By Olivia Decker

Assistant Editor-in-Chief

Blue Springs South theatre students will be performing “The Addams Family” on February 5, 6, and 7 at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center with a Saturday matinee on the 5th. Tickets will cost $7 in advance and $10 at the door.

“The Addams Family” is a musical featuring members of the infamous Addams family meeting Wednesday’s new normal boyfriend, Lucas Beineke and his parents, Mal and Alice. Senior Chris Bueno was cast in the role of Gomez Addams, Wednesday’s father. Bueno says that he is excited to play a unique character like Gomez.

“He’s a very eccentric guy who really cares about his family, and because of that he kind of gets caught up in trying to please everyone,” Bueno said.

Bueno thinks South students will enjoy “The Addams Family” because “it’s got a really cute kind of dark sense of humor to it that a lot of students would find very charming.”

Senior Connor Uptegrove, starring as Lucas Beineke, describes his character as a “hipster college guy who is in love with Gomez’s daughter Wednesday.” Uptegrove hopes to continue acting after high school, and starring in “The Addams Family” will give him more experience for his future in the performing arts.

“Since this is what I want to do professionally and in college, [The Addams Family] is really good training for that.” Uptegrove said.

The character of Alice Beineke, Lucas’s mother, will be played by senior Baylor Massey. Massey sees Alice as “very interesting,” “not really like the other Beinekes,” and “kind of odd”.

“I’ve never gotten to play a character this out of whack before, so it’s more challenging to play that part because I’m not anything like her at all, so it’s fun to get to be kind of crazy.” Massey said.

Massey is excited for “The Addams Family” and believes that students will enjoy watching it.

“The musical is really fun this year; there’s a lot of really good costumes, and visually it will be really fun to watch. The chorus is amazing, their dance numbers are really fun. I think [South students] will really enjoy the storyline since the characters are just really odd.” Massey says.

Behind the scenes, more work goes into producing the musical than one might think; the cast and crew of The Addams Family work extremely hard to make the show a success and put a lot of hours into what they do. Junior Holly Neece is a member of the crew and will be working with the soundboard for the show. Neece explains that the participants in the musical have been hard at work for quite a while.

“We’ve been going since the first day back this semester and we also did about two or three weeks last semester doing stage design and set building.” Neece said.

Actors and stage crew alike work extremely hard to make the show a success. Bueno shared what has presented the most difficulties for him during the rehearsals for “The Addams Family”:

“The most challenging part would probably be trying to play the characters full out, one hundred percent every time you go through because you want to practice as hard as you’re going to perform.”

All of the hard work and long hours of preparation helps form close bonds between the performers and stage crew, and Bueno says that this is his favorite part about being in the musical.

“My favorite part is everyone there is really cool, so it’s really nice have all those people around and just hanging out and doing what we love.” Bueno said.