Penn-Trafford grads direct Penn Middle’s ‘Addams Family,’ cultivate ‘safe space’ for growth

Maddie Nick has been a part of the Penn Middle School drama club since its inception.

Nick, a 2013 Penn-Trafford graduate, helped with the stage crew for the Penn Township middle school’s 2008 production, “High School Musical,” taking the stage as Rizzo in “Grease” the following year.

Even in her high school and college years, Nick often came back to help with the sound board and other technical roles.

But for the past six years, Nick has worn a new hat, serving as director of the drama club.

She and 2017 Penn-Trafford graduate Katelynn Powell have helped a group of 50 students this year embrace the bizarre, macabre characters of “The Addams Family” for performances Friday to Sunday.

“We don’t typically act like the Addams Family in everyday life,” Nick said. “We don’t find torture fun. Most people are not obsessed with death, and I think that the kids have done an absolutely amazing job at embodying these unnatural characters.”

It is a challenge to portray such eccentric characters, said Powell, who got her start in the drama club in 2011, portraying Violet Beauregarde in “Willy Wonka.”

Character challenges

Whereas Wednesday is known for her inanimate facial expressions, characters like Fester and Gomez require larger-than-life, expressive personalities, she said.

“(The characters) are just so dynamic and well-known,” said Powell, who took on the assistant director role this school year. “There’s positives to that, in that the kids most likely had some kind of exposure to these characters even before starting this show altogether. But it’s a tall order to act out characters that are so well-known publicly.”

Nick borrowed a few costumes from the high school drama guild, which performed the show in 2019, but her main goal was to find an original take on the timeless classic.

Some scenes, for example, have been cut or shortened because the students are performing a version of the show intended for younger audiences, she said.

Nick had to get creative with the blocking and dancing sequences to adequately express each characters’ progression throughout the show, she said.

“It’s arguably harder because I have to make you believe, for example, that Lucas and Wednesday are in love when there’s only two scenes that I can really do that, versus the original where there’s eight,” she said. “I think it’s incredibly challenging for our students to portray their characters that way.”

The students eagerly embraced the challenge, Powell said.

“The absolute invigorating energy that the kids provide on that stage — it’s just so exciting and moving,” Powell said. “I think just the show in general is such a fun show. You really can just go in there and you can guarantee that you’re going to have a good time for about an hour and 45 minutes.”

Growing the program

From the beginning, Nick has encouraged her students not to underestimate their abilities.

“I have seen students come in, and they’re afraid to sing in their vocal audition. By the end of the show, they have sung in front of over a thousand people, they’ve had a lead role,” she said. “They’ve just done so much more than they could ever have imagined that they could do, just because they took that leap of faith and auditioned.”

The drama club’s talent increases every year, Nick said.

“There have been so many times where I’m watching these kids perform, and I’m like ‘There is absolutely no way that I would’ve ever been able to do that in middle school,” she said.

Production quality has also improved since Nick’s time in the drama club. The program has gone from cardboard backgrounds to thoughtfully-designed wooden sets, and the lighting is now more than just one white beam illuminating the stage.

Nick has been forced to make cuts during auditions because there are more students interested in performing than can safely fit on stage, she said.

“Our program, I have seen, really helps the kids build up the courage and the skills to go out in the community and do theater or go up to the high school and audition,” she said. “We like to take as many kids as we can for that aspect.”

Helping bring up the next generation of performers is important to Nick, but she is most proud of the welcoming community her students have built for themselves.

“At the end of the day, I want you to have a safe space with friends (where) you’re on stage doing something that you love and you have fun and you feel like you can be your authentic self. That’s the most important for me.

“I don’t care if you mess up a dance move. I don’t care if they forget a line. I don’t care if they sing something off key,” she said. “I want this to be a really good experience for them, and I think the only way to do that is to have that camaraderie and have fun.”