Addams Family School Production
Creative Arts present the 2025 Production of The Addams Family
Last week the CAPA faculty put on a special event, the Addams Family Musical of 2025. The first performance was a Matinee on Wednesday to an eager Year 7 audience, followed by evening performances on Thursday and Friday night. The audience laughed, cried and were occasionally spooked by the members of the Addams family. We had a HUGE audience, especially on the Friday night of over 300 people. A huge congratulations to all students involved in the production: cast, chorus, band, backstage, set design, lighting, and makeup. The CAPA team are so proud of all students involved and the huge efforts that took place over the last 12 months to prepare for the show.
A huge shoutout to all CAPA staff members that have worked so hard with the students in preparation. This includes Ms Liz Propsting for her Musical Direction, Ms Angela Morosin as Director, Ms Maddy Cove as choreographer, Ms Gabi Capel as set designer and backstage manager, Mrs Helen Thompson as costume designer, and Ms Hyun Cho as marketing and production leader. Another huge shoutout to Jem Harding for preparing and leading the band made up of IMP students, Mr Casey Atkins on guitar, Matt Manchester on trumpet, and Ms Angela Morosin, Ms Maddy Cove and Atalya Massi in the chorus. A huge thank you also to Ms Carolyn Mattick for her overseeing of the musical and assistance with lighting. And to Ms Ashley Wray and Ms Anni Finsterer who guided the students in 2024.
A special thank you letter from Head Teacher Creative Arts, Ms Liz Propsting:
Thank you to ALL the amazing students involved in the production:
Cast – Mia Gray, Oliver Williams, Nancy Zhang, Samuel Hao, Nea Tarrant, Callum Goodwin, Gabriel Cutcher-Skellern, Flint Foote, Martin Tran, Lucinda Man
Chorus – William Short, Jack Jiang, Jacqueline Chen, Imy Rutgers, Michelle Cam, Oliver Khong, Emily Fan
Band – Erin Ju, Emily Gao, Isobel Jefferson, Penny Zhu, Billy Hunter, Amira Bouhabib, Albert Wilson, Hugo Newman, Nick Qu, Austin Li, Sebastian Kameron, Jack Ng, Ethan Tsang, Tony Lam, Alexander Jacquot, Joshua Lumbewe, Isaac Ismail
Student Choreographer – Pranaya Prasath
Backstage: Genevieve Meunier, Pranaya Prasath, Jingwen Cheng, Rita Cheng, Ocean Reznikov
Lighting : Farley Hammond, Miranda-Chelsea Vernardakis
Set production – Hayley Gek, Nozomi Giorgini, Steph Ha, Mai Ngo, Emily Nguyen, Emily Xia, Emily Zhu, Isabella Zhu, Jennie Zhu, Maya Badami, Ocean Reznikov
Make up – Maya Badami, Lila Bachfischer
Also to –
Gabriel Cutcher-Skellern, who built a number of the incredible and horrifying set pieces including our torture chair
Michelle Cam, for designing the crew t-shirts
We have taken on such a challenging show this year, I am so proud of how you have all risen to the occasion. I have seen the hours of dedicated work and toil that you have all put in and evening watching the incredible learning curve you have all been on in the last week alone and how much you have lifted as we’ve come into this show week has been incredible. It is such an incredible privilege to work with such talented and capable young people, and I’m so excited to see where the future leads you.
Parents who have supported the kids to come to evening and weekends and holiday rehearsals and have probably had the sound track on loop for the last 6 months at home. And for everyone here tonight for coming out in yet another unprecedented weather event to support our performers and be a part of this amazing fort street community.
MUSIC STAFF:
Jem Harding band director – We are so lucky to have such an incredible musician on our team! The way you have guided these young players through some of the most challenging music with grace, humour and outstanding skill in awe inspiring. The band sounded incredible – they could easily be mistaken for a professional group of adults (which mind you is what most High School musical productions do) This is a testament to your dedication and skill. Thank you also for guiding and advising me in the MD role, I am very grateful for your musical input.
