When Clarence the angel falls to earth to help a struggling George Bailey, that’s Daniel Beeferman’s cue.
First, he runs a mallet along a windchime.
“But Clarence is not an experienced angel, so he lands with a thud,” Beeferman says before striking the back of a large metal pan.
Finally, to finish the scene, he splashes a bowl in a metal basin of water just as Clarence would fall into the river, leading George Bailey to jump in and “save” him.
“I make a big deal every time,” he said.
At the Little Theatre in Wilkes-Barre, a cast of actors and one foley artist hope to transport their audience to a 1940s radio station, where voice actors perform a radio version of "It’s a Wonderful Life," a classic Christmas tale.
The Little Theatre’s stage has transformed into the studio of WBFR in New York, where the cast plays multiple roles to bring the story of George Bailey to life. Beeferman sits on stage throughout the show, surrounded by the eclectic collection of props he needs to create hundreds of sound effects.
David Parmalee is the director of "It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" at the theater. He says the cast has added extra layers to their voice actor characters that will play out in the background.
“We’re using our imaginations for every aspect of it, except the script,” Parmalee said.
Beeferman’s role supplies the sound for the audience’s imagination. He’d never done foley or sound effect work like this before this show, and found or helped construct all of the props he uses.
He sits toward the front of the stage, surrounded by props like shoes, a bucket of water, windchimes, a rotary phone, and a “creakbox” made to simulate the sound of a creaky door.
“My favorite is probably the air raid siren,” he said. “We have a wind machine, which is actually a bingo raffle roller, and you put a piece of nylon over it … and it sounds like wind.”
Beeferman is the only person in the production who technically only plays one part. The rest of the cast play voice actors, who in turn, play several parts in the radio play of "It’s A Wonderful Life."
“It’s actually 59 parts we divide up,” Parmalee said. “It’s amazing.”
Gina Sabatini Mattei, who plays the part of Ruth Dakin Bailey and many more in the radio play, said all of the voice actors are “on” for the full show.
“We're all on stage all the time, so even if we're not up at the microphones doing our voice part, we are in character as these voice actors that are in the studio,” she said. “It’s unique … I don’t want to be Gina on stage. I want to be this actor that is in the studio. I think that’s been a challenging part.”
Miriah Kohn said they’ve all created and found their own backstories, and the audience can see them play out in the background of the studio set.
“I had a certain backstory where I had been in a couple of productions here at the radio station.” she said. “But I was, like, in awe of the Hollywood actors and the veteran voice actors, so I kept trying to network.”
Walter Mitchell, who plays Mr. Potter and other roles, said they all tried to make the radio studio environment as true-to-life as possible. When the actors aren’t at the microphones upstage, they’re having a water or a coffee in the “break room” area or chatting with one another.
At the start of Act 2, Mitchell said two of them launch into a newscast and sports broadcast. When two of the voice actors, seemingly oblivious to the workings of the radio station, start to laugh and loudly converse, they get shushed by the anchors.
“I'm fascinated by how much everyone has sort of instinctively caught on to the environment in which they are acting,” he said. “They just seem to know this is what it was like then.”
Beeferman never leaves his perch as the production winds its way through the story of George Bailey and Clarence the angel. He reaches for each sound effect until he gets to what he thinks of as the most important one - the small, silver bell that he rings when Clarence earns his wings.
Catch "It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" for three more performances this weekend: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at The Little Theatre in Wilkes-Barre.
