The Addams Family

Evan was in last year's production of The Wizard of Oz at our local high school (in the lollipop guild) and absolutely loved the experience. He has always had an interest in theatre, music, and dance. Last fall he decided he wanted to learn the technical side of it and was on the crew in the middle school production of Frozen Jr. I get to hear him sing all the time at home and in the car, and know he can project like it's nobody's business. But, he's 11, and he is discerning about what he wants to dive into. When we heard the high school was doing The Addams Family musical and the role of Pugsley would be a middle school role, I asked him if he wanted to audition and he jumped at the chance.

The day came and he auditioned and we were told that we'd hear about callbacks within a day. When we didn't hear anything he was disappointed but we assumed the role had been filled by someone else. I walked into a PTA meeting later that week and someone came up to me and said "congrats to Evan!" Apparently they had just announced the cast list and Evan had gotten the role of Pugsley! It was double cast with another boy at his school so they each had three performances. I came home and showed him the email and he was absolutely over the moon excited.

The NA Theatre (and neighboring Floyd Central) program is really amazing. We are extremely lucky to be in a part of the country that is a hot spot for theatre arts. Internationally recognized and award-winning theatre at the high school level. Evan has thrived in it and learned so much. He put his whole heart into this role and he shined on that stage. It takes guts to perform in front of people, but to sing a solo, on stage by yourself with the spotlight on you? Belting it out? I was (and am) so proud of him.























Sarah Gettelfinger, who played the role of Morticia in the Broadway tour, came to help coach the students during tech week and see the first performances. Amazing.



Evan loves his theatre family so much.











We were so excited and thankful that our families came to support Evan too. It turned out this was really our last best memory before entering the reality of social distancing under the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as I write this we are still in it. I'll write about that separately, but I'm so happy we (and more importantly, Evan) got to experience this and live out the hard work put in to bring this show to the stage.