Matt Manchester I am incredibly grateful for your organisational prowess, incredible trumpet solo and impromptu tambourine playing. Your general ability to solve problems on the spot seamlessly and without any fuss is a huge reason for how the two performances came together so seamlessly. I’m convinced that there isn’t anything that Matt can’t fix with a roll of duct tape
Casey Atkins – Our fabulous music teacher and guitarist! The kids have really benefitted from your attention to detail and commitment to always producing high quality performances. We are so lucky to have your expertise and dedication in and out of the classroom this year and also incredible guitar chops.
Atayla Masi – Thank you for taking time out of her busy schedule working at Sydney Girls and Newtown to help sing with the chorus this evening. Your steady musical expertise and fabulous voice has been an anchor to the success of our singers tonight.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Maddy Cove: Thank you for not only lending us her fabulous voice to sing as part of the chorus, but also for bringing her passion and enthusiasm for all things musical theater to every rehearsal. I’ve loved working with you and having your energy and enthusiasm in our weekly cast rehearsal. Maddy has choreographed all of the dances in the performances and has worked tirelessly giving up her afternoons, lunch times and weekends to make sure these kids feel confident and well prepared for their on stage performances. I’m so grateful for her skills, because if it were up to me and my limited dancing skills the whole show would have been a rework of the nutbush.
Hyun Cho: Thank you to Hyun for her endless positivity and encouragement. She quietly and calmly has produced all of the important admin aspects of the show like organising rights, marketing, ticketing, taking all the professional level head shots of the cast as well as the not so small task of producing and printing all the posters and programs for an audience of 400 +.
Helen Thompson – In a production like this, which is so other worldly, costuming is the centerpiece of helping our vision come together. Helen is an outstanding Art teacher but an equally excellent designer and seamstress. She has spent many an evening sewing each of these fabulous and sometimes wacky costumes pieces… right down to creating a papier mache breast plate and helmet for our conquistador character. Your creative vision has really helped to lift these performances. Thank you also for seamlessly running backstage and keeping us all to time while also helping us all look so stunning.
Gabi Capel -. The stage and set production is so beautiful! It’s like walking straight into another world. Thank you so much for your innovation and leadership of the whole set producing team.
Commitment and attention to detail right to the last minute! The simple fact that you single handedly painted the Addams Family crest in a day is a testament to your commitment and incredible artistic skill. As well as organizing the prop, set production and a team of artists to bring life to this stage You have also put in huge effort to running the back stage crew and keep our production running smoothly in every aspect. Thank you for your endless positivity and energy but also especially for the daily countdown reminders that have kept me focused and sane.
Carolyn Mattick– Has taught me everything I know about how to run these kinds of productions. This year as I have been taking on roll of producer for the first time, Carolyn has been my mentor and guru. I feel like I’ve had you on speed dial for every problem with lighting and sound and staging and scheduling and you have very graciously taken every call and talked me through every aspect of the job. Thank you I couldn’t have done it without you.
Kirrily & the P&C for organizing the fabulous snack bar and for adapting the set up last minute to accommodate the rain. The smell of cheese toasties has been heart warming in this cold and dreary weather. It’s so lovely to have the support of our wider community and bring people together to celebrate the talents and achievements of our fabulous students. Thank you for all the hard work you have put in to bring this community together.
Juliette McMurray and the senior executive for their support and enthusiasm for this show throughout the whole process.
I would also like to acknowledge two teachers who can’t be here tonight but still played an important part in the journey of this production. Ashley Hamilton, our music teacher who started the production as the rehearsal pianist before taking maternity leave this year and Anni Finsterer who was the director when we started the production all those months ago in term 3 of last year.
FABULOUS DIRECTOR
Angela Morosin –
Thank you for your amazing work overseeing costuming, lighting, make-up, staging, every aspect of rehearsal and is now even lending us her amazing singing voice in the orchestra pit to sing with the chorus.
The commitment you have shown to the students is incredible and it is this tireless work ethic and dedication to the quality of this production which has really helped our students reach the outstanding heights of performance you have seen in our production.
We are so lucky to have a drama teacher of her calibre at Fort Street. She brings such creative energy to every rehearsal and the students have benefited enormously from her deep experience and incredible ability to be across the details of every aspect of the production.
Her tenacity and commitment have been incredible, Since she has been with us since the start of the year Angela has been at school at least 4 days a week past 5pm every week to support the musical and the other drama clubs and productions running at this school.
