Classic holiday film presented as radio play It’s a Wonderful Play at YSU

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

“It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” will open Friday at Youngstown State University and recreate an entertainment scene straight out of the 1940s.

Patrons are invited to attend in 1940s garb, and members of the YSU Dance Ensemble will offer a period dance showcase in the theater lobby, inside Bliss Hall, a half-hour prior to the Friday and Saturday evening performances.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; and also at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5. Call 330-941-3105 or go to ysu.tix.com. The play will be in Spotlight Theater, which is inside Bliss Hall, on the YSU campus.

Adapted by Joe Landry, “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play: was inspired by the classic 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The holiday classic comes to life as a live radio broadcast performed in front of the studio audience, which was common in that era. The six-person cast will voice a few dozen characters in telling the story of idealistic George Bailey, as his life unravels one fateful Christmas Eve.

Guest director is Lisa Ann Goldsmith of Pittsburgh, a professional actor, director and choreographer.

Goldsmith, who has many New York and regional stage and film credits, is accomplished in radio plays and as a Foley artist – a creator of sound effects for live theater.

She worked as a performer with Bricolage Theater’s Midnight Radio Series since 2008 in Pittsburgh. She is also a teacher for Bricolage’s Midnight Radio in the Schools program, helping seventh- and eighth- graders write plays and create the accompanying soundscapes.

Foley is a term used for the sound-effects technique that reproduces everyday sounds for film, stage and other media, and which are done by hand, using various common objects. Examples of Foley sound in YSU’s production include footsteps, bar sounds, a train whistle, breaking pond ice and wind The Foley technique is named for Jack Foley, a sound editor at Universal Studios. Technicians during the golden age of radio and the dawn of silent films utilized the services of live sound effects to produce sounds to create a visual image for patrons listening to stories on the radio.

YSU’s production will make the sounds that radio listeners would have heard, with cast members doing double duty as voice actors and Foley technicians.

“Rather than using electronic voice changers, or digital sound effects that come out of a speaker, these amazing student actors have accepted my challenge head on to create these wonderful classic characters by using nothing more than the tools they were naturally given by the universe – their own voices,” said Goldsmith.

“They have willingly followed me on the journey through the world of Foley, creating a realistic soundscape and atmosphere through the use of everyday objects and ingenuity.”

The cast includes Josh Fleming of Canfield; Mark Warchol, Poland; Allyson Hood, New Castle, Pa.; Jack Rusk, West Chester; Jessica Hirsh, Pepper Pike; and Terre Snead, Youngstown.

Department of theater and dance professional staff includes Ellen E. Jones, scenic/lighting designer; Todd Dicken, production manager; Katherine Garlick, costume designer; Rebel Mickelson, costume shop supervisor; and Jeff Wormley, sound designer.