It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play

November 18–December 21

It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play
Adapted by Joe Landry
Directed by Nelson T. Eusebio III

Revisit Bedford Falls, fall in love again with George and Mary, and discover the magic of an angel named Clarence. It’s Christmas Eve in 1947, and inside a radio studio a live broadcast brings to life Frank Capra’s timeless film in all of its feel-good glory. Be a part of the live studio audience, and join the cast and crew as they take you on a journey through the most important evening in one man’s life. It’s the perfect holiday outing for the entire family and, who knows, an angel might even get his wings.

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Cast

Pun Bandhu*
Harry “Jazzbo” Heywood

Ken Krugman*
Freddie Filmore

Joseph McGranaghan*
Jake Laurents/George Bailey

Chiara Motley*
Sally Applewhite

Eileen Rivera*
Lana Sherwood

Anthony Stultz*
Foley Artist

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play . Broadway—Wit w/Cynthia Nixon. Off Broadway—Productions with Soho Rep, PS 122, Target Margin, Ma-Yi, NAATCO, Pan Asian Rep, Foundry Theatre, among others. Regional—Favorites include McCarter Theatre: The Bells (Theresa Rebeck World Premiere, dir. Emily Mann); TheatreWorks: Yellow Face (David Henry Hwang Regional Premiere), Warrior Class; Yale Rep: The Birds (Len Jenkins World Premiere); Williamstown: Big Knife (dir. Joanne Woodward), Far East (AR Gurney World Premiere, dir. Daniel Sullivan); Denver Center: The Catch (Ken Weitzman World Premiere, Henry Award, Best Supporting Actor in a Play). TV—The Good Wife, Without a Trace, Elementary, Law and Order, Criminal Intent, Conviction, SVU, Body of Proof, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, among others. Film—Michael Clayton, Burn After Reading, Late Phases, Stephen King’s A Good Marriage, The Judge. Education—MFA Yale School of Drama. punbandhu.net.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life. Broadway & National Tours—Les Miserables, Candide, Jersey Boys, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Titanic, and the Tony Award-winning revival of Assassins. Off Broadway—Splendora, Passion; City Center Encores: Irma La Douce. International—The Man in the Moon Theatre in London: Grimm Tales. Regional—Guthrie Theatre, Arena Stage, Goodspeed, Bay Street Theatre, Theatre Aspen, Capital Rep, Centenary Stage, Two Rivers Theatre. Film/TV—Let It Snow, Blue Bloods, Royal Pains, Law & Order(s), Hope & Faith, Chappelle’s Show, Late Show with David Letterman. Ken thanks his family and friends for their love and support.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play . New York—The Workshop Theatre Company: Thalassa; Storm Theatre: Our God’s Brother; Hudson Warehouse: The Bald Soprano; Bakerloo Theatre Project and Prospect Theatre: Hamlet; CITI Company: The Beauty Project. Tours—Chamber Theatre of Boston: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Asolo Rep New Stages: Macbeth. Regional—Bucks County Playhouse: New Voices Festival; Clarence Brown Theatre: Noises Off; Asolo Rep: The Game’s Afoot, You Can’t Take It With You; Quantum Theatre: The Task; Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre: Julius Caesar and The Shaughraun. Film—The Lucky 6, Graduation. Education—FSU/ Asolo Conservatory. For my wife: a lassoed moon.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Regional— Arts Center of Costal Carolina: Sherlock Holmes: The Great Adventure; Seattle Shakespeare Company: Othello, Richard III, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Denver Center: The Three Musketeers, The Taming of the Shrew; Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival: King Lear, The Three Musketeers; Seattle Public Theatre: A Wedding Story; Book-It: Persuasion; Studio Lab: Syringa Tree. Other credits—Chiara’s voice can be heard on Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew video games. Education—MFA, National Theatre Conservatory. BA, Stanford University. chiaramotley.com.

