This year’s operetta is going to be a little creepy and kooky.
Sequim High School Operetta Club and Ghostlight Productions partner to stage “The Addams Family” musical May 2-11 in the high school auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave., highlighting the first and second weekends of the Sequim Irrigation Festival.
“A good way to put this show is that it’s not so dark you won’t sleep at night, but it’s the Addams Family we know,” said Emma Gilliam, who plays the Addams’ daughter, Wednesday.
Organizers say it’s the first time the popular musical has run on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Shows start at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4, 9-11, and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 5, in the Sequim High School Auditorium, 533 N. Sequim Ave., with tickets at the door, or in advance at sequimschools.org.
Tickets are $17, and $12 for ASB, and students 12 and under. A costume contest is open to ticket-goers at the May 5 show.
Cast members said the pandemic canceled plans for the show in 2020, but knowing that it didn’t happen put it back on students’ radar for this year, Gilliam said.
She said before deciding on a show, the Operetta Club weighs the size of the cast needed and their potential target demographic.
“The Addams Family is a nice in-between because a lot of teenagers know [the show] ‘Wednesday’ and Jenna Ortega’s interpretation of that character, and a lot of people grew up with the 1960 shows, and now even the cartoon movies I know my sister has watched,” Gilliam said.
In the musical, Wednesday, now a young adult, has fallen in love with a “normal boy” named Lucas (played by Hayden Rayburn), and she and her father Gomez (Ozzie Hernandez) tries to keep the news from her mother Morticia (Ava Fuller).
“It’s so fun seeing the two different worlds collide — a normal family comes into this crazy house with a big tall man who just grunts and doesn’t talk,” said Fuller, a Sequim High senior who performs in her first operetta since she was an elementary student.
“It’s fun to see the contrast of the characters. (The Addams’) are all obsessed with death and darkness and there’s a scene where I freak out because Wednesday wears yellow.”
Hernandez, also a Sequim High senior, performs on stage for the first time as Gomez, a role he sought after serving as stage crew in two previous Sequim High shows this school year.
“Just seeing everyone clap for the lead lit a fire under me,” he said. “I want to try it for myself.
“Being stage crew, I really enjoyed it and I thought, ‘What the heck, why not try out for the operetta?’”
Appearing in “The Addams Family” feels easy and comes naturally to him, Hernandez said, because it’s his kind of humor.
“I’m really excited to do it,” he said. “It’s going to be a whole experience and everyone is going to be impressed with the show.”
The music
Cast and crew say the music is fun, modern and complicated with a lot of key changes.
“You think you know where the music is gonna go and then it completely switches up, which matches the (the family and show) really well,” Fuller said.
She said listening to Morticia’s song “Just around the Corner” before auditions sold her on trying out.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I want to do that so bad,’” Fuller said.
“Three days before auditions, I prepared the song, and went for it.”
She describes it as a jazzy, fun song with a dark tint as “it’s about being excited to die, which is very in line with the Addams Family.”
Gilliam said the songs are fun to hear and sing, with one of her favorites being “Crazier than You.”
For Hernandez, he loves “Full Disclosure,” a piece that has Gomez giddy and singing with cast members who share revealing details about themselves.
While it’s Hernandez’s first show, he said his time in band and choir have helped ease into theater along with help from cast mates.
His favorite part of the operetta has been how welcoming and supportive everyone has been.
So far, Hernandez has learned to “just lay back and enjoy the ride, and that it’s OK to come out of your shell.”
Operetta legacy
“The Addams Family” is part of the 129th Sequim Irrigation Festival that runs May 3-11.
Cast members know of the tradition and popularity of the operetta and what it means to the school and community.
“I did three operetta shows as an elementary schooler and before I did my first one, I went and watched older kids on the stage with feeling like I want to be up there,” Fuller said.
“It’s really cool to be a senior and getting to be on the stage … I’m so grateful I got a lead role in my senior year and to go out at the operetta.”
Gilliam said it’s heartening that attendees come out to support students and see cast and crew wanting to express themselves through theater.
“It’s gonna be a great show, with an amazing, super talented cast, awesome set, and it’s a chance for the community to come together and support the high school and share in this thing we’ve created,” she said.
Hernandez agreed.
“If you wanna laugh and have a great evening, then you should come,” he said.
Anna Pederson directs the show with Mark Lorentzen serving as music director as a partnership between Sequim High School and Ghostlight Productions.
‘The Addams Family’ musical
Sequim High School Operetta directed by Anna Pederson, music direction by Mark Lorentzen
When: 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, May 2-4, 9-11; 2 p.m. Sunday, May 5
Where: Sequim High School, 533 N. Sequim Ave.
Tickets: $17, and $12 for ASB; at sequimschools.org, or at the door
May 5 Costume contest: Attendees are invited to dress either as their favorite Addams Family character or in the style of the Addams family; bonus points awarded to groups with a coordinating costumes, with a fashion show and prizes awarded at intermission
Photo courtesy Ghostlight Productions/ Ava Fuller, playing Morticia, said her song “Just around the Corner” before auditions sold her on trying out for “The Addams Family” musical. It runs at Sequim High May 2-11.
