Director’s Thoughts:
Through The Addams Family, we have explored how characters develop through crises of identity. The characters meet upending challenge, and find themselves in deep despair - separated from the ones they love. Challenge is good, however. We learn that our old way of approaching the world or problems needs to change. We need to carry problems and terrible failure with grace and maintain an eye for creativity. We need to find our authentic selves, and stay true to integrity. We need to improve. Even the spirits of the ancestors cannot return home until the Beineke and Addams families find love again.
The Addams Family has been a fantastic lens for reconsidering how our society operates, from young to old perspectives, and from interior décor to social norms. Charles Addams has given us a family that is seemingly opposite from our own, in every way. This juxtaposition reveals the silliness of our culture. Our musical continues this tradition, but shows us how much we have in common with this family. We can’t get caught in the difficulty of our situation, or the raw feelings they create. We all must accept who we are - no matter how odd that may be – in order to have true love.
Thank you for supporting the arts in East Ramapo!
Steven Branford
