2017 Community Events and Entertainment Overview by Samantha Goe

   Chattanooga is known as the scenic city known for its environment and architecture, but another “scene” Chattanooga has is the arts. One of the artistic events that are coming up in Chattanooga are The Adams Family put on by the Christian Family Theatre and many things that the East Brainerd Community Theatre (EBCT) is doing this year such as Broadway revues and full-length plays and musicals. 

    The Addams Family Musical is a musical based on the cartoons of the same name. The plot of the show follows Wednesday Addams and her rather odd family as she tries to understand love, which she has recently found with a normal boy named Lucas Beineke, and her family tries to stop her budding romance in some unusual ways. The director of the Christian Family Theatre’s production of The Addams Family, Dale Dye, was gracious enough to answer some questions during rehearsal and he had this to say when asked what makes this production different from other Addams Family productions, “We’re one of the first people in Tennessee that is doing the youth version of this production, so it is not the full-length production that you’ve seen on Broadway or from the traveling cast. It has been altered and shortened for youth performers, which is the way most of the youth shows are done for Broadway shows so that they’re not having to perform a whole two and a half hour show.”  Do you ever wonder what goes into picking a show for a theatre to do? Well, Mr. Dye answered just that about how he chose The Addams Family to which he responded with, “It’s just such a fun show and I was surprised by the number of young actors that were interested in being in the show. I grew up watching the original T.V. show and so i knew that would appeal to lots of parents, but I didn’t know how many of the young actors would be really interested in it and it’s a fun production. We had probably the best turnout for auditions than we’ve had at some of our other shows.” Every musical theatre lover has a favorite part of the shows that they like, and when it comes to The Adams Family these are some of the highlights, in Mr. Dye’s opinion, “I love the quirkiness of The Addams Family .The funny thing is, it is both macabre (spooky) and quirky. I have always loved Halloween anyway but it made for a very interesting show when it was on T.V. and it’s a fun production. As far as having a favorite scene or song, we’re just getting into rehearsals as we get through the rehearsal process, there starts to become my favorite scene or my favorite song. There are multiple songs that I really enjoy from the show: the opening number, ‘When You’re an Addams’ is a fun song and then there are a couple solos that i really like, Pugsley sings a solo called ‘What If’ talking about if his sisters not there anymore to hurt him all the time, but it’s also a touching song, it’s fun.”

   Allyssa Boring, a freshman at EHS, is also involved in the production of The Addams Family she is playing Alice Beineke, mother to Lucas and wife to Mal. Every character in The Addams Family has something off about them therefore, Allyssa told about what her favorite thing about her character was, which was, “I really like this character because she changes so much throughout the show, in the beginning she’s so boring and normal, but by the end she’s very exciting.” Allyssa also answered what her favorite part of the, flashy, Addams Family Musical is, which she claims to be, “When we do a song called ‘Full Disclosure,’ this is a crazy song where there is a huge turn of events and it’s very upbeat and fun.” The Addams Family, as Mr. Dye put it, is a “quirky” show, well with that quirkiness comes a theme that Allyssa could only describe as being to, “Make your own path. Even when everyone is telling you something isn’t going to work out, if you think it’s right then try it anyway! Carpe Diem.” If you’re interested in seeing The Addams Family the show dates are October the 20th and 21st at 7:00pm and a matinee on the 22nd at 3:00pm for more info on the show head over to their facebook https://www.facebook.com/CFTChattanooga/ .

    Another community theatre that we have in town is the East Brainerd Community theatre (EBCT). EBCT does not have any shows currently going on but their theatre board has been coming up with some ideas for their shows and Broadway revues for this year. When asked what some of the ideas that they have for the theatre this year director, Stephanie Pearson, responded by saying, “We (the EBCT Advisory Board) are in the process of finalizing details for our upcoming season. So nothing is set in stone but we are talking about these events: Disney on Broadway musical revue sometime around Halloween, full-length play in the winter (January- February- March), Love songs Broadway revue in February, and a full-length family musical in the summer of 2018.” Mrs. Pearson will obviously be looking for certain people, like most directors do, when casting the winter play and summer musical and when asked who she would be looking for for these shows she divulged that “Generally, the community theatre focuses on shows that are written for adult actors, but on the summer musicals, we open up the cast to all ages if the show allows (we try to pick shows with a variety of ages). This is because we have a lot of programs at the church already that include music and drama for children. Our programs start with preschool and go all the way through high school, and most of those programs meet weekly. So we focus on dramatic opportunities for adults with the community theatre.” As for who can participate in the Broadway revues she answered, “The revues are open to anyone who has already participated in a play or a musical on our stage- in other words and EBCT veteran.” Some of EBCT’s previous shows include Our Town, The Odd Couple, Oklahoma!, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and much more if you are interested in any of those shows and want to keep up to date on the goings on at EBCT their facebook is https://www.facebook.com/eastbrainerdcommunitytheater/ .