Above, a scene from the final rehearsal of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ performed at the Glen Ridge Women’s Club. Below, actors in the show, from left, Deshja Driggs, Alecia Walton, Stephanie and Scout Thomas.
The Women’s Club of Glen Ridge presented a radio play dramatization of the 1946 Frank Capra movie classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” on Sunday, Dec. 14.
The show had a sizable cast of about 18, radio commercial parodies and the singing of holiday songs. It was directed by Kristy Graves and had a running time of 90 minutes.
Everybody knows the story of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” how George Bailey never satisfied his wanderlust, but stayed in Bedford Falls, rooted to his savings and loan business, but saved the community from the avaricious banker, Mr. Potter; saved the druggist, Mr. Gower, from an accidental poisoning and a prison stretch; rescued his brother, Harry, when he fell through the ice and then how Harry became a hero when he saved a World War II troop transport and finally how George got Clarence his angel wings by not committing suicide.
In the movie, the role of George Bailey was played by Jimmy Stewart. At the women’s club, it was Dan Drew, an actor and scenic designer from Newark.
“The world needs more George Baileys,” Drew said before the show. “He’s a person who would have all these things he wanted to do, but is repeatedly asked to do things for his community. He wants to do things that he thinks are critically important and he would have succeeded. But what he comes to find is that taking responsibility for his community is more important in the end. If someone else could have stood up to Potter, they would have. What George learns is that the riches he gains from his family and friends is so much more important.”
Drew said there are George Baileys everywhere — the people who volunteer or do community service.
“I think most of us want to be the person that George is,” he continued.
Drew recalled how when George and his bride, Mary, are about to embark on their honeymoon, there is a bank run and depositors flood Bailey’s Saving and
Loan to retrieve their money. But George is able to persuade most of them to withdraw less money.
“Because George is able to give up everything he has, the people start to think about the people caring for them,” Drew said. “What he finds is that he spent his entire life putting himself second, but when it was his time to be helped, everybody helped him back.”
People do not necessarily have an idea of what will make them happy, Drew said.
“That’s George at the beginning,” he said. “But his ultimate fulfilment is that he builds a family within a community. He’s not the only one. If you remove anyone from the community, it would be different. People often think the grass is so much greener someplace else. I grew up going to a church where my father was baptised and where my parents were married. My grandparents were part of the group that got the church, Our Lady of Good Council, built in the 50s. There was something about going to this church on Sundays with all these milestones.”
But the church merged with another church, stopped offering mass in English and lost its distinct character for him, he said, and so he stopped going to church there.
“I think we lose something if we don’t stick around,” Drew said.
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