Students put on a show to make up for postponement

May 23, 2020 | 11:15 AM

Despite most events being cancelled due to the Covid pandemic, some drama students at Vernon’s Seaton Secondary showed you can still have fun while staying safe.

The students were supposed to open the musical “The Addams Family” Wednesday night, but it was postponed until next year due to the Covid provincial guidelines.

Instead, about 20 members of the cast gathered in the Seaton field and provided a socially-distanced rendition of the opening dance number, which was streamed on Facebook.

Seaton drama students perform openign number for The Addams Family at Seaton feild (Facebook)

Teacher Lana O’Brien said she was inspired to bring the kids together physically after seeing a video of her friend Heather Lee’s musical theatre class in Smithers doing a dance class in their school field.

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“The idea of having a “virtual opening night” in a physically distanced way, was highly appealing to me, so I polled the students to find out how many would be able to attend, and I got great feedback,” O’Brien told Vernon Matters.

O’Brien said on May 20, which would have been the first show of their two week run of The Addams Family, they rehearsed from 5:30 – 7 p.m.in preparation for the “Live on Facebook” opening night.

“The two student choreographers, Delaney O’Brien and Maddie Irwin, re-worked the dance to keep it physically distanced, and the cast had a great time seeing each other and working together again. I can’t count the number of times I heard, “I miss this so much” and “I’m so happy to see everyone” and “This is so fun.” It wasn’t the same as an actual opening night, but it was a great Covid version of it.”

After the video was done, classmates hung out for at least an hour socializing while being respectful of each others personal space.

“I smiled more yesterday than I have in a month. I knew I missed them, but I was reminded of just how much I miss them and the inspiring work we do together every day,” said O”Brien, artistic and technical director of the 27th Street Theatre Company.

Along with the “live” video, the class also has aerial footage of the rehearsal, as Seaton student Torin Andrews, and former Seaton student Aiden Andrews recorded it using a drone camera.

“They are now editing a mini movie together of our rehearsal and performance and we will share it on our social media as soon as it is ready.”

Addams Family: The Musical has been postponed to May 25 to June 5 of 2021.

by Pete McIntyre

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