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Gulf Breeze High School Play Part Of State Competition

  Gulf Breeze High School Drama will perform a production of the new Broadway musical comedy Addams Family the Musical on Friday, September 26, 7:30 p.m. at the Pensacola Saenger Theatre. It’s a one-night only performance that’s part of a state competition.

The play is based on the Addams Family TV show, which originally aired in the 1960’s. Addams Family the Musical opened on Broadway in 2010 and now it’s a production of Gulf Breeze High School Drama…initially performed last spring.

First of all it’s a great show. It’s very funny, has great music and we’ll have a live five-piece band with the show,” says Carolyn McConnell-Reeder, President of the Gulf Breeze High School Drama Boosters.

The plot is that Wednesday gets a boyfriend, who is normal. And, she wants her family to be normal for them to come to dinner. So, they have an evening together and I think they find out that although the Addams family is quite eccentric, a little eccentricity is good for everyone.”

The cast is much the same as it was in May, with David Carbaugh in the role of Gomez, Maggie Renfroe as Morticia, and Mattie Mateer  as Wednesday. For this latest production, Austin Rothfeder has the role of Uncle Fester.

Gulf Breeze High School officials are hoping for a big crowd for this performance of Addams Family the Musical, directed by Margie Timmons. A larger audience will generate more money to help the school pay for rental of the Saenger and will make the night extra special for the student actors, who know that a panel of state judges will be in the audience.

Gulf Breeze HS Drama is competing with this play, referred to as a “Main Stage” production. The students and staff are hoping Addams Family the Musical will be one of about a dozen high school plays chosen to perform at the state competition called the Florida Thespian Festival, which is set for March 2015.

From those plays, two cast members, likely from the same production, will be chosen to travel to New York to represent Florida in a national competition for a scholarship to New York University.

McConnell-Reeder says based on the track record of the high school’s drama department, expectations are high.

They have done very well. They’ve won at the very highest levels before. We’re very fortunate to have Margie Timmons, who’s been there for 33 years now. She’s taught Ashley Brown and Abby Spencer, who are probably the most well-known, but so many more who’ve done so much with what she’s taught them,” she says.

Ashley Brown is best known for playing the title character in the United States national tour and Broadway productions of Mary Poppins. Abigail Spencer is best known for her performances in the films Cowboys & Aliens, Oz the Great and Powerful, and This is Where I Leave You. She's also appeared in a number of television series including Mad Men, Hawthorne, and Suits

Addams Family the Musical –a one-night only performance by Gulf Breeze High School Drama is Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Pensacola Saenger Theatre. Tickets are available at the Saenger Theatre Box Office, 850-595-3880.

 

Sandra Averhart has been News Director at WUWF since 1996. Her first job in broadcasting was with (then) Pensacola radio station WOWW107-FM, where she worked 11 years. Sandra, who is a native of Pensacola, earned her B.S. in Communication from Florida State University.