A NOTE FROM DIRECTOR CHARLOTTE PETERS & JULIA GRIFFIN SAGOIAN

 

It’s the first Saturday in December, and we are back at the Cornish Playhouse, making our annual trip to Bedford Falls.

 

We do this play every year. Every year, we tell the same story - and every year, the current moment informs its meaning. When we first meet George Bailey at the bridge rail, we see someone broken by circumstance. Someone who put aside their desires, dreams and ambitions to do the right thing - and for what? To be confronted with how little any of it mattered. It is easy for us, now, to connect with George in this moment. We have spent the last two years doing what’s right - we wear our masks, we stay distanced, we have gotten our first, second, third vaccines. And for what? The pandemic rages on, compounding economic instability and political unrest; no ‘return to normal,’ let alone possibility for improvement. All that work and sacrifice, and what good was it?

 

But despite everything, it’s the first Saturday in December, and we are back at the Cornish Playhouse, making our annual trip to Bedford Falls.

 

Last year, we performed this play over Zoom, with our actors in their homes, alone with their cameras. We couldn’t be together. It doesn’t feel like much has changed between then and now. We can’t be with you. But our cast is onstage, several of them performing in person for the first time in nearly two years. George stays home, and by doing so, Bedford Falls is saved. They aren’t able to see it, of course, not until Clarence shows them the way. We might not see how every action we’ve taken - to take care of ourselves, to take care of each other - has had any impact.But it has. You’ve stayed home, and by doing so, we can be back onstage for a night.

 

Hello, from Bedford Falls. Merry Christmas.