California State University East Bay
Cast+members+rehearse+for+%E2%80%9CIt%E2%80%99s+a+Wonderful+Life%E2%80%9D+at+CSUEB+last+week.

Courtesy | Carlos Aguirre

Cast members rehearse for “It’s a Wonderful Life” at CSUEB last week.

It’s a Wonderful Life to hit East Bay theater

December 10, 2014

In the spirit of the holidays, the theater and dance department will perform “It’s a Wonderful Life,” directed by Carlos Aguirre, who has been with the California State University, East Bay Theatre and Dance department for three years.

The 1946 classic is centered on George Bailey, a man living in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, who gives up his dreams to help others in his community. With some angelic interference, he shows what the town and those living in it would have been like had he not helped his friends and neighbors.
Aguirre has been professionally involved with the theater for more than fifteen years. He attended Santa Fe University of Art and Design and his theater debut began in fifth grade when he wrote a screenplay about cops and robbers.

“I got into debating first and I realized what I love about debates is the drama of arguing,” said Aguirre. “The drama of that was entertaining to me. So I channeled that and figured out what I wanted to do. And I started off doing a lot of acting.”

The production will be portrayed as a live radio play version but Aguirre made a few minor changes to it: the heavenly entities in the story will be portrayed as females. He also made some changes that suited his personality. Aguirre is a beat boxer and he wanted to change the music element in the production to include hip-hop and jazz.

“That’s where I’ve taken it into a different direction,” Aguirre said on the subject of the music element of the play. “Because I’ve done that, I think it’s affected how the actors are doing their work and the way the design is. And I think that’s good.”

“I did a bit of hip-hop,” he further stated, “but it’s mainly done in a jazz/doo-wop style. I’ve done that element and with live vocal sound effects as opposed to having people who mimic the sounds of a door closing, wind blowing, etc. which is how it is traditionally done in a 1940’s broadcast style.”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is Aguirre’s directorial debut at CSUEB. On choosing the cast, Aguirre listened for earnest voice talent. And for Blake Weaver it came naturally.

Weaver, who will be playing the lead role of George Bailey, also starred as the main antagonist for the fall production of Tartuffe. He is a second year theater and dance major at CSUEB.

“We’re doing a lot of the sound effects as if it were a radio play with our voice,” Weaver said. “We did a lot of vocal work and we learned a couple of beat boxing techniques to further our knowledge on the vocal aspect of the show.”

“It’s a Wonderful Life” will have performances in the University Theatre on Dec. 12 and 13 with 8 p.m. showings and Dec. 14 with a 2 p.m. showing.

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