BEHIND THE DESIGN:
THE ADDAMS FAMILY MUSICAL

Keeping in mind that "The Addams Family Musical" is all about embracing the darkness and the macabre while simultaneously asking the question “What does a normal family look like?” — I wanted to ensure that my lighting communicated these larger themes to the audience. 

In doing so, I looked into research images that helped convey the idea of duality not only internally — like a duality of thought or ideals — but visually, something that could showcase two contradicting truths at the same time. This was important in the show as we have the “abnormal” Addams family interacting With the “normal” Beineke family — for which a majority of the conflict in this show arises.

in this case, I utilized a technique that I actually discovered on accident in my rendering process and chose to roll with: having two different, highly saturated colors on either side of the stage at a high diagonal angle to extenuate the form of not only the main characters but also our Addams family ancestors, who act as the ensemble for the duration of the show. 

In doing this, I was able to visually showcase the dualing identities of the two families, but also between Morticia and Gomez or Wednesday and Lucas, with whom have their own conflicting goals separate from the larger family. 

This dual-color technique combined with the usage of abnormal angles, highly saturated colors, along with tons of fog and haze atmospherics, helped to create the ooky spooky kooky world that our Addams family and friends lived in.

Overall, i believe this work to be a successful example of taking evocative imagery and using it as a tool for a larger conceptual approach.