SAMANTHA BALDRY
A musical comedy based on The Addams Family is currently showing at the Gold Coast Little Theatre and winning lots of fans.
The show, which runs from August 21 to September 28 at the Southport-based community theatre, features a local cast and crew.
The Addams Family is a quirky production that made its debut on Broadway in 2010, and is the first of two musicals being held at the Gold Coast Little Theatre this year.
Susan Austin, who co-directs the local production with Jay Ahrens, made her start directing and producing indie films before moving into theatre.
Ms Austin was awarded Best Short Horror Film with her short, Apparition, in the 2015 REEL Horror Film Competition held by Movie World, and also won the Audience Choice Award for her short, Beautiful Scars, at the 2018 Screen-It Film Festival at the Helensvale Cultural Centre.
“When you’re not related to Russell Crow or someone like that, you have to make your own content, and there’s a lot of us indie film makers out there,” Ms Austin said.
The Addams family is the first musical Ms Austin has directed, making its success even more significant.
She said “so far they’ve had two standing ovations” since the production opened at the end of August.
“We’ve had comments like ‘it’s the best musical from the Gold Coast Little Theatre ever’,” Ms Austin said.
“It is just a fantastic musical,” she said.
“We have a lot of repeat bookings; you watch it once and the songs stick in your head, so you want to see it again.”
Ms Austin said community theatre was important both for young and old actors and said she hoped it would not die out.
“The GCLT is turning 70 next year, which is a pretty amazing achievement,” Ms Austin said.
“One fear I’ve got for community theatre is a lack of volunteers,” she said.
Gold Coast Little Theatre president Lorraine McLean also volunteers at the theatre, helping out with the organisation of the theatre and working on the committee for the past seven years.
“This is my fourth year as president of the GCLT,” Ms McLean said.
“I always see the president as the last man standing, making sure everyone is doing their job,” she said.
Ms McLean said she had seen for herself how well The Addams Family had been received by audience members.
“It has been fabulously well received,” she said.
“It’s such a good production, we’ve got great singing and the costumes have just been fabulous.”
“I think it starts with having a really good cast who do a really good job on stage,” Ms McLean said.
“A lot of them are just involved because they have regular jobs that they like to do, but they want to be involved in theatre, but definitely the young ones are pretty excited about being involved.”
Actor George Pulley plays the role of Uncle Fester in the community theatre production.
“I’ve been doing constantly two or three shows at the same time [and] it’s really good fun,” Mr Pulley said.
“It does get draining after a bit, but the whole thing is if you put in 100 per cent you get back 110 per cent,” he said.
“I first auditioned for the role of Gomez, but as soon as they saw how I was portraying characters and my stage personality, they were like, ‘we’ve got to get him as Fester’,” Mr Pulley said.
“And looking back on it, I’m really enjoying the role of Fester, it’s very suited for me,” he said.
The Addams Family will be showing at the Gold Coast Little Theatre until September 28, with performances running from Thursdays to Sundays.
Tickets range from $20 to $33.
To find out more about the Gold Coast Little Theatre or to book tickets, visit www.gclt.com.au.