Earlier in December of 2012, a friend of mine and I went to Wheaton Drama to see a bunch of our friends in the holiday radio show “It’s a Wonderful Life”. When I say “a bunch” I mean I knew a fair number of the case right of the bat… (I know that is considered par for the course for me). Anyway what is different about this particular radio show was the addition of a children’s dance troupe from Geneva.

Before I move on here were some first impressions:
Acting: like
Singing: like
Choreography: meh
Staging: like
Sound Effects: love

One of the first things I noticed is that while the audience was trickling into the theatre, various members of the cast were already fully in character, interacting with the audience. It was strange having this sense of being transported into a different decade completely and feeling a sense of being part of the live audience for such a production.

Off to the side of the stage was a couple of tables that were set up for what it would appear to be the “sound effects” guys for the production. Helmed by R J Ogren and Peter Lemongelli, I knew instinctively that we were in for a real treat.

The radio program was hosted by Randy Knott (also known as Count Carl-Magnus in VTG’s A Little Night Music) who was cracking jokes towards the audience and the sound effect guys. However, who really stole the pre-show was Steve Schroeder and his antics of dinging a bell and pointing randomly “and you get wings” *ding* “and you get wings” *ding* “and you get wings”… well you get the idea. That damn guy keeps stealing the show no matter where he is at… but I digress.

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