Fossil Ridge High School’s art department has been busy in the past weeks as the spring musical is just around the corner. The show opens Thursday April 13. After putting in three months of after school and weekend rehearsals the cast and crew finally get to show off the product they’ve been working so hard on. The Addams Family centers on the hilariously morbid family, and at the head of every family are two strong parents. Here are some fun facts about the students playing the parents, as well as a few of the wise ancestors that students will be seeing on stage.

Senior, Caroline Frevert was new to Fossil theatre last year as a Junior. Many have seen her featured as Maria in West Side story. This year she is tackling yet another big role as Morticia Addams. Since Morticia is such a well known character, everyone knows how she walks and talks and dresses which proved to be a bigger challenge than Maria last year. In addition to her character individually she is also trying to capture the passionate, romantic relationship that Morticia shares with her husband Gomez. Frevert is nothing short of amazed of her costar, “Austin is literally the most talented kid I have ever met and probably will ever meet. He’s so good.He’s literally perfect for this part. I’m always trying to work up to his level.” She is taking on this motherly role which is quite the contrast to last year where she was more of the daughter figure. Frevert confesses it was easier to be the daughter role for her because her character was super naive. Morticia is a very mature, motherly figure which is stretching and growing her skills.

Outside of the Addams Family, Frevert’s family does a lot of traveling. Frevert’s favorite place she’s been was Europe and she’s looking forward to hopefully going again soon for her senior trip. She has a younger brother, Cade who she is trying to convince should get involved with theatre since he is going to be a freshman at Fossil next year. She likes to hang out with friends and there isn’t any particular thing she like to do with them. Next fall Frevert will be studying elementary education at CSU. She’s considering a minor theatre related but isn’t yet sure. Mrs. Rust, Mrs. Kochis, and Mr. Garner have all enhanced Frevert’s high school experience and they are role models that she looks up to.

Sophomore, Austin Hand jumped into high school theatre his freshman year landing the role of Baby John in West Side Story. This year he landed the role of Gomez Addams. This character is nothing short of tricky to pull off considering his character breaks fourth wall with the audience and interacts with them. Hand worked with Frevert his freshman year when they were both in the Intro to Acting classes at Fossil. Their characters were partners in crime then so they were happy to work together again, “It’s really fun to play this part with her because we are so close and I’m glad she’s Morticia because we have so much chemistry I think.” Hand was also involved in Frankenstein in the fall and senior directed one acts. Although he is loving theatre there is still a question about how far in the future he wishes to pursue it, “Theatre is something I’m considering, I know for a fact something in the entertainment industry. Something on a stage.”

Outside of the black box and PAC Hand and his three younger brothers like to go hiking and enjoy the outdoors. Hand prefers his theatre and choir classes, but he also enjoys science and finding out how our world works. Looking at future goals, Hand is hoping to have the opportunity to get more involved in tech even though his interest centers more on the performance aspect.

Junior, Aislynn Fehlberg is new to Fossil this year and has already staked her claim in the Fossil theatre department. Fehlberg was assigned the Russian Ballerina ancestor since she has been dancing for about 14 years. All of the Ancestors are given a backstory including how they died. In Fehlberg’s case her character suffered ‘pirouette peril’. Fehlberg has a list of hobbies that is uncommon in the theatre department at Fossil. Theatre kids are known for their favorite quote ‘theatre is taking over my life.’ While Fehlberg does spend majority of her time in theatre, she also has an impressive list of hobbies including dancing, Ridgebotics, dirt biking, and beauty pageants. Fehlberg’s favorite core class is math (as of currently) and she is loving her business law class since that is a potential career for her. She is also in the women’s choir and some may recognize her from the tango she choreographed for the choir concert back in March featuring her and Ryan Clarke.

Being new to Fossil, Fehlberg says that Fossil and even the city of Fort Collins is a much more studious atmosphere and a lot more work. Fehlberg has found a good group of friends through the theatre department dance team as well as through the musical, “I couldn’t have asked for a better cast. This cast is so talented. They are hilarious and I love them to death.” She loves being around the cast because they are driven and motivated when they need to be but they also have a lot of fun. Fehlberg said this size cast s ideal for the audience to see the character development of each individual.

Although this article focuses on the Addams family themselves, Fehlberg says her favorite part of the show occurs between Alice and Mal Bieneke (the parent’s of Wednesday’s boyfriend). These comic characters are being brought to life by Katie Foster and Parker Bennett. Director Deana Kochis said,“Parker Bennett is playing Mal, definitely makes Mal’s character way more comical.” With the show opening this week Fehlberg said,“We have pulled out all the stops. We are going big or going home.”

Junior, Travis Turner, is the caveman ancestor, for Turner this part is the comedic relief ancestor. His character was playing with fire when he died. The ancestors move in a unit, they move set pieces together, they dance together and that gave Turner an opportunity to get to know everyone much better. Turner’s favorite musical number is Death is Just Around the Corner and his love of this song is also shared by Frevert herself. Tuner loves the choreography for it. Turner expressed his excitement over working with a cast of this size saying, “I like small casts better because it’s more of a tightknit family so you don’t have to branch out to so many different people.”

Outside of theatre Turner is an aspiring musician he plays ukulele, and drums. His hopes is to soon take up guitar. He is also part of a youth group. He has two sisters and two brothers. He also has his drama family and his choir family so he spends much of his time in the arts wing. Some may recognize him from the Sabercats choir and Tenth bass (Fossil’s jazz choir). Tuner is also new to Fossil this year as his family moved here from Texas. He was one of the last students accepted into Fossil’s school of choice. He is greatly enjoying Colorado, and he likes the weather and that he has a lot of family here. Music is a great interest of Turner’s, he really enjoys acoustic music including Jack Johnson and John Mayer. Turner was also in Frankenstein in the fall and he was in Mary Poppins prior to coming to Fossil. Starting to look into his future he is considering going into musical education.

Another Ancestor that will be taking the stage is Junior, Jordan Hughes. Hughes has been in theatre at Fossil since her sophomore year when she was in West Side Story. She is the Egyptian ancestor who died from a locust attack. Like Fehlberg, Secrets is Hughes favorite song both girls like the Chicago style of the dance and energy, “The show is very iconic and you’ll be laughing the entire time. The casting is absolutely perfect and it’s going to be one of our best shows.” Hughes has found it is much easier to have a small cast especially as far as cast bonding and she feels she got much closer everyone in the cast not just one group of people. Shockingly, Hughes and her fellow cast members have found it feels like The Addams Family has more dancing than West Side Story. She also feels that the dance is much more of the cheesy broadway feel as opposed to West Side Story which stayed closer to a more technical style of dancing.

Like many theatre kids Hughes spend a great deal of time in the arts wing. She also enjoys hanging out with her friends and family, and like every teenager out there Netflix is always a go to hobby. Hughes has four younger sisters, she is the oldest; the two youngest are twins and one is in eighth grade as well as one who is a sophomore. Hughes’ favorite core class is U.S. history because she likes to see where we have been and how it compares to today. However her favorite class is choir, specifically jazz choir. Hughes also enjoys traveling and would love to visit Europe. If Hughes were to be in the tech crew instead of the cast she would want to help with makeup since the characters are so iconic and it just looks like fun.

The show opens Thursday April 13 and will run for two weekends. To purchase tickets in advance visit booktix.com.