Heather Latter
Fort High and Rainy River High School joined together to produce this year’s radio play, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which will be broadcast on B•93.1 The Border later this month.
“Fort Frances High School drama students formed a partnership with 93.1 The Border radio station last year to do ‘A Christmas Carol,’” noted drama teacher Katherine Williams, who taught at Fort High last year but now teaches at RRHS.
“We were so successful, and it was such a wonderful experience, that this year I decided to have the students at Rainy River High School involved, as well, to give the students an opportunity to work together with youth from each end of the district,” she noted.
Williams said they chose “It’s a Wonderful Life” because it is a radio play that’s performed quite frequently.
“It’s a Christmas mainstay,” Williams enthused about the story that tells of a man who eventually learns how many lives he has changed and impacted, and how they would be different if he was never there.
“People gather around their houses to watch that movie and it’s also very popular to be done as a radio show,” she added.
“So because we were able to get the rights for it, we decided to go with that one.
“It’s also a lot of fun and it has quite an interesting, eclectic group of people, so we thought it would be a good match for us,” she reasoned.
Williams, who is using the radio play as a class assignment for her six drama students, joined forces with Fort High drama teacher Dany Michaud, who put out the call to students here.
With nine students on board from Fort High, the teachers assigned roles.
“We knew we didn’t want a huge cast,” Williams explained. “We wanted to work with a strong, core group of students because with the radio show, there are a bunch of minor parts.
“We didn’t want to cast a role for someone who only had one line,” she stressed.
“This way, we are able to give good, juicy parts to everybody.”
Victoria Lindal, a Grade 11 student at RRHS, landed the role of “Mary Hatch.”
“I enjoyed reading that part,” she remarked. “I read it clearly and I asked if I could do that.”
Evan Caul, a Grade 12 student at Fort High, admitted he had hoped to be cast as the main character, “George.”
“[But] I got the role of ‘Mr. Potter’ and the announcer,” he noted.
“So when I went home that night, I started to read the script for those two parts and I found I was more of a ‘Mr. Potter’ than ‘George.’”
The pair both have acting experience, with Lindal being in RRHS productions of “Oliver Twist” and “Treasure Island” while Caul recently starring as the “Mad Hatter” in “Alice@Wonderland” here last month.
But both also noted recording a radio play is a little bit different.
“You still have to use facial expression because that helps bring it out in your voice,” Caul explained.
“It’s a lot more voice and less actions and moving around.”
“You do a little bit of motion acting for yourself, but you really want to make sure your voice is clear,” echoed Lindal, noting a radio play also does not require the cast to memorize the lines.
“We have our scripts,” Caul said. “You just need to memorize how you’re going to say it.
“You just need to develop more of a character.”
“And I like that,” said Lindal.
“I almost feel like I’m focusing more on my lines than the character when I’m trying to memorize, so it’s really interesting to be able to focus on the character more.”
Williams agreed that developing the character is important.
“You have to explain that you are entertaining with your voice,” she noted about directing the students.
“It helps to understand the characters, to understand their feelings and emotions, so they can incorporate that into their voices.
“We had a little bit of work to do to explain to them to analyze the scenarios and situations, and how would someone be talking at that moment—would they be frantic, would they be sad?” Williams added.
“We really had to get them to think a lot about their character—just like you would in a drama performance—but explaining that even though it’s being done on the radio where people can’t see them, [the audience needs to] understand through the way they express themselves, through their voice, what is going on.”
After the radio play was cast, the Fort High students travelled to Rainy River for a rehearsal day.
“They worked together for the entire day, and we discussed the roles and ran it as a true rehearsal,” Williams recalled.
She added FFHS teacher Robroy Donaldson, who is assisting with the recording and editing, brought along microphones so the students were able to practice with them.
“He taped them talking so they were able to hear the difference in how they said things,” Williams noted.
“Even talking into a mic, for example, gives so many different effects,” she remarked. “So they were able to understand how to use the mics to their advantage.”
Then last Thursday, the RRHS students travelled to Fort High for the recording session on the Townshend Theatre stage.
“All we had to do [was] go over a couple of minor details,” Williams said, noting both groups had been rehearsing at their respective schools.
“So fine-tuning that became easy and then we put it all together.”
Williams stressed maintaining the energy level was critical because they were trying to do so much in such a short period of time.
“We just did multiple takes,” she explained.
“Now when you’re editing, you’re taking the best of one situation and matching it up the best of another situation, and hopefully it splices altogether to make this wonderful product.”
Williams added the students learned a lot.
“For instance, when you do something on radio or even television, the process involved in it is quite lengthy,” she remarked.
Lindal said she learned about working together, especially with people she didn’t know.
“A lot of us only met at the first rehearsal and now that we are here recording, everyone is getting along great,” she enthused.
“It’s good because if you want to do this in the real world, you don’t usually know the people you are working with.”
Both she and Caul said they’re excited to hear the final product.
“I’m excited but nervous,” she admitted.
“I had a few parts I thought I could have done better, but I think it’s going well.”
Caul, who is planning to major in theatrical arts studies next year, said he enjoyed the experience.
“It’s great to get as much experience in different kinds of acting as you can,” he reasoned.
“I like that we’re bringing the schools together because Rainy River doesn’t get a lot of experiences like this,” Lindal added.
“I think that it’s great.”
Williams said they’re now working on editing the recording and they hope to have it finalized by Friday.
“Then the idea is it will get played on 93.1 The Border over the Christmas holidays,” she noted, adding she thinks they have it scheduled for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Williams expects it will run about an hour to an hour-and-a-half long.
“We just hope it will bring families together so they can enjoy the moment, just like they used to do when families would gather around the radio,” she said.
