Behind the Scenes: The Addams Family

Kim Moriones and Alexa Esparza - April 29th, 2023

Behind the Scenes: The Addams Family Musical

Kim Moriones and Alexa Esparza

They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re altogether ooky, …it’s the Addams Family (the musical)! 

The Addams Family Musical was performed on the weekends of March 23rd and March 31st, 2023 at the Pioneer High School Theater. Audience members agreed that the musical was a scary good time, but does the cast agree? Lots of blood, sweat and tears were shed over the 11 weeks of rehearsals to make the show spine-chillingly spectacular. Pioneer Post Writers Kim Leah Moriones and Alexa Esparza should know—they have the bruises to prove it. Casted as the illustrious Morticia and super chic 1950s Ancestor respectively, both Kim and Alexa have a few insights to share about what it was like making The Addams Family Musical come to life! 

Auditions were held during the fall semester of 2022, starting with an initial pre-audition followed by official auditions. The waiting game was intense this time around, a rightfully placed postponement of the cast list bubbling anxiety for all those auditioning. Around the time before finals week, the cast list was finally released. From then on, the cast was set with the task of briefly looking over some lines over winter break in preparation to be officially part of the Addams family.

January 9th marked the first day of rehearsals for The Addams Family Musical. Introductions and theater rules were established early on as the cast did a cold read, the initial reading of a script aloud without prior prep, through the whole musical together for the first time. Soon after, cast members began to work on the blocking, or the specific placing of actors and props in a scene, and the choreographing process. And what a process it was. But we’ll boil it down to just our experiences for your convenience.

Thematically speaking, Morticia acts as the main antagonist, pressing both her husband, Gomez (Brady Stephens) and eldest daughter, Wednesday (Chloe Rogers) to reveal what they’ve been hiding behind her back. She even goes as far as to try to cancel the dinner Wednesday had planned for her new friend, Lukas Beineke (Stevie Carr) and his parents, which fails when Gomez takes their daughter’s side. Still, she places loyalty above all aspects of love and even sings about the unrelentingly cruel power a secret can have on a marriage. At dinner, all hell breaks loose as Alice (Moria Algren) reveals her true devastation about her marriage with Mal (Beck Simpson) followed quickly after with the reveal that Wednesday and Lucas are engaged, all unbeknownst to Morticia. It’s up to Gomez, who confides in his daughter’s secret of engagement, to keep his family together and fix his marriage.

Morticia Addams possessed Kim the moment she read the script. Her clever and determined attitude to maintain her marriage and family values was charming and crazy fun to play out. Kim somehow ended up method acting, or essentially becoming the character instead of simply acting like them, throughout the rehearsal period, encompassing Morticia’s commandeering concern to all members of the cast. Of course, she faced her fair share of struggles with her role throughout the production. 

With only a month of ballet experience in the 2nd grade under her belt, Kim knew that dancing was going to be the most difficult part for her. And funny enough, the first dance she learned was the most deliberate and difficult number: Tango de Amor. It’s this long, dramatic and almost silly dance where Morticia and Gomez rekindle their love for each other through their sharp head turns, smooth spinning around each other, and yes, even a mock bull fight. Learning and rehearsing the whole song took about six weeks to perfect, but the reward was immense when we performed it; the crowd roared with cheers as we finished in our final poses. 

This is also Kim’s first role as a major lead, so the sheer amount of dialogue was difficult to memorize, and even still, she practiced her lines backstage before her scenes. Remembering the order in which she has to say a line was pretty difficult, despite knowing her cues to say something. She avidly remembers the little slip ups in her performances, but confidence can disguise even the most obvious breaks in character, right? 

All in all, her experience working on the musical was exhilarating, and she often looked forward to going to rehearsals after school every day. The whole cast was wonderful to work with, along with their ever patient director, creative choreographers, and hard-working orchestra pit!

Of course, the Addams Ancestors played an essential role throughout the musical too. For the duration of the show, the Addams Ancestors aided in moving the plot forward. This included reacting to certain scenes and responding to lines from the leads, as well as dancing and singing with the rest of the cast. A total of eight actors made up the Addams family ancestors. The group of ancestors was formed by the graceful Rococo Ancestor (Daniela Quiros-Allen), fierce Caveman Ancestor (Teya Eynon), heart-broken Bride Ancestor (Genessa De La Torre), rhythmic Folklorico Dancer Ancestor (Lupe Bermudez), jazzy Flapper Ancestor (Giselle Ritchie), worry-free 1950’s Ancestor (Alexa Esparza), free-spirited Cowboy Ancestor (Irie Carr), and the chivalrous Groom Ancestor (Mila Heflin). 

During the show, the ancestors, like the rest of the family, have to come to terms with and accept the fact that Wednesday wants to marry Lucas Beineke, a boy who could not differ more from the Addams family and their peculiar nature. Toward the beginning of the musical, the ancestors begrudgingly helped prepare to welcome Lucas Beineke and his parents into the Addams family home, but as the musical progresses the ancestors slowly warm up to the Beineke family and become more willing to help Wednesday and Lucas get their parents’ blessings. 

It was very entertaining and enjoyable to be an ancestor, the reason being that they were a type of comedic relief at some points and at other points they were key in bringing the two families together and helping lead the protagonists toward their character growth. Some of the more memorable scenes included the the one where Morticia and the ancestors do a dance number to teach Alice Beineke the importance of honesty in a marriage, as well as the Tango de Amor, where the ancestors danced with Morticia and Gomez so the couple could reignite their love. Of course, who could forget the lovely dance by the Moon (Lupe Bermudez), Fester Addams (Chloe Quirroz) and the ancestor group?

