Bedford Falls is here, at least on stage at TheatreSquared. T2’s production of the classic story of George Bailey runs through Christmas Eve. Yesterday, Bob Ford, artistic director at T2, and Damon Kiley, director of the play, came to the Carver Center for Public Radio. Together they adapted the screenplay for the stage. Kiley says it was not always a given that "It’s a Wonderful Life" would be a cherished holiday treasure.
Damon Kiely: "It’s a Wonderful Life" was a movie that, when it came out, actually wasn’t that popular. It was kind of a flop. And because it was a flop, it fell into the public domain. And so because of that, in the 80s, it was on TV all the time, constantly. And when I was a teenager, I saw it for the first time, and I watched it all the time. My mom would come in and I would just be watching it for the fourth time that holiday season. And I just loved George. I loved the story, and I really never could get enough of it.
Kyle Kellams: When did the decision to put it on stage come about?
Bob Ford: This was years ago, like year five of TheatreSquared out of 20. We were wrestling with what holiday programming, and what are the great stories. And this was the top of the list. Christmas Carol, 'It’s a Wonderful Life." And there is a radio version. Damon has a strong relationship with the origin of that. And we ended up doing that. But at that time, I was like, no, I don’t want to do the radio version. I want to actually see stuff lived out with characters before my eyes, which is what we love about theater.
Another thing that’s really exciting is doubling. And also, we can’t afford to have 30 actors, so we actually decided at that time to make an adaptation. And I was thrilled to discover that, as Damon said, that script is in the public domain. Anyone can grab it and do whatever they want with it.
Kyle Kellams: That radio version, it’s a radio station creating a radio version. So it’s actors as actors. This, though, is the story.
Damon Kiely: That’s right. So I have a long history with this. In 2002, I took over a small theater company called American Theater Company in Chicago, and I felt like we needed, like Bob, a holiday show. And the most American story I could think of was "It’s a Wonderful Life." And so myself and the entire ensemble there worked to create a radio play version of this, like you said, where the actors are playing actors and then also playing the characters. And it was very sturdy and lovely. And in fact, that production is still running 24 years later today.
But when Bob said he wanted to do a live stage version, I was thrilled with the idea immediately. And we worked together looking at the version he’d done a few years ago, and I thought to myself, "Hey, you know, I think that we can make this, well, to be honest, Bob, a little shorter." I think the version a few years ago might have been two and a half hours long, and we are definitely under that. We’re just about two with the intermission.
And so I thought, how can we make this theatrical? How can we make this feel like a play, not a movie? Because of that, there are all these theatrical touches. As Bob said, there are eight actors who play 40 characters, the entire town of Bedford Falls. But also they come out and they sing Christmas carols, and they sing them with the audience to get them to feel like they’re part of Bedford Falls.
But then you get into these scenes, and the scenes are so beautiful. They’re really just stunning. I have heard these words, I don’t know, a thousand times, something like that. I find new stuff every night. That is the meaning of a real classic. And we found that they can live on stage, live in front of us. And so to see George in front of you, look at Mary and say, "Hey, if it wasn’t me talking, I’d say you were the prettiest girl in town." It’s just magical and different than either seeing the video at home or listening to a radio play version. It’s alive. It’s in the room with you. We think that it’s just something different and pretty special.
Kyle Kellams: I would imagine adapting this film to stage, there are some challenges because the film takes place over decades. There’s a supernatural element. Did you find that you had to deal with some challenges to make it a three-dimensional experience?
Bob Ford: Well, you know, there are a couple of iconic moments in the play, in the movie, that are just about impossible to stage. And at a certain point, we thought we can get the intent of these moments, the fully lived-out intent, without necessarily doing this physical action, this sort of high-concept filmic action.
The other thing was mainly just how to arrange the roles so that you weren’t leaving anybody out, but that there was a sense of a robust cast. Like when there’s a scene where they’re all rushing the bank, right? There’s a crowd of people at the bank, and all these different specific characters in the bank. And I think that we both were confident because we know and love theater, that our best ally in all of this is the audience.
They will jump right in. Yeah. There’s a bunch of people there, and imagine it for us so that we don’t have to. They’re the ones doing that kind of work.
