And yet more stars who're returning to AFD from previous productions! You loved her in "9 to 5" and "Spelling Bee"-- but now she's guiding stars behind the scenes! Katie Pickett (Director) is thrilled to have this opportunity to direct at AFD after appearing in their productions of 9 to 5 and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Katie has also been seen on stage with Arts After Hours (Next to Normal), Burlington Players (The Great American Trailer Park Musical), Hovey Players (Falsettos), Quannapowitt Players (Chicago, Suburban Holidays), Needham Community Theatre (Titanic), The Footlight Club (Violet), Speakeasy Stage (Hot Star, Nebraska), and in seven productions with The Longwood Players (Company, Merrily We Roll Along, A New Brain, She Loves Me, Nine, Songs for a New World, and The Pirates of Penzance). She also directed Longwood’s 2010 production of City of Angels. Thanks to the cast and production team (especially her husband for his extraordinary set design) as well as to Michael Friedman, who was taken from us too soon but fortunately “put these feelings in a play.” She is thankful to be a very, very small part of his extraordinary legacy. Meghan Weakley (Jaquenetta) is thrilled to be back at AFD for the second time, following last season’s “Violet," where she played the titular role. Recent credits include Kate in “If/Then” (Broken Leg Productions), Jasmine in “Beehive: The 60s Musical” (Colonial Chorus Players), and Mrs. Cratchit/Mrs. Dilber in “A Christmas Carol” (Gallows Hill Theater). She is also very proud to have recently acted as Stage Manager for Skylight Theater Collective’s “Pride and Prejudice." Meghan, who is allergic to “free time," can also be found most Monday nights performing on Improv Asylum’s House Teams. She would like to send much love and gratitude to this multi-talented cast and to Katie Pickett, Bethany Aiken, Michael Hogman, Kat McCorkle, and Lindsay Hurley for being a truly fabulous creative team. Thanks as always to her friends and family for the love, support and gluten free snacks.

The last few years have seen many new actors and directors arriving onstage at AFD; the upcoming production of "Love's Labour's Lost" features several of our favorite performers (as well as a beloved performer in the director's chair!). So happy to welcome back Nick Mann, last seen as Lawrence Jameson in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." This time around, he's playing Berowne, still singing and dancing with verve (and naughty glee). For his bio and credits, he offers this: "What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Abby Seidel was in the great production of "Spelling Bee," and now returns as the princess. Abby is excited to be back for her sixth production with AFD! Previous credits include: Logainne in “Spelling Bee”, Margot in “Legally Blonde”, Belinda in “Inherit the Wind”, Beatrice in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, and the court clerk in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Most recently, Abby starred as Carrie White in “Carrie the Musical” with Arts After Hours. She would like to thank Katie, Michael, Bethany, Kat, and all of the cast and crew for all of their hard work and dedication! A big thank you to Katie for being so supportive and helping me grow as a performer.

Patrick Cleary, directing "Hand to God" at AFD November 15-24, offers insights into the cracked, funny, insightful play... I've been a puppeteer and a puppet maker for about 5-6 years. I've had a channel on YouTube where I and my partner Peter created and performed with puppets in short skits, www.youtube.com/xingcat. When I first saw "Hand to God" on Broadway, I knew it was a play I wanted to direct at some point. There's a tradition of puppets being used in Southern Christian churches (any puppeteer who has any sort of online presence is used to getting requests to build puppets for church performances), and using that tradition to tell a story about the challenges that faith can be presented with when handling deeply human problems worked for me. Puppets are usually seen as for kids, so to re-contextualize them as showing the basest instincts of the characters' minds was a great twist on the idea of using puppets in theater. To me, "Hand to God" isn't a play about God, or about puppets, or sex or violence. It's about how limited we are, as human beings, in understanding how to love ourselves and one another in our entirety. We often think about the good and bad in all of us, but we think that the "bad" things, like jealousy or lust or anger or sadness, need to be removed from us in order to connect, be love, or be good people. Putting all of those base instincts into a representation of ourselves (like the ancient folklore of Golem) allows us to see what we value, and what we're trying to hide, and how limited the church or our relationships or parenting skills can be when we're talking about embracing ourselves as whole, complicated people. If you ask someone who has heard about Hand to God and ask them to describe it, you'll most likely get some variation on, "It's an adult puppet show," or, "It's a vulgar comedy about religion," or something about sex and violence. While all of those things are absolutely true (as well as being hilarious and well-written), to me, "Hand to God" is about so much more. I'm thrilled that Arlington Friends of the Drama has taken on this play. Community theater often has to balance the new and controversial with the expectations of our audience and the bottom-line, and "Hand to God" can be a polarizing piece. I'll be forever grateful to have the opportunity to direct this script in this space. With a hopeful message underneath it all, the play was truly a challenge for me as a director and as a puppeteer.

