Last year, Mingus students were gearing up for the school’s spring musical, “Shrek,” when the pandemic hit and school closed down for the rest of the semester. The school’s theater troupe, A Troupe of Ridiculous Thespians, hoped to hold a makeup performance in July, but it was not meant to be.
A year later, with the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic beginning to decline in the United States, the Mingus theater program is planning a triumphant return, with their spring musical, “The Addams Family,” premiering on Friday, May 7 at the school’s theater.
“It’s a big relief that we’re able to do this kind of thing because we’ve all missed it so much,” Charlie Greene, who plays pallid matriarch Morticia Addams, said. “It’s been a year since we’ve done a musical at least. So we’re so appreciative of it.”
The musical tells the tale of the famous macabre creations of Charles Addams, a close-knit family living in a gothic mansion who love torture and party with the undead and other monsters. In the musical, Wednesday Addams brings her new, “normal” boyfriend, Lucas Beineke to meet her parents, and hilarity ensues. According to Mingus Theater Director James Ball, it was the family aspect of the show that made him choose this musical as the return for ATORT.
“For me, the overall message of the show, about sticking together to get through change, is pretty much the epitome of the last year for a lot of us,” Ball said. “Having a show that has a lot of heart, and focus on togetherness — it’s why we do theater. It’s creating a family within ourselves.”
For Greene, along with her co-star Jarrett Moncibaez, who plays patriarch Gomez Addams, the core of the show is about creating that sense of togetherness. Even if the Addamses may be horrifying, they are still a family, and that is the feeling that the leads say is most important to them in portraying their parts.
“In this show, Gomez really has to step up and be a dad,” Moncibaez said. “I think of things that my dad does for me, how he cares for me, and how he treats me, and I have that feeling. I put it into my head when I play Gomez and transfer it on to the stage.”
With the actors providing that sense of realism to the show, so much of what makes The Addams Family unique comes from the elaborate hair, makeup and costumes that each of them are outfitted in. Lauren Gesell, a senior at Mingus, has been working in theater tech for years, but this time she has taken up charge of the hair and makeup department, tasked with turning high schoolers into ghouls, corpses, and other crazy characters.
“I really wanted to put more character into it,” Gesell said. “Some of the actors will have prosthetics. The flight attendant died in a plane crash, so she has this prosthetic where her whole face will be blown up. All of the actors [playing the undead] have this little sheet that they filled out with ‘How did you die?’ So I’m doing their makeup based on how they died. It gives them a little more character so they’re not just back- ground pieces.”
For Lazor Lanson, who plays Lucas, the show becomes a challenge of how to play a normal person in this gothic horror tableau of the Addams. He sees it as a chance for his character to step out of the ordinary, just as the audience does watching the show.
“Neither one is normal,” Lanson said of his character. “To the Addams family, I’m very odd. And to my family Wednesday is very odd, so it’s sort of them coming to terms with the other.”
After a year of COVID difficulties, the Mingus musical will still not be quite back to ordinary. Masks will be required for the audience, and the theater will be kept at half capacity. Seats will be set up so that there are at least two seats between any group of attendees to allow for some social distancing in the theater as well. Sedona Media Services is planning to set up for a 6-camera high definition livestream as well, so those who do not yet feel comfort- able returning to large live events will be able to watch from home.
Ball hopes that despite the restrictions, just being able to put on a show will allow some sense of normalcy to return, especially for students who have missed so many opportunities like this over the last year.
“We’ve never been able to say we sold out, so hopefully with a 50% we can say we sold out a performance,” Ball said. “If there were 20 people in the audience, giving them a chance to perform for any audience, [the kids would be happy to perform].
They’re ready for it, they’re hungry for it, it’s what they’ve been missing. Just being able to perform in front of anybody is what we’re looking forward to.”
The Addams Family will be premiering on Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m., with additional performances at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 8, Saturday and Sunday May 14 and 15, as well as matinee performances on Sundays, May 9 and 16 at 3 p.m. All six performances will be live-streamed. Tickets can be bought online at mingusperformingarts.com, in person at the MUHS Bookstore, and by phone at 649- 4466. In-person tickets are $12 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $8 for students and children, all are $3 more if bought at the door. Livestream tickets cost $10 for an individual or $30 for a family pass.
