Portales students to perform at awards

Who says high art can't be creepy? Certainly not the New Mexico High School Musical Theatre Awards in Albuquerque, where the cast of Portales High School's production of "The Addams Family" will be performing this weekend.

The production ran April 5 through April 8 and was attended by NMHSMTA judges who nominated the cast for best ensemble and actors Joseph Erwin, 17 (in the role of Gomez Addams) and Liam Hurley, 18 (in the role of Fester Addams) for the best-actor award, according to PHS drama teacher Heather Hagler.

"(Hurley and Erwin) are currently working on solos that they will be performing this weekend at the Enchantment Awards, and then based on their performance, they will be adjudicated and they'll announce it at the performance this weekend," Hagler said. She added that the two actors, who will perform their solos on Saturday at Popejoy Hall, will have a chance to move on to the National High School Musical Theatre Awards in New York.

Joining Erwin and Hurley this weekend will be the rest of the cast, who will be performing a scene from the musical to compete for the best ensemble.

Hurley, who attended the awards in 2017 for his performance in "Thoroughly Modern Millie," said "The Addams Family" reaffirmed his desire to pursue theater as a possible career.

"I kind of already knew before 'Addams' that I wanted to do theater, but it just helped me along getting more experience in theater and doing more acting and all that," he said.

Erwin, who also attended the awards in 2017, said he learned about the importance of persistence through the extensive work he put into the production.

"I am not by any means a natural dancer, but I worked for 20 hours with Morticia on the Tango de Amor, and it ended up looking pretty good," he said.

He added that his character, Gomez, was one of the easiest he's every played.

"It was one of the easier productions for me because Gomez is a lot easier of a character to portray than any of my other characters because his traits just made sense to me whenever I was playing him," he said.

At the awards, Erwin said the theater professionals he is working with are helping him "grow as a performer."

The two best-actor nominees and their fellow cast members took the initiative to bring their own props and work on their own costumes, and worked tirelessly to guarantee a successful production, according to Hagler.

"We've been conditioning all year since September, working daily on either vocals or dance. We worked with ENMU's theater students to do some workshops," she said. "We started rehearsals in January and we ran rehearsals until 6 every day. We worked during that time to get it all put together to have it well crafted," she said.