STEVENS POINT, Wisconsin– Despite it being a chilly Saturday afternoon, you are immediately engulfed in warmth as you step into the building. Hit first with the mouth-watering smell of popcorn, you get your ticket (and a friendly smile) and enter the auditorium. The lights are dim, and you’re on the edge of your seat as you prepare for the opening scene. The alluring melody coming from the SPASH band plays from somewhere you cannot see, and it seems to wrap all around you like a cozy scarf. You’re nearly sucked into the experience when all of a sudden– a hand is produced from between the stark red curtains, snapping the theme song that we all know and love, “The Addams Family”. The audience is immediately enthralled, snapping along and whooping excitedly. The adults are transformed into eager children at the sight of the terrifyingly accurate Addams family, the children themselves staring in wonder at each face of the revealed cast. Despite the shuffling of popcorn bags and anxious children in their seats, your eyes are trained where the floodlight is— directly in the center. You settle in for the play, totally unprepared (but just as elated) for what is yet to come.
While that may be a teensy bit over the top, it’s not by much. I sat down on Saturday afternoon with limited expectations– after all, it is a school play, and the cast was not afforded months and months to prepare for it as they are in all those massive Broadway shows. Over the course of those two hours, though, my expectations were not only met, but exceeded generously.
The Addams Family, as you may have guessed, was a SPASH Musical Theater production between Thursday October 30th and Saturday November 1st. The background of this creepy-cool story was best explained in the playbook, reading, “THE ADDAMS FAMILY, a comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and a dilemma that’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family– a man her parents have never met.” The play, an adaptation of the classic Addams family, leads us through the story not only of Wednesday and her new boyfriend, but each of the unique and personal relationships between the couples. Throughout the play, there were the moral dilemmas many face in everyday life– the struggles of honesty, love, companionship, and the navigation through the hardships of life. If Mrs. Mercer, the leading director and coordinator, had the plan of conveying these messages across the audience with relatable, intimate, but still absolutely hilarious lines, then I’d say she well past succeeded.
The exploration of the themes was something I enjoyed extensively. When Wednesday decides she and her boyfriend, Lucas, are going to get married, she confides in her father and makes him promise to keep the secret from her mother. Gomez is distraught at the idea of hiding something from his wife, and has to face the choice between keeping his daughter’s secret to please her, or betraying her in order to please his wife. Not only were Wednesday’s relationship troubles a major point in the play, but the bond between Morticia (played by Aurora Guidroz), and her devoted husband Gomez (played by Jacob Cortez) was strengthened, as well as the prominent rediscoverance of her boyfriend’s parents’ relationship that had been slowly falling apart. Each scene was a new, relatable problem that had no choice but to draw the audience in, keeping them in suspense for the entirety of the show. The interactions between the cast also played a major role in the intensity of the messages. I think if the cast members were not so familiar with each other, the whole thing would have felt really forced and uncomfortable, compared to the natural friendship and banter they shared on stage.
As soon as I saw the cast, I knew they were the perfect match for their roles. The subjective star of the show, Wednesday Addams, played by senior August Duran, had an exceptionally convincing poker face (as does the real Wednesday Addams) and delivered the lines in an intense, but still alarmingly funny, fashion. Her new lover Lucas, played by Calvin Margelofsky, was just as well fit for his role as she was hers. They had incredible chemistry, sang duets like they were made for them, and overall looked exactly how I’d envisioned they would look when reading the synopsis. There is simply no time to address each hard-working individual in the play, as my respect and amazement for each one of them would take up the entire article. Instead, I thought I’d provide the most significant (in my opinion) pieces, and the things I was particularly impressed about.
First and foremost, the set design. If you had the privilege of seeing the Addams family house set, you understand how impressive it was. With only a month to prepare for this, these hardworking people put together a set with a dark red wall, stairs on either side, a beautiful array of creepy plants and furniture, clad with golden picture frames of “deceased ancestors”. This “gothic mansion brought to life”, as described by our very own Austin Slack (Uncle Fester), was beyond impressive, not to mention functional!
