Christmas Cabaret: It's a Wonderful Life, Live Radio Show

  On December 19, 2013, the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Theatre Tech and Musical Theatre departments collaborated to produce a Christmas Cabaret It's A Wonderful Life Live Radio Hour. I just wanted to mention that this was supposed to be the last performance, being the 4th in the run., but because of an immense amount of people willing to attend this wonderful event Keith Carames, the artistic director and the Tech Department co-chair, added another performance after the last one.

Musical Director: Erika Weil
Tech Department Co-Chair: Paul Kwapy
Tech Department Co-Chair: Keith Carames
Vocal Department Chair: Todd Wedge
Logo Design: Julie Glantz
Special Thanks: Keira Robalino, Dana Nelson, Cynthia Francis and The Platt Family.

It's A Wonderful Life, the American film classic, was brought to life in the Clayton Cobb Showcase Studio as a radio hour. The audience gets to follow George Bailey as he engulfs on a journey to understand himself and to appreciate his existence. The appreciating-his-existing part comes only when Clarence, the angel who didn't earn his wings yet, erases George's existence for a short while and lets George see what the world he was so used to living in would be without him. Seeing how all the people he loved would end up without him in their lives, George understands the meaning of life. 

The students in the Theatre Tech department who played a very important part in bringing the thing together included Katarina Bone-Tsokolati, Tristan Burnham, Dexter Chew, Maia Cluver, Sam Garcia, Madi Gaudreau, Iain Langlands, Nina Patchell, Tucker Predock, Isa Spicer, Sam Travers, Anoah Wang and Sebastian Young. The vocal cast included Ben Stacy, Lauren Bradley, Lucy Murphy, Mackenzie Rohan, Joe-Joe Kelly, Mara Schumann, Ryan Doyle, Cora Nelson, Josie Clark, Johnny Kelly, Jackson Paddock, Sadie Alan, Skyler Sims-Dickson, Giovanni de Leon, Katrien van Riel, Anisa Henry, Gabrielle Chun, Savannah Occhiogrosso, Marika Stuurman, Anya Hirota, Ella Francis, Isidora Kecman, Briea Eder, Kevin Lopez, Kyle Miller, Jessica Makhlin, Maya Rowe, Summer Cuyjet, Alex Colter, Julia Farrow, Ciara Carvajal, and Molly Robins. 

It's A Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama. It was produced and directed by Frank Capra based on a short story "The Greatest Gift". "The Greatest Gift" was written in 1939 by Philip Van Doren Stern and published privately in 1945. The film starred James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Henry Travers. The music was written by Dmitri Tiomkin.

The show brought a lot of excitement to the people sitting in the audience. It was funny and serious at the same time. Although a high school performance, the level of professionalism was unbelievable and the performers on stage kept the audience absorbed in the plot and in the singing. The acting for all of the performers was liberal and free-handed, the one thing that attracts the audience most. For me as an audience member, the fact that the performers are enjoying what they are doing makes me enjoy it as well. The Tech department did a stunning job at managing the costumes and lighting. It was a spectacular experience and I look forward to the next Christmas Cabaret.