The Theatre Arts department has been preparing since November to perform a spin-off version of The Addams Family from January 18^th through the 22^nd. Opening night, the musical set the bar high, receiving their first standing ovation of the weekend.

“I thought they did a great job. The singing, dancing, and acting was all on point. It was the best high school drama performance I’ve ever been to,” audience member Perri Chavez said.

All of the students who were involved put in a lot of effort to make sure the show went as planned.

“This performance was very much student-led. Ryan [Esparza] was a student leader with the choreography and the kids all really respected and worked well with one another,” Drama teacher Tina Domino said.

The show didn’t completely mirror the original Addams Family. They added a sense of humor and emotion to make it more entertaining.

“It has all of the good elements of a show. It’s funny, but it also has its serious moments that make you tear up a little bit. There’s dancing and singing and just all of the things that make a good fun show,” junior Julia Harter, who played Morticia Addams, said.

When preparing for the show the actors and actresses faced the challenge of getting into the right mindset of their character.

“I’ve played lead roles, but I’ve never played a leading man type. Overall, it’s been a challenge for all of us to be 100 percent into our characters,” senior Ryan Esparza, who played Gomez Addams, said.

Along with that, there was also quite a bit of romance onstage that required a lot of extra practice for everybody to be comfortable with it.

“We have a lot of relationships onstage and we worked really hard to build all of those up. It was difficult at first, but I think we did a really good job with it,” Harter said.

In the end, the participants overcame these difficulties and managed to become very close to their characters.

“It was difficult to create a character that people could recognize, and stay true to the story. But I really worked hard on Fester to make sure that the performance was really legit,” senior Donnie Gully, who played Fester Addams, said.

The students chosen for the lead roles kept a very humble attitude throughout rehearsals and performances.

“It feels good to be Wednesday, but it also doesn’t feel like a major part only because of how unified it is. Every single person, even if they’re not mentioned or shown, has a major part. If we didn’t have one piece of the puzzle, it wouldn’t be complete,” junior Bryndal Braithwaite, who played, Wednesday Addams said.