Allie Villa is overjoyed to be making her AFD debut in this creepy and kooky production as Alice! She most recently performed in "If/Then" with Broken Leg Productions in Melrose and as Flotsam in "The Little Mermaid" with Create Inspire Change Theater Company in Watertown. Other favorite roles include Aquata in "The Little Mermaid" (TVRT), Texas in "Cabaret" (Adirondack Lakes Arts Center), Rachel in "Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson," and Brenda in "Hairspray" (Redhouse Arts Center). Allie is a full-time theatre teacher at Mildred Avenue K-8 in Mattapan. Much love and thanks to the production team and her own family, especially Eli & Henry! Follow @alliejvilla for updates.

AFD welcomes the young and talented Gabriel Corey to the role of the gleefully destructive Pugsley Addams. Gabriel, just 15 years old, is a Sophomore at Tri-County, where he studies Computer Information Systems. Gabriel has twelve shows under his belt. Some of his favorite roles were Gevroche in "Les Miserables", Ben-Lisa in "Disaster" and Flounder in "The Little Mermaid." This is his first performance at Arlington Friends of the Drama.

We got your super dancing singing stagecraft right here! So much talent prancing around this show. Join us!

Wow, AFD is honored to welcome Alex Deutch --as the intriguing character of Lucas Beineke-- in the first supporting role of his community theatre career! When the director, Tim Andrew, learned that it's Alex's first time in such a role, he found it hard to believe. Alex is a natural, and seems completely comfortable on stage. He certainly has the vocal chops. Though a singer in bands during high school, Alex began singing more seriously after joining an a capella group on campus at Case Western Reserve University. Alex moved to Somerville shortly after graduation and began taking voice lessons and auditioning for musicals in the area. He has one previous role (split three ways) as Storyteller/Seth/Shem in a production of "Children of Eden" at the Theatre Company of Saugus last spring. During the day Alex works as a web developer and at night he does lots of other stuff, like this musical for example!

Daria Contino (Wednesday Addams) is thrilled to be making her debut with AFD this season! Some previous roles include Veronica Sawyer in Heathers (Firehouse Center for the Arts), Emma Borden in Lizzie (Theatre Company of Saugus), Marcy Park in 25th Annual...Spelling Bee (Theatre Company of Saugus), Aldolpho in Drowsy Chaperone (Greater Boston Stage Company), Chloe in Good Kids (Winnmere Family Theatre), Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof (SHS), and Hecuba in Trojan Women (SHS). Daria would like to thank her family and friends for their love and support! Daria is also a singer/songwriter so go to www.dariacontino.com or find her on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, etc to check out her music!

Spooking around onstage as an Ancestor, Bobby McCall may look familiar... In fact, he's dusted off the cobwebs to return to AFD's stage for his third musical here, previously having played Chip Tolentino in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" and Ensemble in "Sunset Boulevard." Other credits include "The Odd Couple" (Millis Theatre Group) and "Shakespeare's Star Wars" (The Opposite of People: A New-ish Theater Company). While not acting, Bobby enjoys crafting nightmares and bartering with evil spirits.

It's not your imagination--the Addams parental units really DO have that much sparkle between them. That would be due to the real life friendship of the lead actors, David Rodrigues (as Gomez),and Vanessa Calantropo (as Morticia). They amuse each other, and bring out the best in each other. And they swear this is true: it's not the first time they've played the Addams couple. They recently dressed as Gomez and Morticia for Halloween... There's a rumor of photograph... "It's kind of crazy," notes Tim Andrews, the director who's participating at AFD for the first time. "I had no idea they even knew each other when they auditioned." He says that their commitment has made the collaboration and the production much richer. "They practice outside the rehearsals, so by the time they come in, they know the choreography cold." Vanessa has been with AFD before, and just recently stole the show as Jolene in last season's "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." She just wrapped up as a dancer at the ART's production of "The Donkey Show." Tim says, "Vanessa is so talented--she's not Equity, but she could be." David recently appeared as Marty in MMAS's production of "It Shoulda Been You," and has been with AFD in the past. Don't miss the charm and wit, and amazing talents! of these two, September 20-October 6...

The things we say to mount a production... especially this one... “We have a monster, but we could get a hand.” “We have an arm in the other room.” “Let’s not spend a lot of money on a hand if we don’t have to.” “I have some short weapons.” “I found the most god awful toupee for Fester.” “We’ll be doing a lot of tea-ing of things.” “Thing came out of the box.” “The choreography in the show is very elegant, so the stairs have to move in very smoothly.”

Meet our Grandma Addams, Faith Kasparian! She has neither beard nor mole, but she's a wonderful Grandma nonetheless! Faith’s love of community theater began as a child, performing in productions directed by her Mom (who, coincidentally, directed for AFD)! Her favorite roles include Grandma Addams from "The Addams Family" (Theatre III, Acton); Doris MacAfee from "Bye Bye Birdie" (Colonial Chorus Players, Reading); Laurey from "Oklahoma" (Saxtons River Playhouse, Saxtons River, VT); the Fairy Godmother from "Cinderella" (The Arlington Players, Arlington, VA); and Yum-Yum from "The Mikado" (Little Theatre of Alexandria, Alexandria. VA), for which she was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a musical by the Northern Virginia Theater Alliance. During the day, Faith is a privacy and intellectual property attorney with the law firm Morse, where she focuses on technology transactions.