VOORHEESVILLE — The Classic Theater Guild will offer a one-time performance of It’s a Wonderful Life at the Voorheesville Performing Arts Center in December, after a two-week run at Proctors in Schenectady.

“It’s got a bit of a cult phenomenon about it,” said producer Ed Bablin. “The characters are so endearing.”

The Classic Theater Guild is known locally for its summer performances at Indian Ladder Farms.

“We’ve been doing outdoor children’s theater, and the Voorheesville Community and School Foundation has underwritten that,” Bablin said.

“The VCSF supports the CTG for its ability to offer the opportunity for local residents to participate in summer theater — especially youth — and because the performances are free and attract a large audience,” said VCSF board member Nancy Rucks.

For the show on Saturday, Dec. 20, the guild will help the VCSF support the local schools.

“It’s more of a community event than an actual fundraiser,” Rucks  said. “This is a very low-cost thing.”

Tickets for the sole 3 p.m. show are $5 per adult, with a $2 discount for seniors, and $2 for children and students. Local elementary, middle school, and high school clubs will run concessions “so they can make money, too,” Rucks said. The high school’s jazz band and choir may perform before the show and during intermission, she said. Any funds made from the show, after paying for the guild’s set-moving fees and show royalties, will be donated by the VCSF.

“We’ll put it back into the school’s theater group,” Rucks said.

Wonderful holiday show

“This is our 11^thChristmas show we’ve done,” Bablin said of the guild. The December performance in Voorheesville will be the guild’s first at the school’s performing arts center.

The show includes a cast of 22 actors.

“This is an amateur, volunteer theater group,” Bablin said. Each actor, however, brings nuances to the characters they portray, he said, and each live performance is different.

“It’s a great show,” Bablin said. “It’s a fun thing to do, as people remember it from their childhoods. It’s a wonderful script.”

The book, by James W. Rodgers, is based on the Frank Capra film that made the story famous.  Capra’s movie, with James Stewart and Donna Reed, was, in turn, based on the story, “The Greatest Gift,” by Philip Van Doren, published in 1943.

“The script, of course, is different from the movie,” Bablin said. “The script begins with George at the bridge.”

In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey contemplates jumping off a bridge after both his dreams and his reality seem to have failed. George is saved by an angel who shows him how bad life would be for others if George had never been born.

“It’s a very interesting beginning,” Bablin said of the script. In the film, the story begins in the stars as the angel, Clarence, gets his saving orders.

“You’ll see the stars,” Bablin said. “We do have stars.”

“For me, the highlights of the show are the children,” said the show’s director, Peggi Perrone. “We were very fortunate to find seven extremely talented and charming children. They will melt hearts. They will be appearing in multiple scenes as the Bailey children.” Perrone said that the children also perform as unscripted characters, acting out events from George Bailey's childhood.

“The audience can…look forward to lots of Christmas music, humor, and riveting emotional performances by the adult actors,” Perrone said.

The guild has been rehearsing since Oct. 1, Bablin said, and its cast will be in the Schenectady holiday parade this Saturday, Nov. 22. The event marks a billing for the cast where an estimated 40,000 people in the largest nighttime parade in the Northeast will see them. The cast members range in age from 7 to 60. 

For the Voorheesville performance, the VCSF board is underwriting the cost of moving an interesting set, complete with stars.

“It’s a beautiful adaptation of a Christmas classic,” Bablin said. “It’s a nice holiday fun, feel-good show.”