Six weeks of rehearsal. Two to four hours a day. All for the final Saturday performance to be cancelled because of snow that never came. 

This is the reality of a middle schooler in theater.

On Jan. 30, 2026, the theater department put on the first of two productions of The Addams Family: young@part, and it went incredibly well. After the show, however, the cast and crew received crushing news: campus would be closed the following day due to expected icy weather, and the much-anticipated final performance couldn’t happen on Saturday.

Luckily for the cast and crew, the show was rescheduled for the following Monday, February 1, but it would not feature makeup or costumes. 

While they got their final performance, most other cancelled productions wouldn’t get that luxury and an incredible amount of work would amount to nothing. 

For any given show, students will spend many hours in the theater, working almost nonstop for weeks to pull it off. They have to learn to sing, act, move props, work the soundboard, work the lights and spotlights, and put on their makeup.

Many people don’t know about the work put into the production. When producer and chorus teacher Susan McMillan talked with one of our athletic coaches during the Addams Family rehearsal period, he was surprised about the amount of work that went into the show. “He was stunned when I said, ‘Yeah, we rehearsed for about six to eight weeks, and we rehearsed every day.’” McMillan said. “ He was like, ‘Every day!’ He was stunned.”

The students weren’t the only ones working hard for the production. Director and drama teacher Adam Fry’s duties for the production consisted of much more than just directing: he had to choose the show, find student directors, help with costumes, casting, then get crew, staging, choreography, scene changes, set changes, props, and any other duty that may pop up. All of his duties totalled to Fry’s spending four to five hours working on the show a day.

McMillan duties took up to six to eight hours working on the show some weekends, and encompass costumes, communications, and casting. She has to schedule the audition, rehearsal, and performance spaces. She collects the measurements of the actors, designs and prints the posters, runs the Veracross website that communicates with students and parents, and she is in charge of acquiring and making the costumes.

The production even needed to get high schoolers to help with the show. For example, 12th grader Maggie Liu designed all of the lights and lighting effects used in the production. 

While this production did get a final date, the rescheduled performance on Monday was not everything the cast and crew had hoped for, because the actors did not have costumes or makeup. 8th grader Kailynn Reneau, who played a major role, felt disappointed they couldn’t have costumes, but happy to have the show regardless. “It was a little bit more awkward.” Reneau said, “It was harder to get into character as well, because you couldn’t see everyone in their specific costumes, but it was still lovely.”