It’s a wonderful drama

As the room suddenly becomes dark and the dark curtains lightly unfold, the audience looks up to see a bright stage light shining upon the theater. The actors step on the stage with their vibrant, vintage costumes, performing with lively voices.
The Rams Repertory Company performed the classic Christmas story “It’s a Wonderful Life Radio Show” on Nov. 29 and Nov. 30.
For their first fall production, Advanced Drama decided to do a live radio drama to create a unique experience for the audience to not only see, but hear.
“The primary focal point of the set design was the sound effects lab. Although it’s just sound effects, the sounds themselves became their own characters,” English teacher and Artistic Director of the Rams Repertory Company Ms. Michele Gaffney said. “It’s a big factor because we wanted to highlight the aspect of making the audience feel as though they were back in time at a retro radio Christmas Eve party.”
When the Advanced Drama students had auditions, they sent a recording of them reading their lines. When callbacks came around, auditioned in person.
“For initial auditions, I wanted to isolate the students’ vocal strength by having them submit audio-only auditions so I would be able to “hear” if they can change the vocal qualities to sound like multiple characters,” Ms. Gaffney said. “Then for callbacks, I wanted to see if they could not only do the voice but engage with the audience in character at the same time to deliver the best of both worlds.”
The cast prepared by rehearsing every day during their sixth period class and weekly on Mondays from 3-5 pm.
“I felt the play was amazing,” Senior Becky SooHoo said. “I’m glad the cast and I had a good time performing while getting into the play. We learned to all trust each other in the process of making this whole production into something beautiful.”
They had dress rehearsals during the week of the show to ensure everything was prepared for the two performances.
“I really enjoyed the play because I loved the way they made the sound,” Senior Amaz Cai said. “They used the sound to create an action in my mind, and I liked the story’s setting.”