It is 1945 during Christmas Eve when this radio does their annual performance of It’s a Wonderful Life. However, this year, it becomes most treacherous when a blizzard hits, causing both the technicians and actors of the radio to get stuck in it. Only a few of the employees at the station, who are there, choose to come together and attempt their annual evening’s broadcast performance of It’s a Wonderful Life while maintaining the station so it doesn’t go under.

However, without any rehearsal and only the few of them to rely on, they must both try and succeed with the radio program if they want their station to keep afloat. This can be very tricky without rehearsal time, with the employees keeping track of and acting out four characters, and using only everyday household items to help them create scenes to tell the story.

“The story of It’s a Wonderful Life is so great in and of itself, but to kind of do this story within a story and incorporate the golden age of radio and these radio programs, I think that people are going to leave here satisfied for sure,” marketing specialist for the Young Auditorium Aaron Wesolowski said.

This is a select ticketed performance where there will be a pre-show dinner the audience can attend. It will be catered by A’viands Catering Services, with meals being served buffet style and water and coffee for beverages. The dinner will be hosted in the Kachel Center, where people will have enough time to eat, relax and converse among each other. However, a separate ticket is purchased for the dinner. Fairhaven is the sponsor for this timely classic.

“This one in particular seems to fit in with the age and demographics-if you want to call it that-of our people here. Most of our residents are retired, they may well be into their sixties to close to ninety. We have residents here in that range, and A Wonderful Life is a classic movie that they are familiar with. The fact that it’s done very uniquely in the form of a radio broadcast, we thought was something that is relatable to them, because that generation came out of the era of sitting around the radio and listening to a performance like this. So, it fits well with the age group of people we serve here and we’re looking forward to seeing how they enjoy it,” said Fairhaven’s Marketing Director Tim Probst.

If It’s a Wonderful Life is a favorite classic for those who are big fans of the story and the film, then this is a special event that the audience must not miss. It will be a fun and enjoyable event for friends and family to experience and watch as a whole new twist takes a hold of the imagination and makes the audience view the story from a different angle while still feeling everything the same way they felt from the film.

This timely told classic will take place Wednesday, Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Young Auditorium for the audience to enjoy with a pre-show dinner at 5:30 p.m. in the Kachel Center.

“The nature of the show connects the actors and the audience in a slightly unexpected way, and I think raises the stakes for the actors: if the radio broadcast fails, they will be disappointing these very real people right here! I love seeing how that interaction plays out, where the energy from the actors and the audience really feeds off each other and deepens the story for everyone,” Willie Repoley said, the artistic director of Immediate Theatre Project.

“It’s a Wonderful Life: Live from WVL Radio Theatre” is a performance that will be set up and directed by Willie Repoley, the creator of the show. It’s a Wonderful Life is a one-of-a-kind classic Christmas tale that is told from both a unique and highly creative angle.