Fleetwood Park Secondary students bring the Addams Family to life

Lexi Limin (right) helped co-direct this summer's production. Image: Doug LitkeThey may be creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, but there’s no denying that people love the Addams Family. That much was evident this past week as Fleetwood Park Secondary staged back-to-back performances of The Addams Family musical to packed audiences of friends, families and community members. 

The production was the culmination of a four-week musical theatre summer program that saw 24 Fleetwood Park students come together to plan, rehearse and perform the musical in just one month.

“So four weeks versus four months is a bit crazy, but the nice thing about this program is that for the four weeks the students get to focus on just this,” said Mark Rossiter, program coordinator and Fleetwood Park Arts Department Head. “For some students, it can be a struggle to juggle something like theatre or drama with three or four other courses, so this really offers an immersive experience that you just can’t get between September and June."

The Addams Family is the second production Rossiter has run during the summer, having done Clue: The Musical in July 2022. This year, Rossiter said students opted to take on The Addams Family as the recent hit show Wednesday was still fresh in everyone’s minds.

“So this was a good time for us to do The Addams Family as it checked all of the boxes we look for: it’s fun, has a good diverse cast of roles and it appeals to a lot of people. We’re even able to implement some things from the show, like the iconic Wednesday dance.”

Lexi Limin, who graduated from Fleetwood Park this past June, opted to stay on to help co-direct this summer’s production as a means to get more experience before she begins her post-secondary career in musical theatre this fall.

Having taken musical theatre courses throughout her time at Fleetwood Park, Limin jumped at the chance to co-direct this summer’s production and share what she’s learned.

“I spent all of my high school doing theatre and still feel that I didn’t get enough of it,” she said. “I had a lot of great mentors in theatre and so this was my way of passing the torch to the younger students.”

Co-directing was also a chance to gain some valuable experience in a completely different part of theatre production.

“This has been really helpful for me to understand things from the perspective of a director,” she explained. “It’s been such a great experience and I’m grateful to be able to have had this final opportunity to do something like this with my school.”