THEATRE: Stranded Aboard the ‘Orca’… and At Home with the Addams Family

Olive Fladwood as Wednesday Addams, Brooke Anderson as an Addams ancestor, and Gabby Padilla as Pugsley Addams in Thingamajig Theatre Company’s production of The Addams Family Young@Part at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts.

By Samantha Luck

At the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts this week, three Hollywood stars are stranded on a boat, and one famously eccentric family is preparing for a dinner party.

Neither situation is going particularly well.

Thingamajig Theatre Company is offering audiences two very different kinds of comedy as Halloween approaches. The Shark Is Broken, a backstage look at the troubled filming of Jaws, returns Wednesday, October 28, while the company’s teen production of The Addams Family Young@Part takes over the stage for four final performances beginning Thursday.

A domestic crisis is unfolding at the Addams mansion. Wednesday Addams, whose childhood interests have included torture devices and an enthusiastic appreciation of death, has fallen in love with a young man from a perfectly ordinary family. She has also persuaded her father, Gomez, to keep the romance secret from Morticia. As anyone who has attempted to conceal something from a spouse might suspect, this is unlikely to end well.

The musical follows the disastrous meeting of the two families, finding considerable humor in the idea that the Addamses, for all their peculiar habits, may understand love and loyalty better than their supposedly normal guests.

Thingamajig’s teen production features Finlay Moore as Gomez, Leela Simpson as Morticia, and Olive Fladwood as Wednesday. Quinn Mitchell plays Uncle Fester, Gabby Padilla is Pugsley, Lillian Buchner portrays Lurch, and Nora Cram takes on Grandma. Damian Turk appears as Wednesday’s young suitor, Lucas Beineke, with Lillian Jones and Ben Anacker playing his parents, Alice and Mal.

For these young performers, the show offers plenty of comic invention alongside a story with some recognizable family tensions. Wednesday is growing up, her parents would prefer she slow down, and everyone is discovering that love seldom makes people behave sensibly. The musical’s affection for its strange collection of characters is part of what makes the family so enduring.

A different type of disaster unfolds in The Shark Is Broken, as actors Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss find themselves waiting aboard the Orca while the mechanical shark, arguably the most important member of the cast, refuses to work. With filming stalled, the three men are left to debate their careers, their artistic convictions, and occasionally one another’s worth. Written by Ian Shaw, Robert Shaw’s son, and Joseph Nixon, the play finds its comedy in the uneasy relationship between ambition and insecurity.

We know Jaws will go on to become a cinematic landmark… but the people making it have no idea whether they’ll ever finish the thing.

Directed by Laura Moore, the production stars Tim Moore as Robert Shaw, Scott Morehead as Roy Scheider, and Cameron Vargas as Richard Dreyfuss. The intimate setting of Thingamajig’s theatre puts audiences close to the actors and their increasingly uncomfortable conversations. The production, which opened October 9, continues through November 15.

There’s a family connection between the two Thingamajig productions. Tim Moore, appearing as Robert Shaw in The Shark Is Broken, is the father of Finlay Moore, who plays Gomez in The Addams Family. This Halloween, both have found themselves dealing with theatrical personalities who are not particularly easy to manage.

The Shark Is Broken performs Wednesday, October 28, at 7pm and continues through November 15.

The Addams Family Young@Part concludes its run with performances this Thursday and Friday, October 29 and 30, at 7pm, followed by 3pm. matinees Saturday, October 31, and Sunday, November 1.

All performances take place at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts, 2313 Eagle Drive. Tickets and additional information are available at PagosaCenter.org or by calling 970-731-SHOW (7469).

Thingamajig Theatre Company
Thingamajig Theatre Company was cofounded in 2011 by Tim and Laura Moore. It is an award-winning professional 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatre in residence within the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts. Its talented actors, directors and production experts come from across the U.S. to produce musicals, comedies and dramas year-round.Thingamajig also is dedicated to providing theatrical experiences and educational opportunities for youth and teens in our community.

PHOTO CAPTIONS FOR EDITORIAL PLACEMENT – Photo Credit: Thingamajig Theatre Company
Photo 1: The Addams Family Young@Part
From left:
Photo 2: The Shark Is Broken
From left: Scott Morehead as Roy Scheider, Cameron Vargas as Richard Dreyfuss, and Tim Moore as Robert Shaw aboard the Orca in Thingamajig Theatre Company’s production of The Shark Is Broken at the Pagosa Springs Center for the Arts.