It's a Wonderful Life

I once interned at a regional theatre that put on a holiday show every year. That year was It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. The next show in January was One Night in Miami... by Kemp Powers.

One morning, before It’s A Wonderful Life had begun previews, I noticed that a sign featuring One Night in Miami... had a typo, reading: One Night in Miam…

I laughed to myself and thought nothing a bit of white-out can’t fix, after all the typo was really just a line and a couple of dots! “Such a clever intern” they’d say!

At this theatre we were fortunate enough to have a graphics department. I walked into their office and a little too gleefully said “One Night in MiAM?” (regretfully I think I even used jazz hands.) Suddenly our editor, Maggie, put her head down on her desk and moaned.

I sheepishly lowered my jazz hands and asked what was wrong. Maggie whipped out a copy of the program for It’s A Wonderful Life. “Notice anything?” She mumbled from the desk.

I stared at it, turning through page by page, but I didn’t see anything wrong. The other team members in the room were silent and stared gloomily at me.

“I don’t notice anything...” I said.

Maggie lifted up her head and frowned.

“It’s a WondeR-UL Life?”

The front cover of the program was missing the F in wonderful.

I don’t know how many programs had been printed but it was in the hundreds at least. We laugh about it now, but that was the last time I “announced” any typos!

- Annie

Baltimore, MD