By ERIC SEIVERLING
Art will imitate life for California High School students performing in the district’s upcoming musical.
The school’s production of “The Addams Family Quarantined: A Dramatic Concert Version” will chronicle the freakishly funny family as they sing and dance their way through these times of social distancing, restrictions and mask wearing.
The school district’s percussion instructor, Rob Berletich, making his directorial debut with the school, said it’s no coincidence the musical mirrors the year-long COVID-19 pandemic.
“The process sort of came out of necessity,” he said. “Last year’s musical got canceled two weeks from when it was supposed to run. The district decided it wanted a musical this year, and we had a two-month working window to pull something off.
“I knew it would be difficult to do something in two months that’s three hours long. I came across this 90-minute version and it fit the bill. It drives off the story line of the full-length version. I would rather have a really good 90-minute version instead of something that was short and not the real thing.”
Beginning as a New Yorker magazine cartoon, the “The Addams Family” became a popular television sitcom in the 1960s, and featured the dark hijinks of Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday and Pugsley Addams, along with Uncle Fester, Cousin Itt, Lurch, Thing and Grandmama. Since 1991, five feature films have been made featuring the family.
Berletich said the quarantined version of The Addams Family offers a different take.
“There are actually moments when they talk about being quarantined,” he said. “There are times when they don’t embrace. They’re living in it just like we are.”
A working musician himself, Berletich said he didn’t have to think twice when asked to direct the musical.
“The reason I said yes was because I want to give (students) something to do,” he said. “I needed something to do myself. It’s inherent to human nature to want art. We have talented people in the Valley and in this school and they deserve the chance to perform.
“It was something the kids deserved. They don’t deserve to walk away from here with nothing after doing musicals their whole school careers. They deserved a chance and they’re the ones who really made this work.”
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