Meet The Addams Family: Top Row is Raina Evans (Lurch), Middle Row is Alannah McLean (Uncle Fester) and Grace Gocher (Grandma Addams) and Bottom Row is Ella Murray (Wednesday Addams), Scout Brandes (Morticia Addams), Joshua Lewis (Gomez Addams) and Ella Chitaphong (Pugsley Addams). Photo provided by Jason Ford
You can meet the quirkiest family ever if you attend a performance of Wheatland-Chili High School’s production of The Addams Family: The Musical this weekend.
Yep, those lovable characters of Gomez, Morticia, Fester, et al will be brought to life by 19 Middle and High School students, helped by 10 crew members. Two more students will be in the orchestra. The Addams Family will be performed at 5 p.m. on March 24 (with a block of tickets reserved for senior citizens), at 7 p.m. on March 25 and at 7 p.m. on March 26 at the Wheatland-Chili Middle School/High School Auditorium, 940 North Road in Scottsville. Coopervision is the presenting sponsor of the show.
The cast members are Joshua Lewis (Gomez Addams), Scout Brandes (Morticia Addams), Alannah McLean (Uncle Fester), Grace Gocher (Grandma), Ella Murray (Wednesday Addams), Ella Chitaphong (Pugsley Addams), Raina Evans (Lurch), Joey Everts (Lucas Beineke), Bella Hall (Alice Beineke), Angelo “AJ” Iannucci (Mal Beineke) and Audrey Cullum, Kira DeBruyne, Tera Milazzo, Katalina Monnat, Payton Pope, Madyson Sebastian, Katie Smith, Paige Smith and Just’hana Yawn-Gordon (all of them as The Addams Ancestors). The youngest member of the cast is a seventh-grader.
This will be the first time that the school has performed a live show in front of a live audience in threee years. W-C’s students were heading into their tech week and were less than one week from opening Sister Act when COVID shut down the schools and forced remote learning in 2020. In 2021, the students performed Working as a virtual performance with the kids all masked and the performance recorded in an empty auditorium. People were able to see the performance by buying a viewing code.
“That was fine for last year and we dedicated the performance to frontline workers, but the kids are excited to be back,” artistic director Jason Ford said during a phone interview earlier this week.
They certainly are.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” said Lewis, a senior, in a text message that Ford shared with The Sentinel. “It’s given me a feeling of purpose and something to look forward to, and it’s been such a magical experience to work with the people I consider to be part of my family to make a show for people to enjoy.”
The excitement is also bittersweet for the seniors involved with the show. There are 10 seniors in the cast, two in the orchestra and one on the stage crew.
“I’d say it’s very rewarding to be able to share all of our hard work with a live audience again,” Murray wrote in a text message that Ford also shared with The Sentinel. “It’s also very bittersweet because there are so many seniors in the cast and it will be our last time on stage together.”
Ford chose the show, admittedly one of those on his bucket list, because of its themes of acceptance, family and forgiveness. He also wanted a show that was family-friendly and wanted to bring humor back after two difficult years dealing with the pandemic.
“It’s one of the top shows that is performed by high schools and I felt it fit with this group,” he said.
Ford announced the show to the drama club members around Halloween and auditions were held just before Thanksgiving. Rehearsals have been going on five days a week since January.
While some might consider having just three boys in the cast to be a challenge with girls playing three roles that are normally performed by boys, Ford said that you just change the mindset and go with who would make the character come to life.
“We just looked at who would embody the character. I think some kids are struggling in coming back and finding their comfort level that they had pre-pandemic,” he said.
COVID also has thrown some challenges at the students. Although students were masked when rehearsals began in January, the omicron wave that washed over the area affected students in the show and forced lots of adjustments to the rehearsal schedule. Once that wave subsided, things have gone much smoother.
“There’s been a shift in the dynamics,” Ford said. “When we started planning, the students knew that they would have to be masked. The kids rehearsed with the masks on until the mandate ended early this month and seeing the facial expressions is a surreal feeling, but it is so rewarding.”
While the virtual show kept theatre alive last year for the students, Ford said that the kids yearn to perform for a live audience again.
“It feels great to be back on stage,” McLean wrote in a text message that Ford shared with the newspaper. “I forgot how it felt being able to perform live. When it truly hit that we were going to be able to have a show this year, I felt overall just super excited for people to see us back and better than ever.”
Tickets are $10 and are available at the door or can be purchased in advance at Showtix4u.com.
