Cast and crew make ‘The Addams Family’ a success
March 28, 2023
Green Hope Theater Company’s “The Addams Family” was revealed to the public this past weekend. The comedic musical brought friends and family together featuring beloved characters known from childhood.
Since the story has many renditions, the actors had a plethora of options to portray their roles. Teacher and director Mr. Peter Comperatore spoke about utilizing this opportunity to instill creativity within the play.
“What is unique about ‘The Addams Family’ is that they are portrayed by so many different actors in a lot of different mediums, so there are a wide variety of interpretations of each character. We were able to study and look at all the different ways each character is interpreted throughout the years and find where each actor wanted to take their character,” he said.
Under Mr. Comperatore’s guidance, this year’s production emphasized physicality to “create broad and bold characters through their bodies.” The essence of each character was ultimately up to the actor after studying past interpretations of the play.
Lead actress Shreya Ravi (‘24), who played the character Wednesday, said, “I kind of chose to incorporate all [interpretations] since she goes from the classic deadpan to the outgoing more childish interpretation from older times.”
Similarly, inspirations from both past and present versions of the play were weaved throughout the costume production.
Costume Director Lauren Nesbit (‘23) said, “What’s special about it [this year’s wardrobe] is that we’ve been using a lot of historical costumes because the entire ensemble is supposed to be ancestors and people from the past… We had to pull from many different time periods in order to convey that.” Costumes featured pirates, mimes, and even brides across many historical eras.
Mr. Comperatore credited the musical’s success to company members like Nesbit and Ravi. Uncle Fester’s love affair with the moon, Pugsley’s childish jealousy, Lurch’s expressive grunts, intimate moments and the twisted humor “The Addams Family” is known for were brilliantly conveyed through the talented musical performers.