Although for the most part Alexa’s 1950’s ancestor did not have many lines, she still found it difficult at times to be a part of the musical’s cast. As it was her first musical, Alexa had an entire world of new experiences while working with the cast to bring The Addams Family Musical off the page and make it shine like it deserved. For instance, it took some time to memorize important cues, like when to come onstage, when to begin dance numbers, and when to start singing in order to create mind-blowing harmonies. Of course, learning choreography was no easy feat either, especially since Alexa has virtually no background in dance. Additionally, one of the hardest scenes for Alexa was the scene where Wednesday was explaining how she was torn between her family and her fiancé. The reason why it was difficult was because throughout Wednesday’s song, there were many emotions she had to display, including confusion, concern, and a healthy amount of understanding. 

Like all other cast members, Alexa did grow to love some scenes over others. Surprisingly, she quite enjoyed the dance numbers and looked forward to scenes where she had a chance to dance. One of her favorite dances happened to be the Tango de Amor, which, ironically, was arguably the most difficult dance of the show. The entire dance radiated confidence, control, and precision. 

All in all, Alexa had no idea what she was getting herself into when she spontaneously decided to audition for the musical, but it was a unique, wonderful experience. She learned so much about the world of theatre and being a performer, as well as making friends within the cast. Alexa found herself eager to attend rehearsals to make progress toward the final shows. She definitely would not exchange her awe-inspiring experience for the world. 

With our own individual experiences laid bare, let’s move onto every theater kid’s worst nightmare: Tech Week.

Tech Week starts the week of the musical’s opening night. Standard tech week planning is simply to go through the whole musical. But it’s anything but simple; it’s the combination of every scene in order, with makeup, costumes, props, sets, lighting, and music, and it all has to be on time. That’s why we practice the same thing over and over for a whole week right before opening night so the audience can have the best experience possible. 

Tech week was an experience to say the least. Our first straight through run of the musical with the orchestra pit went as normal as you would think. Just imagine all the missed cues and errors in transitions and you got yourself a decent first night of hell. Everyone practices their missed parts for the next day so we can do better — except we don’t have a day two. A storm rushed in, tackling power lines as the cast was suddenly shrouded in a darkness only the real Addams family would find comforting. We, however, got a little too excited about the power outage, hoping, as the cast told spooky stories in the dark on stage, that the power would miraculously switch on. But it was only after we were dismissed and left that the power went back on in the theater, and thus, we lost a precious day of rehearsal. We had to push harder to perfect as much as we could in the following two days before opening night. Those days we finally added makeup and assigned more specific tasks and placements of props and set pieces on top of final orchestral touches. But it was all that work that was worth it in the end!

Fun Facts about the Addams Family Cast!

1. The cast’s musical talent shone not only onstage, but in the dressing rooms as well! The cast had a great time doing a pre-show karaoke in the dressing rooms while preparing for the amazing show ahead. 

2. There were a lot of costume changes throughout the rehearsal process. Originally, the 1950’s Ancestor was supposed to be a Victorian Ancestor! Likewise, the Folklorico Ancestor (Lupe Bermudez)’s first idea for their character was a Mariachi Ancestor.

3. Often, cast members would mime current scenes backstage when they were bored and waiting to go back onstage

4. A beloved pre-show tradition was to play the “Pass the Pulse” game, where players would close their eyes, hold hands and wait for their hand to be given a reassuring squeeze so they could pass it on to the next person.

5. During intermission, Morticia and the ancestors would practice the lift that took place during one of the dances in Act II.

6. The bird used in Wednesday’s “Pulled” was actually a cleverly and beautifully disguised mini Nerf gun made by the incredible Props Master Beck Simpson. 

7. The white face paint was the fastest to run out because of the ghostly look the ancestors and Lurch were trying to achieve.

8. A popular pastime within the cast was to play cards before shows.

9. Seniors got a “Senior Night” on the Closing Night of the show. They were surprised with gift baskets and in turn they surprised the rest of the cast with happy-sad tears (that some other cast members couldn’t help but mirror).

To finish off our lengthy article, we got in touch with a few of our cast members and asked them some quick questions about their experiences in the musical!

Question: What was the most difficult part of being in the musical?

Answers:

Talise Enyon (Grandma Addams)

Definitely memorizing lines. Reading isn’t their favorite hobby.

Stevie Carr (Lucas Beineke) 

Having to stay after school hours later for rehearsals. The amount of sleep they lost was devastating. 

Holly Kerr (Pugsley Addams)

Cues! From lines to sets and dance cues. Styling her hair was hard, too.

Question: How does performing feel? What is your favorite part of performing?

Talise

Performing was nerve-wracking but super awesome when the audience laughed. They enjoy the attention! 

Stevie 

They love listening to the crowd react to what’s happening on stage. Their favorite part was when scenes would flow smoothly!

Holly

She feels good when the crowd reacts and laughs when she performs. Her favorite part was personalizing and experimenting with her character!

Question: What’s your favorite memory from rehearsals or performing?

Talise

They’re very proud of their painting of the bones in the fireplace the most! They also fondly remember the card games backstage when there was free time during rehearsals.

Stevie

Their favorite part was when every night before the curtains opened, everyone would dance along to the Opening Overture, snapping to the music and dancing in place or backstage.

Holly 

She loved making mini vlogs, playing the pass the pulse game before shows, the encouraging speeches about how incredible we’ve made the musical before the show, and making inside jokes with the cast!

Any final thoughts about the musical in general?

Talise

They really enjoyed this cast and loved being in the musical this year since they couldn’t do it their freshman or sophomore year.

Stevie

They can’t wait for the songs to stop popping in their head everyday. They’re looking forward to next year’s musical!

Holly

This was a good first musical for her! She’s going to miss this cast.