On November 15th and 16th, the Salida High School put on a production of The Addams Family. It was heavily requested from many people, and all three shows sold out. The students worked hard during the 14 week process to put on an amazing show.
In the musical, Wednesday Addams, the daughter of Morticia and Gomez Addams, has a secret. She’s engaged! Early into the show, Gomez is told not to tell his wife but of course Morticia knows something is going on so at the dinner with Wednesday’s fiancé and his family, she forces them into playing The Game. The Game that keeps no secret untold.
The director of the play, Andre Wilkins, hopes to create a welcoming space that works hard while they develop the musical, “I think the number one thing is to get everybody on the same page with the same goal. And I think the goal is to have a great show. But our goal and our, you know, the attitude that I like to instill is we’re there to elevate each other.”
Wilkins also wishes to curate camaraderie within the community. “We have really awesome student leaders so rarely did I have to say, you know, they know the expectations, you know don’t go to McDonalds at 4:30 when you know rehearsal starts at 4:10. And it was really cool to see. I’m sure the underclassmen and new people hated being talked to that way by the upperclassmen, but I hope the product we ended up with shows like, the upperclassmen have the life experience to know the work it takes to put on a quality show.”
Wilkins comments on how students who weren’t friends at the start of the year were getting lunch together by the end of the year, displaying how theater can bring people together.
The hard work that students put into the show means they come out of the production with significant growth from day one to the closing show. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it,” Wilkins says. He tells about how hard work pays off.
“She’s just always been so iconic, I’ve just always loved her,” Reese Daughtery, a senior at Salida High School who played Morticia Addams says about her character. “Morticia is more deep and dark and almost villainous,” she says.
When speaking about her character, Daughtery says: “She’s definitely her own person. I appreciate her values, what she values in her family, her love for her husband and her children, but I think she puts herself first.”
The Addams Family is definitely a production Salida won’t forget for a while, especially not with how nearly the whole town came, selling the show out thrice over.