This Christmas season, audiences can head back in time to 1940s New York City with Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre’s production of Miracle on 34th Street. The script is adapted from the Oscar-winning 1947 Christmas film about a department-store Santa.
Miracle is staged as if it were a real 1940s radio-play broadcast, complete with live audience. Actors are in period costume, using 1940s-style microphones, surrounded by décor from the era. The set is minimal, and there is no blocking; actors stand in front of their microphones, script in hand, during the entire play.
“Radio scripts are much more like film scripts than stage plays,” says Blue Bridge producing artistic director Brian Richmond, who is directing and acting in Miracle. “There really are no limits where you can go in a radio play. They can go as far as the imagination can go.”
The pre-production for a radio play is very different than for a conventional stage play. Richmond says they only rehearse for a day and a half.
“We assemble all the actors together and go through the beats, make sure we have the casting right,” he says. “Then we make sure everyone has the right microphone, and that’s it. It has a very improvisational feel.”
One unique aspect of a radio play is the foley artist, who creates sound effects in front of the audience’s eyes. “He’ll do anything from walking in snow to slamming a fridge door to children crying,” says Richmond. “Sometimes it’s really unusual how he does it; sometimes it’s not the real item that makes the sound. It’s always fascinating watching him.”
Richmond adds that there is also an on-stage musician who “does all the ‘dun dun dun’s – tension beats, plus whatever else is required. Generally the music is used as transitions between scenes.”
Blue Bridge’s radio plays appeal to a wide audience, from the over-60 crowd who grew up listening to them, to young adults for whom a radio play is a novel experience.
“You can see the art of illusion being created in front of you,” says Richmond. “You can sit there and watch the actors perform it like you would watch a conventional play. Or you can close your eyes and listen to them as if you were listening to the radio. Both ways are enjoyable.”
Miracle on 34th Street
December 14-18
Crystal Ballroom, Empress Hotel, $15-35
bluebridgetheatre.ca