Stage tech faced with task of building unique set for ‘Addams Family’

While Bearden’s musical theater class can be found running lines and learning musical numbers during fourth period each day, the third period stage tech class is busy creating their own type of music.

The whirring of drills and rhythmic beating of hammers heard in the auditorium belong to the set crew, who are at work to create an integral part of Bearden’s upcoming production of The Addams Family.

Stage Manager Andrew Granger explained that this year’s set is almost entirely different from the one created for last year’s show, Footloose, which takes place in the small town of Beaumont, Texas over the course of several weeks. The Addams Family takes place during the course of one evening at the Addams’s decrepit home in Central Park.

In order to illustrate the transition from various settings in Footloose such as the town’s high school, diner, and the character’s homes, stage tech was given the task of creating a large number of small pieces that could be moved easily.

Granger said that preparing the set design for The Addams Family includes bigger and more complicated pieces that remain on stage for a large portion of the show.

“There are a lot of weird angles, and it’s supposed to look goofy,” Granger said.

In contrast to previous shows, the setting for The Addams Family is also much different stylistically. The Addams’s home, one of the sets biggest elements, is intended to be a run-down, yellow mansion, featuring Gothic details. The set also includes a gloomier color scheme to mirror one of the prevailing themes of death.

“We haven’t painted a lot of the pieces, yet, but from the set designs, it is going to be dark,” crew member Edyn McCarty said. “All the stuff is a lot more abstract, and it looks off, because that’s how it’s supposed to be built – kind of weird and a mix between broken-down and as if the buildings were originally built wrong.”

McCarty said that this year they have also found a lighter alternative to the typical materials used to build sets pieces in past shows.  Green Styrofoam makes up a large percentage of the set’s elements, making it much easier to move the rolling pieces.

“I think that once we are rehearsing with the set, everything will come together well,” cast member Madison Foster said. “It will really allow for us to see the big picture.”