Gulf Islands Secondary School’s Grade 10 drama class has spent the fall semester working hard on their production of The Addams Family, which opens at ArtSpring next week.
The new musical comedy that is ideal for all ages runs Thursday and Friday, Jan. 6-7 at 7:30 p.m., and on Saturday, Jan. 8 at 2 p.m.
People may remember The Addams Family TV show that ran from 1964 and 1966, which was based on ghoulish characters created by New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams. The musical comedy being undertaken by GISS students also includes a “normal” family called the Beinekes. Dynamic tension results when Wednesday Addams and Lucas Beineke fall in love and want to marry each other, and Wednesday needs a meeting of the two families to go off without a disaster.
“They come over and Wednesday wants just this one normal night, with no weird Addams family things. But it doesn’t quite happen that way,” said student Dash DeBruin as part of an interview with the Driftwood before the Christmas holiday break.
“We’ve got two families who are complete opposites,” explains student Killian Irsch. “On the one hand, you have the Addams, who are a very eccentric, very dark family . . . And on the other hand, you’ve got the Beineke family from Ohio, which I am a part of. They are the perpetuated stereotypical American-dream family.”
One of the interesting things is that secrets are never kept between Addams family members, but Wednesday asks her father Gomez to keep her marriage plans secret.
“I think it’s a really entertaining show to watch,” said student Abby Zacharias, who has also done the play’s choreography, adding that even though it has strong themes of family, love and authenticity, “It is definitely just created for entertainment.”
The students were happy with how the show was progressing.
“It’s all coming together now,” said Nuala Stafford. “You can really see it with the set and the props and from being in the play. Now, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this is actually happening, and it helps us visualize it more, so I think that’s pretty awesome.”
While both the weather and rising regional COVID cases are potential causes for concern that the show could be cancelled or postponed, as the Driftwood went to press on Dec. 28 it was still slated to run.
Tickets are available only through ArtSpring.