Oliver Takes the Stage with Full Disclosure

The+cast+of+the+Addams+Family+play%2C+including+Sara+Oliver+11%2C+close+the+performances+with+a+cast+picture.+

The cast of the Addams Family play, including Sara Oliver 11, close the performances with a cast picture.

Macee Trottner, Ranger Review Reporter

With ten years of experience in singing and acting, Sara Oliver 11, took part in Lewis-Palmer High School’s fall musical. Oliver has participated in all of the school’s plays and musicals since her freshmen year. She has adored music since a very young age and enjoys being able to bring the characters she plays to life.

On October 26-28, 2017, the Lewis-Palmer High School drama club put on their annual fall musical. This year’s musical was the fall time classic The Addams Family. This play took the audience through the everyday life of the Addams family: Wednesday, Morticia, Gomez, Fester, Pugsley, Grandma Addams, and Lurch. Sara Oliver 11 played the role of Alice Beineke, who is portrayed as a reserved and anxious woman who is married to Mal Beineke. In the first scenes of the play, Alice has a high pitched voice due to her anxiety and tightness. When the later scenes approach, she starts to loosen and open up to the Addams family about her abusive marriage because she is under the influence of a potion.

In the play, she has a scene where she has to participate in a game called “full disclosure.” Full disclosure requires all of the players to drink from the Addams’ sacred chalice and tell one truth that they have not told before. Alice drank from the chalice, which had a potion in it and has a breakdown while revealing the truth about how she feels in her marriage.

“Every night I was nervous for my full disclosure scene because it was very physically demanding to throw my body around,” Oliver said. “I would go home every night from  the show with bruises on my arms because I had to hit the table so many times.”

Despite the physicality of the play, Oliver was able to portray the character as if it were herself on the stage. She had a list full of cast members she could have auditioned for, but her choice of auditioning for the role of Alice Beineke was for many reasons.

“I decided to audition for the role of Alice Beineke because it was really easy for me to connect to the character throughout the play,” Oliver said. “I was able to see myself a lot in the eyes of Alice.”

She prepared for her role for three months before performing the musical in front of the packed auditorium. Not only did she use her time in rehearsal to get to know her character, but she also kept a journal and wrote everything she had in mind as a diary from the perspective of Alice.

“There was so much potential for me to play the role of Alice Beineke because I truly saw her as a real person and I enjoyed the fact that I was able to step out of my comfort zone and have fun breakdowns on stage. Each performance I would try to change my breakdown and have it be as natural as possible so that the audience could relate to how I was feeling in the moment,” Oliver said.

Although she had a hard time keeping up with the physicality of the part, Oliver said that it was worth it in the end. She was tired after every performance but she said it was such a good feeling to be tired because she knew that she performed her part well.