Eileen Rivera (Seneca/The Bishop) is thrilled to return to BCS where she performed in The White Snake and It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Other DC area: Tiger Style! at Olney Theatre Center, Vietgone at Studio Theatre. Off-Broadway (partial list): Beast (NYTW), Dogeaters (The Public), A Fable (Rattlestick Playwrights Co.), King Lear (Cherry Lane Mentor Project). Regional (partial list): The Hour of Great Mercy (Diversionary, San Diego), The Long Season (Perseverance; Juneau, Alaska), The Comfort Team (Virginia Stage Co.). Film: Mildred, Daughter of Venus; The Barrelman Caper. TV: Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Learn more at www.eileenrivera.com

Creative Team

Joe Landry
Adaptor

Nelson T. Eusebio III
Director

Michael Locher
Set Designer

Alixandra Gage Englund
Costume Designer

Burke Brown
Lighting Designer

Sarah Pickett
Sound Designer

Gavin Witt
Production Dramaturg

Stephanie Klapper
Casting Director

Laura Smith*
Stage Manager

Captain Kate Murphy*
Assistant Stage Manager

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Off-Broadway—Ensemble Studio Theatre: Solar Plexus, Asking for Trouble; NYSF/Delacorte: All’s Well That Ends Well; Pan Asian Rep: Finding Ways… Other New York—2014 ABC Actor Showcase; Leviathan Lab: Twelfth Night; Creative Destruction: Obama Drama; Theatre Row: God, Sex & Blue Water; DiverseCity Theater: The Encounter. International—Rhodopi International Theatre Collective: The Bacchae. Regional—Playmaker’s Rep: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Yellow Face (FAIRplay); Old Globe: Twelfth Night (educational tour). Film—INS & Outs; The Barrelman Caper; Mildred, Daughter of Venus; Yield. Education—MFA, Directing, Yale School of Drama. Professional—Member, Lincoln Center Theatre Director’s Lab; Phil Killian Directing Fellow, Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Director, NEA/TCG Career Development Program; former Artistic Director, Leviathan Lab. Nelson is a participant in the SPARK Leadership program, funded by American Express, The Joyce Foundation, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and administered by Theatre Communications Group. nelsoneusebio.com.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Off-Broadway—Sin, Dramatis Personae, Crane Story. Regional—Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Troilus & Cressida, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land; Guthrie: Happy Days, Freud’s Last Session; Yale Repertory: Trouble in Mind; Playmakers Repertory: Happy Days; Marin Theater Company: The Whale, I & You; Great Lakes Theater: The Taming of the Shrew; Cal Shakes: Spunk, The Winter’s Tale; Idaho Shakespeare Festival: The Taming of the Shrew; The Magic Theater; Theatreworks (CA); Center Rep (CA). Education—Yale School of Drama; Professional—Adjunct Professor, San Jose State University; Freelance graphic designer and illustrator; Associate Artist, The Cutting Ball Theater; Founding Member, Tilted Field Productions.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Based in her native New York, Alixandra designs costumes for theater, dance, opera, and film. Recent credits include 4000 Miles (Asolo Rep), Stoop Stories (Weston Playhouse), Sumedida’s Song (HERE), The Electric Baby (Two River Theatre), and Take What is Yours (59E59). New York—NAATCO; Epic Theatre; Fordham University; Columbia Stages; The Women’s Project. She is a frequent collaborator with Beth Morrison Productions on new operatic works. Regional—Yale Rep; Chautauqua Theatre Company; Shakespeare Theatre of NJ; Skylight Opera; Bard Summerscape. Education—Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. Professional—Founding member of Wingspace Theatrical Design.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play . New York—Rattlestick Playwrights Theater: The Long Shrift, Stay, Basilica; Clubbed Thumb: Phoebe in Winter; 52nd Street Project; Ars Nova; NYSF-Public Theater; La Mama ETC. International—Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Golden Mask Festival (Moscow), Seoul Performing Arts Festival , Festival of Two Worlds (Spoleto, Italy). Regional—Cal Shakes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Magic Theatre: Se Llama Cristina; Cleveland Playhouse: Yentl; PlayMaker’s Rep: It’s a Wonderful Life, A Number; Asolo Rep; Northern Stage; Two River Theater. Dance—Aszure Barton & Artists: Awáa; Alvin Ailey America Dance Theater: Lift; Hubbard Street Dance Chicago: Fluence, Cloudless; Bayerisches Staatsballett: Konzert für Violine un Orchester; Houston Ballet: Angular Momentum. Education—MFA: Yale School of Drama. Professional—Member of Wingspace Theatrical Design. wingspace.com/burke.