Another factor that made the play feel much more personal was the transitions, with respect to both the cast and the band. The transition between lines and songs felt natural and unrushed, impressively so. The band knew all of their cues and the cast members were able to switch between talking and singing without skipping a beat. The transition between scenes was relatively seamless as well, the young actors working quickly to get the props in place. The props were well-made and creative, especially the crowd favorite that was introduced when Lucas’ father, Mel, and Gomez had first met— the chair with a spike that shot up from the seat when a lever was pulled.
Each piece of the story worked so well individually, and still came together so well as a whole. The best way I can explain this is with the idea that the major characters had subplots of their own, as in Wednesday and Lucas’ relationship and Mal and Alice’s, but the two entirely separate pieces of the story were able to come together to sing a song like “Crazier Than You” in Act two. This song was incredible and so passionate, featuring both duos on either side of the stage looking into each other’s eyes and singing the song from their own wildly different points of view (which was why this was one of my favorites).
The main thing that made this play what it was is the commentary. Any time Gomez or Morticia would land a joke, the entire audience would laugh along animatedly. The jokes were well timed and well written, and though I don’t claim to be an expert on comedy, some things are just objectively funny. The part I thought was the funniest was that many of the comments were mature in nature (take the scene of Gomez announcing “she’s got legs!” when unzipping his wife’s dress for example) and yet the kids in the crowd were laughing their heads off.
The thing I liked the best, though, was the performance of Uncle Fester. While his last name is Slack, he certainly was not slacking in any part of his performance or his help in the production of this play (see what I did there?). Luckily enough I was able to ask Austin a few questions to know how he got so good at what he does— and seriously, he’s good at what he does. Austin, who has been in theater production since 2021 in the play Willy Wonka, has acted or helped in the production of an astonishing over 20 plays around Stevens Point. Acting is in every part of Austin’s life, from school, to extracurriculars (he’s an elected board member for cwACT, the local community theater), to his plans after school of becoming an English/Drama teacher.
Originally, Austin was hoping for the role of Gomez after previewing some of the songs dedicated to that part. When preparing, he chose the song, “It’s Not About Me” from The Prom, and a 1-minute clip of a John Mulaney monologue. “Looking back,” Austin states, “I’m glad I got Fester, because Jacob Cortez, who played Gomez, was absolutely phenomenal and I feel Fester better suited me than Gomez ever could” (Slack 2025). Along with being humble, he’s got his tactics down to a T when it comes to getting into a role. To prepare, he first mastered the voice— after that, the rest sort of seems to fall into place. To master the character himself, Austin used a combination of Kevin Chamberlin’s performance on this very musical, Christopher Lloyd’s performance in 90s movies, and pieces of his own personality to shape who Fester was and who he wanted to be.
Uncle Fester had his own special love story throughout the play— he was in love with the moon. This subplot was especially interesting to me, because in my opinion, Fester professing his love for the moon was the event that set all of the relationships back in order, not to mention it was pretty wholesome. Austin’s favorite songs were “The Moon and Me”, his big number, and “Waiting”, a song performed by Lucas’ mother Alice after she is accidentally given a potion to confess her deepest secrets. Choreographed by Austin himself, Alice walked the dining room table, singing a deeply heartfelt song about the downfall of time and stress on marriages— how she wished things would go back to the way they were.
Not all of the production was as simple as singing a song, though. When the role of Fester was written, it was meant for aforementioned Kevin Chamberlin (Betram, in Jessie), who had a larger vocal range due to his opera experience. When singing “One Normal Night”, a song near the beginning of the play, Austin was tasked with singing a belt-level note, one that he says he felt “completely broke his vocal chords” (Slack). Though I felt he sung it beautifully, he wished he would have saved his voice for later, rather than straining it so hard at the beginning, which is understandable.
It’s easy to undercomplicate a school play. I admit to being a skeptic at first myself, because there is always overconfidence when seeing a task you think feels easy. After watching and seeing what being in a play is like, and potentially how draining it can be, I have nothing but respect for the hardworking cast and crew of this year’s production. Aside from the obvious message this play conveyed, I think the major takeaway I had as I left the theater was the idea that there may be bumps in the road, but nothing is really as serious as you make of it, and that in itself puts the mind at ease.
