The production has become part of traditional viewing during the Christmas season.
The cast of about 40 young thespians will take to the stage for performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 13 and 2 p.m. Dec. 14 at Stepinac’s Major Bowes Auditorium, 950 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains.
Written by James W. Rodgers, "A Wonderful Life" centers on George Bailey, a man who has given up on his dreams in order to help others and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, who shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.
Bailey will be played by John Guaragna of Yonkers and the role of Odbody will be performed by Andrew Leonforte of the Bronx. Both are Stepinac seniors. Joining them, respectively, in lead and second lead roles will be Christine Turturro of Croton-on-Hudson, a senior at Croton Harmon High School, who will perform the character of Mary Hatch, and Pauline Ciavolino of Scarsdale, a junior at Maria Regina High School, who will play Violet Peterson.
Last spring, Turturro won a Metropolitan High School Theater (Metro) Award for her leading role in Stepinac’s musical production of Disney’s "Mary Poppins" while faculty members Frank Portanova and Chloe Sasson captured Metros, respectively, for best director and musical director.
Tickets for It’s A Wonderful Life are $20 for adults and $15 for senior citizens and children under 12 and can be purchased by calling (914) 946-4800 ext. 200.
For more information, visit www.stepinac.org, email theatre@stepinac.org or visit the Stepinac Drama Club's Facebook page.
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