Baltimore Center Stage: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. New York—Theatre for a New Audience: Othello, Macbeth, Measure for Measure; Women’s Theatre Project: Aliens with Extraordinary Skills. Regional—Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Much Ado about Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III; American Players Theatre: Antony & Cleopatra, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, Shakespeare’s Will, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Cure at Troy, Of Mice and Men; Portland Center Stage: Red, Santaland Diaries; Yale Repertory Theatre: Hamlet, A Delicate Balance, Death of Salesman; Asolo Rep Theatre: The Winter’s Tale, Venus in Fur; PlayMakers Repertory Company: Nicholas Nickleby, All My Sons; Dallas Theater Center: To Kill a Mockingbird; Long Wharf Theatre: Italian American Reconciliation; Drury Lane at Oakbrook: Gypsy; Victory Gardens Theater: We Are Proud to Present…. Education—MFA, Yale School of Drama; MA, Cornell University; BFA, Syracuse University. Professional—Faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama teaching sound design and music composition.

Director of Dramaturgy and Associate Director Gavin Witt came to Baltimore Center Stage in 2003, after nearly 15 years in Chicago as an actor, director, dramaturg, translator, and teacher—and co-founder of the classically based greasy joan & co theater. Among his translations and adaptations are a half-dozen Shakespeare plays, including a Jeff-nominated version of Pericles and the BCS production of As You Like It; Jeff-nominated translations of Beaumarchais’ The Barber of Seville and Ionesco’s Macbett; and the BCS adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A graduate of Yale and the University of Chicago, he is currently on the Humanities faculty at Peabody Conservatory, having previously taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul, and Towson; has served on the advisory boards of several theaters; and spent more than a decade as a regional vice president of LMDA, the national association of dramaturgs, before recently joining its board.

Baltimore Center Stage: That Face, The White Snake, The Secret Garden, Herzog Festival (4000 Miles and After the Revolution), It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Next to Normal, Vanya and Sonia…, Stones in His Pockets, dance of the holy ghosts, …Poe, The Whipping Man, A Skull in Connemara. Selected credits include: Broadway—Bronx Bombers; A Christmas Story, The Musical; Dividing the Estate; Bells Are Ringing; It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Off Broadway—Daniel’s Husband; That Golden Girls Show!; Fade; Exit Strategy; The Roads to Home; Informed Consent; The Winter’s Tale; The Glass Menagerie; Billy Porter’s While I Yet Live; The Model Apartment; Emotional Creature; Karen O’s Stop the Virgens!. Regional—Many theaters including: Asolo, Canadian Stage Company; Cincinnati Playhouse, Capital Rep, Ford’s Theatre, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival; Kansas City Rep, Milwaukee Rep, Berkeley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Company, Old Globe Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Film/TV—Another Dance With Death; Poor Behavior; Stag; Alice Jacobs is Dead, Roberta, Feast of the Goat; Sidewalk Stories. TV—Lazytown. Member—Casting Society of America and League of Professional Theatre Women.

