There are a plethora of decisions that go into choosing a play to produce. As a production team, we have many discussions concerning the choices. Content - light, heavy, familiar? Technical requirements - too easy, too hard, just right? Costumes - what can we find, beg, borrow, or rent? Talent - do we have an idea of who may audition and who will not? So when the decision to produce The Addams Family in the middle of restrictive pandemic measures, it both seemed like a strange yet appropriate choice. In a way, both the time in which we find ourselves and the themes of the play, are complimentary. And as I have directed this musical, as often happens, I have found myself making new and unexpected discoveries. Beyond the kooky and spooky, The Addams Family musical is a production about love, life, death, and family. What better subject matter can so accurately capture what has been the hardest, most challenging year of our lives? It is through love, in the most unexpected ways, that we have been able to continue to work, play, laugh, and understand. It is in the tenacity of living that we have been able to continue and persevere. We acknowledge, and respect those who we have lost. And above all, we have had to stick together, no matter what your family looks like. I have a loving, wonderful, supportive family. I am grateful for all of the blessings we have received. I am grateful that we have been able to help each other make it through a very difficult year. I love my family. However, I have another family. It’s true. They are a little weird. They sometimes press every single one of my buttons. They make me laugh. And we often take on enormous challenges that at first seem utterly impossible and yet we make it to the moon. My Drama Club family is just as meaningful. Just as special as my “normal family,” but don’t we all need to also belong to a family that’s kooky, spooky, and definitely all together, ooky.
