It’s five minutes until the curtains rise for “The Addams Family Musical” and the cast of 13 just finished warming up. They now begin a UPrep theater tradition: the pre-show huddle and chant.
Clustered together and starting with a whisper, they begin the chant. They repeat it multiple times while increasing in volume until the energy of their voices fills the dance room.
Now excited, energized, and more connected than ever, the actors run up the stairs to their places for the packed house of “Addams Family Musical.” Performances ran on Nov. 20, Nov. 21 and Nov. 22; Each show had audience members filling nearly every seat in Founders Hall.
The show focused on Wednesday Addams’ budding, yet hidden, engagement with Lucas Beineke, a very regular boy from Ohio, and the subsequent dinner party where the families meet. Through hidden secrets, relationships across both families are tested, strengthened and changed.
Senior Katya Messerly came to see the show.
“I loved how each actor fully embodied or fully embraced their kind of character personalities, and the use of accents was very spot on and creative,” Messerly said. “My favorite part of the show would have to be anytime Gomez (played by Mac Chandler) cracked a joke. I thought that was hilarious.”
According to junior Eleena Bhalla, who played Alice, the audience really makes a difference when performing.
“The minute we got like a live audience actually laughing at our jokes, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, wait, this is going kind of well’,” Bhalla said. “So if we get a really excited audience, our performance will be better because we’ll be feeding off of that energy.”
Junior Eloise Hamilton played Wednesday Addams and was excited for the musical due to student input in the spring. She wasn’t expecting to play Wednesday coming into the first class.
“At first, I didn’t know exactly what to do with the character,” Hamilton said. “I think it just became easier over time to figure that out. No matter what your role was, you got a lot of good time on stage with everyone.”
Upper school theater teacher Abby Nathan saw the progress students made leading up to the shows.
“I think people forget it’s run by students. It’s acted by students. The set is built by students. We do everything; everything is student-led,” Nathan said. “It’s really amazing what we’re able to do in such a short amount of time.”
Over the summer Nathan had blocked the musical so that when the semester began, the cast could move quickly.
“It was kind of crazy,” Bhalla said. “We auditioned in the second week of school, so it was really straight in. But it was fun because it was a tiny cast…especially compared to past shows, we had a very tight knit group.”
Ultimately, Bhalla’s favorite part of the UPrep theater community is the people.
“I feel like this cast was just so nice and it was so much fun to just spend time together,” Bhalla said. “Also the fact that we just really committed ourselves to [the show]. It was just a really magical experience, because we all just got to know each other really well by the end.”
Senior Corey Streat, who passed away in Oct. was a part of the Stagecraft class and an active member of the theater department.
“I’m just super proud of this cast. I couldn’t have asked for a better cast and crew. I adore everyone,” Nathan said. “Thank you all for coming and supporting these amazing kids, and we dedicate the show to Corey Street, who we love and miss very much.”