For those on the Vineyard who have witnessed the past two summer productions from the PigPen Theatre Company you know what it means to be completely transported, body and soul, to, without gilding the lily one bit, a place of imagination so powerful adults have been known to become toddlers on the spot: mute, with finger outstretched and prone to falling down in fits of giggles and wonderment. Kids, well, they simply become transfixed, the feeling so strong they refuse to watch television for weeks afterwards. It just doesn’t compare.

Silent Film Celebrates Silent Film Era

The Artist is a movie that celebrates the silent film era even as it tells the story of its decline. The focus is on two stars of that era, an aging male lead and a rising actress, just as the medium is about to change and talkies become all the rage.

It’s A Wonderful Life, for anyone who has accidentally missed the 20th century, was originally a 1946 movie directed by Frank Capra starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. This weekend, the Vineyard Playhouse is rebooting the story as a radio drama written by Phillip Grecian, the kind where the audience is stationed in front of a clutter of equipment and watches while a character actor takes out a stick of gum and chomps on it, and the sound guy hits the glockenspiel.