Lyric Stage Performs The Addams Family
From choreography to team chemistry, the production displays months of work and collaboration.
Over Halloween weekend, Lyric Stage, Mississippi College’s musical theater and opera company, performed The Addams Family Musical at the Aven Fine Arts Building.
“The Addams Family is a fun story, and everyone’s familiar with the older TV show and the different cartoon movies that have been out,” Jamie Ertle, the Lyric Stage and Addams Family Musical director, said.
The Addams Family was a TV series based on Charles Addams’ one-panel cartoons in The New Yorker. It aired on ABC from 1964 to 1966. The show tells the story of the creepy and kooky Addams Family – father Gomez, mother Morticia, daughter Wednesday, son Pugsley, Uncle Fester, and butler Lurch – who navigate life among normal people. The Addams Family Musical (2010), which features music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, dives deeper into Wednesday’s life and love affair with Lucas Beineke, a boy from a seemingly normal Ohio family.
“We’ve got this classic Gothic idea going on, as far as aesthetic,” Ertle said. “Then, we’ve got all these characters that are out of this world and over the top, which exists within that. So, there’s not much grounding in reality. It’s a fantasy world that is anchored by some of these elements of traditional American Gothic aesthetic and then a little bit of ’90s grunge thrown in there as a nod to the ’90s movie.”
Ertle’s vision for the production is to bring a classic story to life for college students. “The show ‘Wednesday’ was really popular, and I also really like that show,” she said. “In this musical, Wednesday is a college-age girl, so we get to see her from that perspective, which is fun for college-age students.”
Ainsley Marler, a senior voice performance major at MC and fourth-year Lyric Stage member, will take on the lead role of Wednesday Addams. The rest of the cast includes Abigail Young as Morticia Addams, Slade Haney as Gomez Addams, Charity Johnston as Pugsley, Joshua Burdeaux as Uncle Fester, Tyler Shinholt as Lucas Beineke, Peyton Parker as Lurch, and Ella Goodeen and Rourke Gearing as Lucas’ sisters Alice and Mal Beineke.
“It’s just been a fantastic group to work with,” Marler, the actress portraying Wednesday, said. “Everybody’s been so kind to each other. We’ve all gelled really well; it just came naturally.”
The actress said that building close bonds between cast members was a highlight of the season. “I think the audience will enjoy seeing our chemistry as much as we’ve enjoyed interacting with each other,” Gooden, a junior music education major who plays Alice Beineke, said. “Not that we haven’t in the past, but it just feels different.”
The cast has practiced three days a week for up to four hours a day, leading up to the weekend performance. The team practiced in the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall and is led by director Jamie Ertle, choreographer Erin Zanza, and stage manager Julia Struble.
At the beginning of the year, the cast focused on music, shifted into blocking, then into learning choreography, finally they focused on full dress rehearsals, combining all the elements.
The show’s choreography was created by Zanza, who studied dance at Southern Mississippi University. “When thinking of the Addams Family, what comes to mind is the drooped, Gothic-esque characters, but at the same time, this musical is full of life, and the characters are hysterical,” she said. “It’s comedy from start to finish, even though half the characters in the play are ghosts. So, it’s been a challenge creating movement that looks lively for dead people.”
Although few cast members came in with prior dance experience, they’ve embraced learning Zanza’s wide range of styles, including ballet, classic theater jazz, tap and even tango. “There’s a good bit of everything, even a couple tricks here and there that some students are pulling out,” Zanza said. “They’ve all just jumped in and tried to learn as much as they can and not worried about being embarrassed.”
Other departments have helped with bringing this production to life. “Dr. Everett (MC Director of Choral Activities) has done the vocal stuff, and then Mr. Kemp’s the music director,” Burdeaux, a junior music education major who plays Fester, said. “I feel like everybody’s putting in so much effort that it’s just knitting into a really good show.”
Ertle and Zanza have also enjoyed seeing students from majors other than theater and music help with the production by building props, designing promotional posters, and painting sets.
With all their work, the Addams Family cast aims to create a heartwarming experience. “I hope the audience gets the main message of the show, which is ‘family is family,’” Marler said. “There’s a motif in the opening number – a line that goes, ‘It’s family first and family last and family by and by.’ And I love that because it starts with just the Addams, but then Lucas and his family come along. It takes a little bit, but Wednesday’s love for him bleeds over into the rest of the family, and she helps them get along. And it’s just a beautiful thing to me.”
For the Addams Family production team, Lyric Stage has become a second family, and they hope to share the beauty of family with their audience. “I’ve gotten to form some really fun relationships with students that aren’t in my department,” Zanza said. “I really enjoyed getting to know them and seeing them thrive in their element and support them the best I can.”
 | A guest post by
|