Have you ever watched the movie It’s A Wonderful Life? It’s a classic Christmas movie from 1946 that remains a hit today, which is why New Providence High School has chosen it for its 2025 Fall Play. The play, taking place in November, is not a traditional remake of the movie but rather done as a radio play, which means, as opposed to previous fall plays where the audience is used to scene changes, this will be primarily one set with frequent cast changes.
“It’s a holiday story, so, it’s been a long time since we’ve done anything related to the holiday,” Craig Duke, the director of the play, said.
“We pushed the play back a little bit closer, like another week or so, back in November,” Duke said, so that the play will be closer to the holidays than in years prior.
The plot of the play is about a man named George Bailey, played by Carsten Lepre in the play, a man who contemplates suicide after a financial blunder on Christmas Eve. The film is told through flashbacks of his life including his youth, failed aspirations, and family life, and finally losing $8,000 in a mishap. Before he can kill himself, he is visited by an angel who shows him an alternate reality of his life. After seeing this, George realizes his friends and family have rallied to his aid and do care about him.
“It’s the realization that he has friends and family throughout his life because he’s such a good guy,” Duke said.
“The emotional aspect of it is something we really want to play into, because I think that’s what people take away from the movie. You know, they love the feeling that they get and the emotions and stuff that they share in the movie.”
The play has 12 cast members, with all but the leads–Carsten Lepre (George), Sarah Anglin (Mary), and Maddie Yadlon (Clara the Angel) — playing multiple roles. This is because the play is set as a radio play, meaning it’s easier for actors to play multiple roles since they can voice multiple characters.
Because the original movie is so well known, it provides a strong starting point for the actors to make choices about their characters, but Lepre stressed how important it is to “also take your own path.”
“You kind of have to create a little bit of a backstory yourself. I mean, to just understand the story better,” said Lepre.
Lepre is equally impressed with the rest of the cast. Of Yadlon’s Clara, he said “Even though the angel’s 200 years old, it’s like this waiting to get their wings kind of inexperienced, but like a kind of fun loving angel.”
Come see It’s a Wonderful Life on Friday November 21 at 7:30 pm, or Saturday, November 22 at 2 pm or 7:30 pm.