Baltimore Center Stage: Detroit ’67, As You Like It; 4000 Miles; After the Revolution; It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play; Amadeus; Wild with Happy; Twelfth Night; Stones in His Pockets; dance of the holy ghosts; Clybourne Park; Beneatha’s Place; The Mountaintop; Bus Stop; An Enemy of the People; The Whipping Man; Gleam; The Rivals; Snow Falling on Cedars; Cyrano; Working it Out; Fabulation or, The Re-Education of Undine; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. Regional—Shakespeare Theater Company: Salome; Contemporary American Theater Festival: World Builders; Everyman: Pygmalion, Shipwrecked, The Exonerated, Rabbit Hole, Doubt, Gem of the Ocean, And a Nightingale Sang, The School for Scandal, A Number, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, Yellowman; Woolly Mammoth: Gruesome Playground Injuries, House of Gold, The Unmentionables, Vigils, After Ashley; Folger: Measure for Measure, Olney Theatre: Stuff Happens; Theater Alliance: Headsman’s Holiday, Pangea.

Baltimore Center Stage: One Night in Miami…, Next to Normal, Animal Crackers, Mud Blue Sky, The Mountaintop, …Edgar Allan Poe, A Skull in Connemara, American Buffalo, Crime & Punishment, Let There Be Love, The Santaland Diaries, The Importance of Being Earnest, Things of Dry Hours, Trouble in Mind, Three Sisters, Radio Golf, The Murder of Isaac, Once on This Island, King Lear. Regional—Trinity Rep: Boeing-Boeing; Actors Theatre of Louisville: All Hail Hurricane Gordo*, The Clean House, Moot the Messenger*, Dracula, The Ruby Sunrise*, Tall Grass Gothic*, The Drawer Boy, Amadeus, As You Like It (*premieres at the Humana Festival of New American Plays); Contemporary American Theater Festival: The Overwhelming, Pig Farm; Totem Pole Playhouse: Over 75 productions through 13 summer stock seasons. Film/TV—Route 30, Route 30 Too!, The Father and the Bear, Next Food Network Star. Professional—Director of Stage Management at Virginia Tech University. Proud Actors Equity and ASCAP Member. For Whitney – with love and gratitude.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association

In the Press

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Reviews

“This whole show is perfectly magical.”— BroadwayWorld

“It has everything an audience wants in a holiday play: kid-friendliness, humor, pathos, a few tugs at the heartstrings and the tear glands, and some seasonal references. Add the customary polished Center Stage staging, and what could be wrong?”— BroadwayWorld

“Endearing… rewarding... quite fresh.”— The Baltimore Sun

“Center Stage's disarming production gives the material a stylish airing.”— The Baltimore Sun

“Capra's believe-in-yourself-and-think-of-your-neighbors message still retains its power, particularly at holiday time.”— The Baltimore Sun

“FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON, CENTER STAGE HAS GIVEN BALTIMORE A HEARTWARMING AND DELIGHTFUL GIFT THAT WILL CAPTIVATE THEATERGOERS OF ALL AGES.”— MD THEATRE GUIDE

“A FANTASTIC FAMILY RENDERING OF FRANK CAPRA’S BELOVED HOLIDAY CLASSIC FILM.”— DC METRO THEATER ARTS

“A DELIGHTFULLY POIGNANT STAGE ADAPTATION.”— DC METRO THEATER ARTS

“AN ENDEARING, EVOCATIVE EXHIBITION THAT HEARKENS BACK TO THE GOLDEN AGE OF RADIO WHEN FAMILIES GATHERED TOGETHER FOR INSPIRATIONAL BROADCASTS AND WHOLESOME ENTERTAINMENT, SPLENDIDLY RECREATING THE MUCH-LOVED CELEBRATION OF GOODWILL, COMMUNITY, AND CHEER IN THE FACE OF HARDSHIP.”— DC METRO THEATER ARTS

In the News

12.03.14: MD Theatre Guide—‘A Quick 5 with Pun Bandhu'
11.28.14: The Baltimore Sun—Back to Bedford Falls at Center Stage in charming ‘Wonderful Life’ radio play
11.28.14: BroadwayWorld—It’s a Wonderful It’s a Wonderful Life at Center Stage
10.28.14: BroadwayWorld—Cast, Creatives Announced for Center Stage's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
11.24.14: The Baltimore Sun—Colorful productions ahead for the holidays

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