Two hours before their first live performance of the comedy, “The Addams Family,” Perquimans County High School students were roaming the stage and aisles of the school auditorium assembling props, applying makeup and assisting one another with costumes.
Grace Jones, the high school’s theater teacher, said participation in “The Addams Family,” which students performed at the school on March 27-28, was very good.
“There are 40 students involved and that includes students working backstage and those performing on stage,” she said. “Some are new to theater and some returned after participating in other plays.”
Jones said students with all sorts of interests signed up to participate in “The Addams Family.”
“Kids from all different classes, not just those taking my theater classes every day, are involved,” Jones said. “It’s good to bring them all together — band students, math students, athletes are involved in this one.”
“The Addams Family” is based on the 1964 NBC comedy of the same name, which was one of the network’s last black-and-white television shows. The show’s storyline was centered around a husband and wife with two children who kept unusual pets, had weird hobbies and outfitted their home with gothic decor. Years of TV syndication kept the show’s slightly spooky characters and the show’s clever theme song relevant for decades.
“The Addams Family” hit the big screen in 1991 as a Hollywood movie and that was followed by a 2010 Broadway musical.
Jones said some of her students are more aware of “The Addams Family” because of the recent Netflix series, “Wednesday,” which gets its name from the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams, the parents in the original TV show.
“Some have been watching nonstop since we decided on this play,” Jones said of “Wednesday.” “A handful of them have seen live theater before. For probably half of them this is an introduction to theater.”
Jedediah Ray, a senior at the high school, said he’s performed in every school play since his sophomore year. Back in sixth grade, he didn’t give much thought to acting. But he’s since changed his mind, he said.
“It helps you find out you who you are. It helps you build your personality,” he said of theater. “It’s an open and friendly environment — the been the best thing that has happened to me at the school.”
Ray said if he’s not on stage, he likes working backstage.
“If I’m not acting, I am helping out with prop crew and moving things on stage,” he said. “I like seeing the mistakes, seeing how actors react to the mistakes, and improve from them. You get a type of emotion from live theater that you don’t get with movies.”
Kendra Graham, a junior at PCHS, is participating in her fourth school play. This time she is an intern assisting the technical theater class.
By working behind the scenes, Graham said she’s learned a lot about the great effort that goes into making sure the cast has the right number of microphones and that the right characters, wearing the right costumes, get into the right scenes.
She’s not planning a career in theater, but she does plan to stay involved in some way.
“I definitely see myself being involved in college and community theater in the future,” she said. “It’s great place to be and connect with people.”
Graham said she recalls how “terrified” she was before she walked on stage for the first time. But then she walked on stage for a scene with a friend and “I immediately relaxed and went along with the scene.”
“Since I took the jump to try out out theater I haven’t regretted it,” she continued. “I didn’t know I loved it until I did it.”
Jones said students participating in live theater learn “so much more” than just the basics of putting on a play.
“They are learning and developing important skills that are useful outside of theater, like public speaking; how to be comfortable in front of other people which helps with job interviews they will face later in life,” she said.
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