Honor your special angel
By Terri Riggle
On Thursday, Dec. 8, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play will open on the Kent Theatre stage. The play was adapted by Joe Landry and is essentially the same as the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed and directed by Frank Capra. The play is staged as a radio production that takes place in the late 1940’s on a snowy Christmas Eve.
According to Wikipedia, the movie is “one of the most acclaimed films ever made, praised particularly for its writing. It was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, placing number 11 on its initial 1998 greatest movie list, and number one on AFI’s list of the most inspirational American films of all time.”
The play highlights the story of George Bailey, a small-town businessman, who in a panic one Christmas Eve, decides that he would be worth more dead than alive. But thanks to the interference of his guardian angel, Clarence Oddbody AS2, he is saved and shown how much of a difference he truly made in the world of Bedford Falls. At one point in the play, Clarence points out that “every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings,” which was what Clarence was eagerly hoping to earn by helping George.
The Players would like to offer our theater-going audience the opportunity to honor the people who have been an angel in their lives. Got someone in your life who has made a difference? Was it a teacher, a parent, a friend? For $5, the Players will make a bell listing the name of your “angel.” It will then be added to a Christmas tree, which will be on display at the Kent Theatre. At the end of each performance, our actors will ring bells, honoring all of the special angels whose names adorn the tree.
The bells are available by sending $5 to The Cedar Springs Community Players, ATTN: Bell; PO Box 207; Cedar Springs, MI 49319. You can also purchase one before each performance in the Kent Theatre lobby. Please clearly print your name and the name of your angel and mail it, along with $5, to the Players.
Performances of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, written by Joe Landry, will be Dec. 8, 9, and 10 starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Kent Theatre. Tickets are available at the CS Public Library for $10 for adults 18 and older and $8 for students 17 and under. Tickets may also be purchased before each performance at the box office for $12 for adults 18 and over and $8 for students, 17 and under.