Damon Kiely: Well, here’s what we said from the beginning. We have to produce this for people who watch the movie every year. But we are not recreating the performances. George, you’ll see, is a different George than in the film. But he’s experiencing the same story. Potter, Clarence, Ernie, they’re all different than they are in the film, but they’re experiencing the same story.
But we also wanted to tell the story for anyone who’s never seen it. And there are more people like that than you think, actually. And for 10-year-olds. It’s for a whole family to come out and see it for the first time. And we do feel like we’ve built a story that if you walk in knowing nothing at all, you’ll just be transported and go, oh my goodness, what’s going to happen to George, what’s going to happen to this town, how does he get out of this trouble, and oh, they're falling in love.
I really do feel like we’ve achieved that. And so you can bring your 10-year-old who doesn’t know anything about it, and they’ll be transported by the story, the characters, but also the super fun, as Bob said, theatricality, imagination. There’s no one who has a bigger imagination than a kid, right. And so we are engaging that kind of childlike imagination for every single audience member.
So an iconic scene in the beginning is kids sledding down a hill. Well, I’m here to tell you, we don’t have sleds. You’re not going to break the ice and we don’t have snow, but you’ll see it. It’s almost as if I imagine a bunch of kids, in their own house or out in the summer, said, "Hey, let’s pretend we’re sliding down a hill and going into ice." What would they do? What would it look like? That’s the spirit of the show. And that happens over and over again.
Bob Ford: You know, when you were talking, it occurred to me how cool it will be because this is going to happen. There will be adults and definitely children who have never seen the movie who will see this and go, I want to see the movie now. Can you imagine seeing this first and then going and seeing Jimmy Stewart and all those folks live it out that way. That would be delightful.
Damon Kiely: Well, I have a delightful bit of inside gossip, which is the guy playing George has never seen the movie. He has never seen it. He told me that after he got the part. And I’ll tell you, his audition was so deep and moving and just beautiful. And then we had a meeting before we started rehearsal. He’s like, I’ve never seen it. I’m like, don’t.
Kyle Kellams: I was going to say, as a director, that’s almost gold.
Damon Kiely: Don’t watch it. Don’t watch it. Because here’s the thing. These scenes have to live on their own. They cannot rely on memories of the movie. You want him as George Bailey, not Jimmy Stewart playing George Bailey. And that has made some of the scenes harder to figure out. And some of the scenes we’re still figuring out because I’m like, well, I know how it works in the movie, but that’s not who this guy is in front of us. That’s not the George he’s building. And the George he’s building is so warm and energetic and beautiful and funny, and has the same qualities as George, which is that he loves all these people and wants to do the right thing for them, but it’s done in a different way.
So yeah, we’re still working on it. And it’s been a beautiful journey.
Kyle Kellams: At the heart of my take, "It’s a Wonderful Life" is gratitude. Understanding what you have, how wonderful it can be. Is that at all in play as you’re putting this together?
Damon Kiely: Well, it’s interesting. I would say for me, that certainly has always been a thing. The idea of no man is a failure who has friends is just a beautiful spirit of the whole thing. And that every person touches so many other lives. And you certainly hope that’s true about yourself.
But for me, another big part of it was community. In some ways, that is George’s great lesson, that he has a beautiful community around him. And then, this is a bit of a spoiler alert for those who don’t know it, when he loses that community for a time, it’s shocking and saddening. So when he gets it back, the joy is unbelievable.
And to me right now—and when I say right now, I mean two things: at the holiday time, at the end of the year, it is the time to remember and be grateful for community. And that community is your family and your friends and then the larger community. And I think right now, at this moment in time in the United States, focusing on community, connecting with others, connecting with friends, connecting with our neighbors, just seems more important than ever.
Kyle Kellams: Damon Kiley is the director of TheatreSquared’s production of "It’s a Wonderful Life." Bob Ford is T2’s artistic director. They are the co-adaptors of the screenplay for the stage production. The play’s run lasts through Christmas Eve afternoon. And there are many matinees on the schedule. Evening performances for the show begin earlier at 7 p.m. All of the information available at theatre2.org.
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