’s actors have braved the blizzard to perform that evening’s broadcast of It’s a Wonderful Life and keep the station afloat.
This 1940s “live broadcast” of Frank Capra’s beloved film takes us back to the Golden Age of Radio. This fresh new adaptation of the film is set in the fictional studio of WVL Radio Theatre on a cold, snowy winter night. Due to the blizzard, the professional voice actors are unable to get through, but the show must go on — so a small but intrepid band of employees manage to create the dozens of movie characters and scenes using just their voices and a sound effects table.
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Nominated for five Academy Awards, Frank Capra’s beloved film is an undisputed holiday treasure, ranked #11 in the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 best American films ever made — and also their #1 most inspirational American film of all time.
This clever stage adaptation breathes new life into the poignant story of George Bailey and Bedford Falls.
When Frank Capra and his co-writers were working on the original screenplay of It’s a Wonderful Life, the Great Depression was a vivid memory. The story of George Bailey and Bedford Falls is juxtaposed against a time of failing banks, devastatingly high unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing. The circumstances are eerily familiar, and over 60 years later, this story remains as fresh and relevant as ever. Its message of hope and optimism is the perfect antidote to holiday cynicism. It asks us to take stock of what we hold dear, and demands that that we examine our lives and our priorities. It reminds us that belief in family, in friendship, in people, is not misplaced — no matter how bad things get. It allows us to trust that somehow good will out, and that patience and fortitude are worthy and abiding virtues.
It’s a Wonderful Life: Live from WVL Radio Theatre is a production of the Immediate Theatre Project of Asheville, North Carolina.
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